Trauma, particularly in early childhood, affects the developing brain and can result in a range of social, emotional, cognitive behavioural difficulties and changes to the sensory system. These are hard for parents and caregivers to manage.
Assessing and Healing of Complex Trauma requires Therapists, care staff, education staff and foster Carers to have an understanding that children need to weave in and out of receiving the following therapeutic experienccs.
This is not a precise linear approach and requires flexibility, as every child’s trauma affects them differently. Some levels of developmental progress can, for example, result in a requirement of a child slipping back into earlier achieved stages.
Much of this ideology has its roots in the theories of Bowlby, Erikson and Piaget – Attachment, Emotional and Cognitive Development – in which Trauma and Loss impacts on a child’s development and requires opportunities to revisit younger ages/stages in order to progress healthily. Some children may skip through some levels quicker than others, which is determined by levels of earlier positive interaction and their levels of resilience.
The AHCT Multi – disciplinary therapeutic teams across the country are specially selected to form a broad range of therapists, therapeutic coordinators, mental health workers, psychologists and psychiatrists.
A child entering a Residential or Education AHCT facility can benefit from the whole package of therapeutic support to include a therapeutic holistic Assessment (12 weeks) with a comprehensive report supporting recommendations for Healing. This provides the most likely levels of need and outcome for a two year period.
This includes the opportunity of a range of bespoke therapy and assessments from the Multi-disciplinary Team and the therapeutically trained staff.
A child who is part of the Fostering service who is showing signs of needing further therapeutic interventions is eligible to be referred to our AHCT Multi-Disciplinary Therapy Team. Consultation meetings are held and the appropriate therapy provided. This can be for as little as a stand alone assessment, 3 family therapy sessions or long term therapy.
Systemic psychotherapy focuses on the relationships and interactions between people, as well as wider systems, whilst being mindful of the influences of different contexts and cultures. It seeks to improve communication and resolve conflict.
Systemic psychotherapy aims to identify unhelpful interactional patterns, sequences of behaviour and underlying narratives that determine how we operate in a family and social group. New and different ways of relating are explored. This can be short term work and often does not require long term interventions.
In addition to families and social groups, the systemic approach is increasingly being used to consult and supervise professionals in organisations.
Therapeutic interventions are adapted to meet the needs of the individual child or group and may include artwork, play, role play, puppets and stories. Exercises that build problem solving skills and strategies for making and keeping friendships and exploring cultural difference and identity.
Helping children and young people to become more emotionally robust while being very sensitive to trauma’s they may have experienced; safeguarding issues, while holding a parity of esteem for their physical, mental and educational needs .
The therapy considers relationships, family and identity; helping children to have a safer and better sense of self to move towards more manageable and happy futures, helping people change unhelpful patterns in their life; exploring stuck belief systems; opening up opportunities for differences through discussion.
NVR is a systemic therapeutic intervention that utilises as many significant relationships as is possible to affect change. This may include: care, education and therapy staff from Compass or from outside schools where applicable; family members; Social Workers; IROs and even club leaders if deemed appropriate. At Compass, this intervention is used occasionally to help to work on a specific extreme behavioural pattern such as persistent violence or absconding. Put very simply, it is a form of positive ‘group’ pressure where the child’s significant relationships constituting of the collective Compass team and all other significant relationships around the child, raise their presence in a unified form to support the child to make changes.
Compass Community’s innovative OCT, OST and OPSB therapeutic programmes are provided by New Ways Safeguarding, an organisation dedicated to working with young people who have experienced early-life trauma.
New Ways was established by the leading international forensic psychologist Dr Joe Sullivan and Clinical Director Dr Valerie Sheehan and consists of a multi-disciplinary team of highly experienced practitioners.
They have a long history of providing a range of services and their assessment and intervention work is underpinned by the most recent research in the field as well as extensive clinical practice.