Therapeutic Teams
Therapeutically Informed Teams - At Appletree Teatment Centre each child is assigned a Child Champion who is their adult, the therapists work with each child’s Child Champion in the same way that they work with birth parents, adoptive or foster carers. The Child Champions will take the children to therapy sessions, stay in the waiting room for support and return the child home. They also talk weekly with the therapist to share information and support therapy both inside and outside of the sessions. They regularly share ideas and information to work in partnership to help their child. Where appropriate the clinicians plan to involve the key worker in sessions, they work together to promote attachment and emotional security.
Each child has a team of carers and whilst the Child Champion is important, all those who interact with the child including, carers, education team members and facilities teams, need to be able to interact therapeutically.
Team members are very positive and supportive of therapy. The Therapists meet regularly with the teams to inform their practice and support the therapeutic process. This ensures themes and ideas about meanings of behaviour and each child’s therapeutic journey is shared with all those working with them. It also helps to ensure that our team’s interactions with the children support the therapeutic healing process. These discussions inform the children’s placement and action plans.
Therapeutic Training - Many Children’s homes/schools may have a behaviourist or cognitive approach, we believe that we make a difference through our relationships with the children.
As part of our clinical programme we have developed our own tailored training programme including our ATC Diploma. We continually invest in our staff by ensuring they are as well trained as possible to cope with challenging behaviours and understand what is being communicated.
Psychologists provide regular training days to all the team members as part of our training programme. This ensures that all the team members learn about the theory of child psychological development, attachment and trauma symptoms. This can then inform and underpin their practice and their consultation sessions. Additional training sessions can be tailored to the themes that arise in consultation.
Appletree Treatment Centre Diploma - In addition to our training programme we have developed an intensive Diploma which reinforces the ATC Approach and our principles, this is delivered by in-house experts, psychologists and therapists. The ATC Diploma covers key areas in detail:
Schools of Psychology - Trauma and Recovery - Attachment theory - Restoring Relationships
Child development - Cognitive & Emotional Development - Understanding Children's Therapy
Creating a Therapeutic Community
Consultation for all team members - As the foundation of our work is our relationships with the children, we need to be mindful of our thoughts, feelings and reactions to the children, it is vital that we regularly and purposefully reflect on those relationships with a trusted and skilled professional. To help us do this we employ Clinical and Educational Psychologists.
On a monthly basis the psychologists provide a safe environment for our staff to discuss and explore their own feelings away from the children with experienced, trained psychologists and psychoanalysts who are registered with their professional bodies. These consultations include all adults who have contact with the children, care teams, teaching teams and facilities team as everyone’s interactions impact on the children.
Our staff value these opportunities to explore difficult issues in a supportive and non-judgmental way, helping them to reflect on their interactions with the children and each other. This process helps all our adults keep their interactions with our children focused on the children’s needs with the aim of facilitating positive change.
Confidential Counsellor - We provide all our team members with access to a confidential counsellor to address any issues that may arise and cannot be handled by management or other clinical team members.
