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Therapeutic Support

Aim

Family Care Associates provides therapeutic support to children placed in their care that matches the child's needs and is tailored to their specific placement objectives.

Two levels of service are available although not mutually exclusive.

• Our internal Therapeutic Services - see below.
• Family Care Associates has established with a major provider CAMHS services that can, if necessary, mirror and improve upon the CAMHS services that are in such short supply in many parts of the country. This partnership has been forged to build upon the excellent work pioneered by one of our units, Lyth Hill, in working with children and Young People who might in other circumstances have been considered to be at too great a risk living in a children’s home setting but who, as they move on, are proof that Every Child Matters can sometimes be evidenced. For details of this service please contact us direct - Ed Nixon, Group Operations Manager).

Therapeutic Services

Therapeutic Services provide a systemic range of services that meet the needs of children and young people and those who care for them.

The Therapeutic Services Team have over fifteen years experience of working therapeutically with children and young people who have experienced a diverse range of difficulties including multiple placement breakdowns, exhibit challenging behaviours, have difficulty forming attachments, are underachieving or are withdrawn at school and children who have experienced abuse and/or trauma.
The Therapeutic Services Team have experience of working in a range of settings including, schools refuges, residential homes, colleges, universities and family centres and work alongside all those involved in the care for children and young people including foster carers, parents, social workers, teachers and previous therapists, providing support, consultancy and training in order to achieve best outcomes for children.

Children and Young People

Therapeutic Services currently provide individual and group support, to children and young people. Therapeutic support is offered as a means of helping the child or young person come to terms with issues that are troubling them.

There are some essential qualities, which distinguish our work from other kinds of help. We have adopted the therapeutic play model, which is humanistic and integrative in approach and works because it is the child's natural way of expressing, communicating and coping with feelings. The therapeutic worker provides a play setting within safe boundaries offering the child a 'containing' relationship in which the child's anxieties can be borne and thought about. Attentiveness and reflective listening are the workers most effective tools and facilitate the development of self-control, self-responsibility and appropriate self-esteem. We are reluctant to use any prescriptive or diagnostic perspective.

‘Therapeutic play is the dynamic process between child and therapeutic worker in which the child explores at his or her own pace and with his or her own agenda, those issues, past and current, conscious and unconscious, which are affecting their life in the present. The child’s inner resources are enabled by the therapeutic alliance to bring about growth and change. Therapeutic play is child centred, in which the play is the primary medium and speech is the secondary medium’. (British Association of Play Therapists) 

We can facilitate life story work with young people which provides the opportunity for children and young people to discover their own individual story, learn ways of understanding themselves and to make a connection between the past, present and future. Life Story can address, identity and self-esteem issues.

Adults

Therapeutic Services provides a range of services for those working with or caring for children and young people.

Clinical Supervision is a creative action approach to supervision, which is humanistic and psychodynamic in orientation with the primary emphasis on the creative process, using within the supervision context embodiment, projective methods, creative visualisation, enactment and other practical methods to highlight process, practice and address areas of concern.

Filial Coaching and Mentoring (working with the adults) has been demonstrated through research and clinical experience to be an effective intervention for children and families experiencing a variety of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.  This unique coaching and mentoring involves parents as the primary agent of change to support and even resolve child related problems and to encourage children’s healthy psychosocial development.  Filial Coaches and Mentors train and supervise parents to implement non directive play skills with their children, an approach that not only helps eliminate presenting problems but can also strengthen parent and family relationships.

Therapeutic Services provide a range of training that always receives high acclamation and supports child centred practice and the ‘child centred’ approach to working with children and young people is recommended as ‘best practice’ in current Government policy.

Our Training Includes

• Self Harm - this looks at and challenges common perceptions of self harm and working with self harm including assessing risks
• Sex and Relationship Education – this looks at the issues facing young people and how to work with young people and the law regarding sex and relationships education
• Introduction to Working therapeutically - this is an introduction to Therapeutic Services and working therapeutically this is an experiential course
• Communicating with Children and Young People - Level One -this will equip practitioners with the knowledge and skills to effectively communicate with children and young people using a child centred approach, again this is a creative experiential course
• Communicating with Children and Young People - Level Two -this course provides an opportunity for practitioners to experience therapeutic process using play therapy techniques.
• Life Story Work Training - this course will equip practitioners with the knowledge and skills to effectively carry out ‘Life Story’ Work with children and young people and it takes on a three point plan perspective to implementing Life Story Work.

Our Resources

Any individual therapeutic support with children and young people can take place in our playroom, which is specially designed and furnished with toys and equipment appropriate to the task.  Thought is given to the resources available to the child or adolescent, in order that they are appropriate to their developmental level and needs.  Play materials match the child's culture and race and the equipment offers opportunities for creative and symbolic play. Materials such as sand, water and clay are provided as they cannot be damaged and therefore can provide a safe outlet for confused and angry feelings.  As these materials can be restored, this can help a child learn that anger can be controlled and managed.
The child/young person is offered a safe and consistent environment together with a safe and consistent relationship with the therapeutic worker.  All feelings therefore are accepted and explored symbolically and/or explicitly, depending on how the child or young person is able to use therapy sessions.  Not all behaviour is acceptable and therefore the therapeutic worker will set firm and consistent limits.

The Team

Kerry Robertson
Accredited Play Therapist/Filial-Coach
PTUK registration: 2005922

I attended Chester University between 2001-2004 where I gained my BA in combined Psychology and Counselling Skills.

I have been employed with Family Care Associates since 2004. Initially I worked within a therapeutic residential care home for children who have suffered abuse and/or trauma with multiple placement breakdowns. During my time in this setting I gained my NVQ Level 3 Caring for Children and Young People.

My inclination to work with children therapeutically in a more specialist role drew me towards the Company's Therapeutic Services and I became a Therapist in 2005. I then started my training with PTUK and Canterbury Christ Church University. To date I have completed my Diploma in Play Therapy and I have recently completed my MA in Practiced Based Play Therapy. I am also trained in Filial Coaching/Mentoring. I have experience of working within a variety of settings including residential units and specialised and mainstream schools; I am also heavily involved in providing internal and external training to residential workers, foster carers and social workers on working therapeutically with children and young people. I also facilitate Life Story training and supervise Life Story Work.

I am a current member of PTUK and therefore have to adhere to ethical guidelines. I have my own personal liability insurance in order to be covered to work in different settings.

Mary Silson
Art Psychotherapist
HPC Registration: AS13891

I am a state registered Art Psychotherapist with the Health Professional Council (HPC) and British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT). I have recently qualified as an Art Therapist having spent two years completing my MA, which included a two year placement with CAMHS both in a hospital and community based setting, specialising with looked after children and children in need.

Having completed a degree in Education in 2007, I have gained various experiences of working with children and young people. I have spent time in Eastern European orphanages and adult institutions, working with children who have experienced inadequate care in their early years. I am passionate about working with children and young people who have experienced difficult and distressing lives and value the input of multi-agency working and supporting those who care for children and young people.

I have recently joined the Therapeutic Team at Family Care Associates as part of their creative therapy provision and hope to offer individual and group therapeutic input to children and young people, support carers, families and residential homes through consultation or direct work and facilitate along with my colleague training both in house and external.

Creative therapies both art and play, can offer the child an alternative way of exploring issues, a non-verbal and symbolic way for the child to express their feelings, wishes and fears and aims to bring about change and growth for the individual. In addition art and play can engender a sense of achievement, self worth and autonomy.

Art Psychotherapy (http://www.baat.org/art_therapy.html)

Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy which uses art/play making processes as the main focus for helping children and young people in distress. It can be particularly helpful to young people who may find it difficult to talk about their problems, worries and confusing feelings.
Art Therapists have a sound training in psychological theory and practice and are able to work with conscious and unconscious material that arises from the artwork within the therapeutic relationship. Creative therapies may be an effective way of working with children who are often (for complex reasons including fear, shame, lack of language) unable to verbalise their experience.

Mary Silson
MA Practice Art Psychotherapy 2008-2010
BA (Hons) Education 2003-2007