Adoptionplus Therapeutic Social Work Service is based at the PACE Place in North London.
The team provides a range of interventions including: Dyadic Developmental Practice (DDP) based family work; DDP informed consultation service for parents and professionals; DDP informed Therapeutic Life Story Work; Nurturing Attachments Group Programmes; Foundation for Attachments Group Programmes; and groups for adopted teenagers.
A key element of our service is also working closely with Local Authorities supporting the application of a DDP approach within Local Authority practice.
The knowledge and skills gained by the Local Authority Social Workers continue to be used once the commissioned service has ended, thus providing continuity of approach for families.
Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy/Practice
Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy promotes Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy within child/parent relationships. This nurturing intervention is supportive of children who have suffered trauma and abuse and the adoptive parents who care for them.
Its focus is on helping children make sense of early trauma within the context of a safe relationship with their adoptive parents. This helps to promote childrens’ mental health and their ability to develop trusting relationships.
The ability to make and maintain healthy relationships is key for all children as they grow into adulthood.
Specialist Provision for Adopted Teenagers
We are aware that there is a significant need for therapeutic services for adopted teenagers and their families. Adolescence can be an incredibly challenging time for adopted young people and their parents and families are often in desperate need of effective services.
We believe that the most important resource for adopted teenagers is their parents and understand that support for both parents and young people is vital. Our Nurturing Attachments Groups, DDP based family work, life story work and groups for teenagers provide a specialised and focused approach to the needs of families caring for adopted teenagers.
This innovative
approach supports social workers by
providing them
with an enhanced
knowledge base in
relation to trauma
and child development
as well as supporting effective skills in
working with children and their families.
Feedback from parents who have participated in the Adoptionplus Nurturing Attachments Programme.
“It made me feel that you’re not alone and someone’s listening to you"
"It’s given me insight to better know my children, and to look behind why they might be behaving in a certain way."
"I have become more confident in my decisions..."
“This group has been a life line, it changed my life.”
Adoptionplus Nurturing Attachments Group Programme
The Adoptionplus Group facilitators will be certified in DDP and have extensive knowledge of the impact of early trauma and loss on childrens’ development.
Based on Dr Kim Golding’s Nurturing Attachments Training Resource, this group-work programme provides support and guidance for adoptive parents caring for children who have experienced poor parenting, separation and loss early in life.
The aims of the programme are:
To provide peer and professional support to parents who can feel very isolated caring for children with trauma and attachment insecurities.
To increase understanding of the children and their behavioural and emotional needs through an increased understanding of attachment theory and the impact of trauma.
To explore ways of applying this understanding to the parenting of the children. To increase the skill and confidence of the carers and parents.
To support parents to have an increased capacity for emotional self-regulation and reflective functioning.
To support parents in developing mind mindedness and the application of the PACE approach.
To support parents’ capacity to exercise self care and increase mindfulness.
To increase the child’s security within the family.
DDP Family Work
DDP draws on extensive attachment research, which actively involves the parent in the treatment with their child. This therapy encourages the child to rely on the parent, rather than themselves, for their attachment needs.
Through actively accepting the reasons why the child believes they are unlovable, the parent can offer the child the experience of empathy and attunement when they need it the most. When this happens, there is a reduction in their difficult behaviours, greater closeness and more openness to being parented and cared for.
Our DDP programmes work with parents and children within the therapeutic process together and involves 32 sessions on a weekly or fortnightly basis.
The focus of DDP is to assist children and families by:
Increasing parents' understanding of their children and their behavioural and emotional needs through an increased understanding of attachment theory and the impact of trauma.
Exploring ways of applying this understanding to their parenting.
Increasing parents' skill and confidence.
Supporting parents' to have an increased capacity for emotional self-regulation and reflective functioning.
Supporting parents in developing mind mindedness and the application of the PACE approach.
Supporting parents' capacity to exercise self care.
Increasing the child's capacity to signal their attachment needs clearly.
Increasing the child's capacity to use co-regulation of feeling.
Reducing the child's distress.
Increasing the child's security within the family.
The Therapeutic Teenagers Groups
Our teenagers groups use the DDP approach to support adopted teenagers with many of the key themes that can prove to be challenging and confusing for young people throughout this developmental stage. Meeting in small groups with a high staff ratio and an arts based/creative approach, adopted teenagers will be supported to explore issues they bring to the groups. These may include:
Challenges in relation to emerging identity.
Coming to terms with complex life stories.
Questions and dilemmas in relation to contact with birth family members.
Navigating changing relationships within their families.
Coping with the 'emotional roller coaster' of adoptive adolescence.
Managing peer relationships.
Understanding and managing challenging behaviours.
Concerns about mental health.
The groups will provide an autonomous space within which teenagers can think about and make sense of the complexity of their adolescent experiences whilst providing a relaxed and 'peer support' based environment. Support will also be provided to parents around the groups and parents will be invited to a presentation of work completed throughout the duration of the groups at their conclusion.
The focus of different groups:
The developmental process of adolescence means that young people will be facing very different challenges in-between the early stages of adolescence and the later stages as they move towards young adulthood. With this in mind we will providing different groups for young people of different ages in order that we can effectively address the very particular age specific challenges that arise for teenagers in early, mid and late adolescence.
We will be providing two Nurturing Attachments /Groups:
Early Years and Primary School Age Children
This group will support parents who are parenting younger age children, addressing key themes in early development and mid childhood. The group will be a valuable supportive group for parents parenting children across this age range from the early stages of placement to the challenges of the transitions of mid childhood and year 6!
Teenage Years and Secondary School Age Children
This group will be of particular value in both preparing parents for the challenges that can arise for adopted young people in adolescence as well as addressing the concerns of parents already in this tricky stage! We recognise that support during this challenging stage of development is particularly important for the parents we meet and this group will provide a unique and tailored specialist provision to meet the developmental challenges of adolescence.
Foundations for Attachments Groups
The newly developed Foundations for Attachments Group utilises the same theoretical background and principles already developed in the Nurturing Attachments Programme but is a shorter course [comprising of 6 half day sessions for parents] with a focus on early support and intervention for parents at the beginning of the adoption process.
This group programme will be available on an ongoing basis and will provide a valuable foundation in therapeutic parenting approaches at a time when parents are often in most need of support. As with the Nurturing Attachments Group, the Adoptionplus facilitators will be DDP certified and have extensive relevant knowledge and experience.
Therapeutic Life Story Work
Many adoptive families request support for their children in helping them to make sense of their early lives and the complex and often painful feelings in relation to their early birth family experiences. Our approach to life story work focuses on supporting a child to develop a coherent narrative but also to support the child with the emotional and developmental impact of early trauma. Our DDP based approach means that a key focus within our life story work is to support and enhance the attachment relationship between adoptive parents and their child. This also remains the case when providing life story work for adolescents!
Our life story work process empowers parents to provide ongoing therapeutic parenting support for their child after the therapeutic work has concluded and we have a wealth of resources to support parents in this.
Our 16 session therapeutic life story work service aims to promote:
A coherent narrative for the child about their experiences.
Context to traumatic experiences.
Gives value to a child's experiences.
Helps a child to grieve.
Helps to integrate a child's experiences.
Helps a child to know that what happened to them was not their fault.
Allows a child to move on.
Strengthens attachment relationships and aids communication.
The Consultation Service for Professionals and Adoptive Parents
The Therapeutic DDP based consultation service provides a bespoke therapeutic parenting support service for adoptive families. The service will provide six consultation sessions for adoptive parents which will take place on a weekly or fortnightly basis. The consultations will:
Offer DDP based consultation to adoptive parents and their social worker to enable parents to better understand their children's needs and feel more confident in their parenting of them.
Assist parents in beginning to develop a PACE approach to adoptive parenting. PACE = Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy.
Support parents in helping their children to develop a coherent narrative about their past experiences.
Provide approaches and strategies that may help to enhance the attachment relationship between the child and their adoptive parents.
Provide parents and their social workers the opportunity to obtain advice and guidance regarding life story work conversations.
