THERAPY AND THERAPEUTIC SUPPORT
The question should never be, "What's wrong with you, it should only be what's happened to you?"
Our approach to therapy and therapeutic support is one which takes into consideration the adults and the environments which children live and move within, as well as the individual needs of the child or young person and their lived experiences. We do not label or diagnose difficulties and needs, but work for change, recovery, healing, development, and growth
The therapy team is systemic in its approach to explore how different systems interact with the other and the impact that they may or may not have on the child or young person. For this reason, we will often work with parents, carers, schools, and supporting professionals, as well individually with children and young people.
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We currently offer EMDR Therapy, Play Therapy, and Life Story Work for children and young people.
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What is EMDR Therapy?
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy for working with distressing or traumatic memories. The theory behind EMDR is that many psychological difficulties are the result of distressing life experiences or events which have not been stored in memory properly and are said to be unprocessed or blocked which prevents healing. Once the block, or wounding memories have been removed, healing can resume. EMDR is how we can help the mind recover and heal from traumatic experiences.
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Dr Dawn Bradley offers EMDR trauma therapy to young adults, young people, and children. EMDR is an evidence based therapy recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as an effective trauma treatment for children, and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) for post traumatic stress responses. Please download the information leaflet here, and for parents and carers, please click here.
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What is Play Therapy?
Play is vital to every child’s social, emotional, cognitive, physical, creative and language development. It helps make learning concrete for all children and young people including those for whom verbal communication may be difficult.
Play Therapy helps children in a variety of ways. Children receive emotional support and can learn to understand more about their own feelings and thoughts. Sometimes they may re-enact or play out traumatic or difficult life experiences in order to make sense of their past and cope better with their future. Children may also learn to manage relationships and conflicts in more appropriate ways. Our play therapist is Marnie Butters.
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What is Therapeutic Life Story Work?
Therapeutic Life Story Work is supporting children and young people to have a clear understanding of their own history. It enables a child to live more comfortably in the present and to plan for the future. Therapeutic Life Story Work (TLSW) enables the child to share their past with their adopters, carers and others, to link the past to the present and to help understand how earlier life events
continue to impact on behaviour. This helps the child to develop a sense of security and permanency and enables carers to develop empathy for the child. Marnie Butters provides this support.
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