Menu
Children and Young People that have experienced a high degree of trauma or abuse in their life require an enhanced level of care often called Therapeutic Fostering or Therapeutic Care. Training staff and carers in this area is our speciality and our passion. We believe in supporting carers to develop a practical skill-set that adapts to the unique needs of each child.
Today we would like to suggest two highly effective models for understanding and compassionately supporting children who are living with the consequences of toxic stress and trauma.
These models are PACE and Secure Base.
Contact Tori (admin@socialcaretrainingsolutions.com) to discuss all the options.
There are five primary principles for trauma-informed care:
1. Safety. Strive to create environments where people feel physically and emotionally safe.
2. Transparency and Trustworthiness. Striving to build and maintain trust by being transparent in our actions and choices.
3. Empowerment and Choice. Striving to recognise, validate, and build on the strengths that children have to offer and work to facilitate recovery.
4. Collaboration and Mutuality. Striving for dignity and equality in our relationships by sharing when appropriate power and decision-making so that the child has a sense not only of control.
5. Self-discovery. Striving to move past biases, recognise historical trauma and the healing power of cultural connections, and incorporate practices that are responsive to racial, ethnic, and cultural needs.
There are also two key strands:
First, is seeing the child in context by acknowledging the role that trauma has played in their health, behaviours, and relationships. We need to view the child as having a psychosocial injury and offer them trauma-informed care with a focus around stabilisation (Judith Herman’s model).
Secondly, we provide services and support in ways that do not blame or re-traumatise a child in need. There is a strong evidence base behind both P.A.C.E. and Secure Base as highly effective models for this.
This offers principles of parenting and can be an excellent resource for parents or foster carers looking for guidance on interacting with children and young people in care, particularly those who have experienced trauma. PACE is a way of thinking, feeling, communicating and behaving that aims to make the child feel safe. It is based upon how parents connect with their very young infants. With PACE, the troubled child can start to get emotionally closer to others and begin to build trust.
We have several PACE courses from introduction to advanced. You can read more and book your training HERE.
This offers an excellent structure and framework for redefining and experiencing “family” through relationships with one or more sensitive and responsive attachment figures. These figures meet the child’s needs and become a “safe haven” for them when upset or anxious. When children develop trust in the availability and reliability of these relationships, their anxiety reduces. They explore and enjoy their world, safe in the knowledge that they can return to their secure base for help when needed. The concept of a secure base is essential because it links attachment and exploration. This is important because trauma will often lock children in arrested development. The Secure Base Model enables us to target developmental delay successfully through the development of confidence, competence and resilience. Secure Base also supports a trauma-informed PEP plan very efficiently.
You can read more and book your training HERE.
You can find all of our training, including Open Courses, Commissioned Courses and e-learning options HERE
