PACE for parents and carers

Yesterday marked the 4th and final session of our initial PACE workshops of 2013 for parents and carers.

Recovery from trauma is a long process and key to this is developing the relationships between children and their foster carers or adoptive parents.  Since January we have teamed up with just short of 60 adoptive parents and foster carers from across the South West to support them in tackling the challenges they face in building these relationships. We have done this through introducing the concepts of PACE (Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy) developed by the American Psychologist, Dan Hughes (see his most recent book, written jointly with UK Psychologist Kim Golding, for a great exploration of this approach; Creating Loving Attachments: parenting with PACE to create loving attachments, 2012).

PACE is a highly successful parenting approach for working with children who have experienced trauma in their attachment relationships. Sessions were facilitated by our experienced clinical psychologist, Dr Emma Greatbatch. The principles of PACE were introduced and participants were given the opportunity to reflect on their own experiences of trying to use the approach and to learn from their fellow participants.

Our next PACE session will take place on 1st May, when we will welcome professionals working in the field of Fostering and Adoption to join us in exploring the use of PACE in supporting the parents and carers they work with. The workshop will take place over a full day and we are excited that we have been commissioned to deliver this workshop in-house on behalf of other agencies over the coming months.

As a practice there are several others ways in which we seek to support parents and carers to strengthen and build the relationships with their children:

We offer various direct therapeutic services for children, young people and their families such as DDP, Theraplay, Sensory Integration Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing (EMDR), Family Systems Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. The therapy offered will depend on the difficulties presented and on a psychological formulation, or understanding, of these, which is developed during an initial consultation with one of our psychologists.

We also offer assessment as a standalone service where this is helpful for the planning of placements or support services, or where an assessment can help a network to better understand a child’s presentation. We offer various types of psychological assessment including assessment of children’s attachment styles and relationships, and full cognitive assessment, both of which can be helpful to carers and parents in meeting the needs of the children they care for.

If you are interested in attending any of our future PACE workshops, or would like details of our bespoke training events, please email sam.morley@psychologyassociates.org.uk or call 0845 026 7260.

NHS Change Day 2013

NHS Change Day is aiming to bring together the innovative thoughts thousands of NHS staff to improve care for patients, their families and their carers.

Here at Psychology Associates we are supporting Dr Alys Cole-King and her pledge to share the message that we can get through distress and suicidal thoughts.

Alys along with her colleagues recently devised the new College of Emergency Medicine Mental Health Toolkit which promotes compassionate assessments of anyone who attends ED with suicidal thoughts or following self-harm. The tool kit was launched at the College of Emergency Medicine at the end of February and can be viewed here.

As of 10.30am this morning over 130,000 pledges had already been made. You can read more the pledges and messages of support here.

We’d love to support further pledges aiming to tackle mental health issues so please let us know your pledge by commenting below.

International Women’s Day 2013

"The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights" Gloria Steinem

Today mums, aunties, sisters, daughters, wives and grandmothers across the globe are celebrating what marks the 100th International Women’s Day. Here at Psychology Associates we wanted to take time to consider some of the great female figures who are inspirations to us.

Camila Batmanghelidjh is a psychotherapist and founder of The Kids Company. For 17 years Camila has lead her organisation fighting to help and support vulnerable children across London who are faced with emotional and mental health difficulties, homeless, sustained trauma and substance misuse to name just a few. As psychologists we experience too often some of the vulnerable situations which children and young people are sadly exposed to – Camila works with such energy and passion to remove children from these cruel surroundings and is an inspiration.

A second female figure who has been at forefront many of our minds of late is Malala Yousufzai. Malala is a Pakistani school girl who was shot by the Taliban in October 2012 for advocating girls' education. Malala has become renown around the world for her levels of courage and bravery in campaigning for female rights for education, a basic human right for most of us. As another inspirational figure Malala continues to hold her beliefs that young women in Pakistan should be able to pursue their dreams of education despite being a victim of the Taliban.

Take a few minutes this afternoon to find out how women across the world are celebrating:

http://www.internationalwomensday.com/

Self Injury Awareness Day 2013

Today is Self Injury Awareness Day.

Self injury is often misunderstood and hidden.  Sometimes it is the only way we seem to be able to cope with difficult experiences and emotions. Sometimes it is a way of communicating how bad we feel when words don’t seem enough or don’t seem to get through to others.  Thankfully there are a number of different therapeutic interventions, such as those we offer, and organisations available to help and support people across the life span who maybe experiencing these difficulties.

LifeSIGNS (Self Injury Guidance & Network Support) for example is one of a number of organisations who work hard to raise awareness.   The charity also provide information and support to people of all ages who are affected by self-injury and are urging people to take a look at some of the small things people can do to make a difference. 

If you want further information it may help to visit their website which provides a voice to  people who self injure; as well as information for families, friends, schools and/or colleges. We have particularly found the fact sheets very helpful in sessions with young people and their families.

Alternatively if you wish to arrange an appointment with one of our team of Clinical Psychologists please call us on 0845 026 7260 within usual office hours.

HMP Aylesbury TV Series - what do we think?

Following last night’s second part of the observational documentary filmed in HMP Aylesbury, young offenders institution, viewers witnessed some difficult scenes. We support the view that young offenders have often had very challenging early lives due to abuse and neglect, resulting in difficulties in developing healthy attachments and thus in self-soothing and feeling safe.  This impacts on every aspect of life: managing emotions, developing healthy relationships, dealing with stress, being able to focus and pay attention.  Things are changing very gradually and there is lots we can do to help.

We support the development of youth offender systemic approaches based around attachment which help the young persons to develop trust, to manage emotions and to gain self-confidence, rather than perpetuating the neglect they experienced in early life.

You can watch the documentary here: https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/her-majesty-s-prison-aylesbury

New experts join our team

Our practice is delighted to welcome 4 new associates to our team of expert clinical psychologists.

Dr Rachel Clarke is an accredited psychotherapist and registered social worker based in the South West of England. Rachel provides capacity assessments, cognitive assessments, parenting assessments and forensic assessments, as well as offering therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing.

Dr Maggie Cormack joins Psychology Associates offering adult mental health and therapy services also across the South West of England. Maggie has extensive experience in training and research and in recent years her clinical expertise has included community adult mental health services and cardiac rehabilitation.

Clinical psychologist Sharon Collins offers specialist services for people who are affected by complex trauma, injury related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and various difficulties. She provides assessments and interventions such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing. Sharon is able to take on cases in the South West, the Midlands and also Wales.

Dr Susan Vivian-Bryne offers expert witness services for civil, criminal and child-care proceeding - specialising in assessment of risk for violence and sexual offending, personality disorder and psychopathy, cognitive functioning and mental health difficulties. Susan also provides assessments for mentally disordered offenders in secure or prison settings.

All of our psychologists are CRB checked; they are registered with the Health & Care Professions Council, and have the appropriate professional indemnity insurance.

To instruct one of our experts, to view full CV’s or to find out more about timescales please call Nicola in our Clinical Administration Team on 0845 026 7260.

The Compass Therapy Centre opens up to students this University Mental Health and Wellbeing Day

Today on University Mental Health and Wellbeing Day 2013 Psychology Associates are ensuring that individuals living and working in Higher Education throughout Devon and Cornwall are aware of our specialist services which can help individuals with personal, emotional and psychological concerns. 

The Compass Therapy Centre is run by our very own Dr Mary Welford, Clinical Director of Therapy Services and founding member of the Compassionate Mind Foundation (please see notes to editor). Mary is supported by our team of expert clinicians who work across the lifespan and also in collaboration with a range of other ethical organisations to offer a range of therapy services to help improve psychological well being.

The Centre is committed to making psychological services more accessible for people living and working close to our practice in Cornwall and offers reduced rates for therapy sessions starting from £20 per hour. The therapy sessions can help support both students and teaching professionals who are experiencing signs of anxiety, depression, stress, trauma or any other mental health issues which are affecting their academic performance, work life or  day to day lives.

Our clinicians will offer an initial consultation then based on the information discussed they will then recommend and offer the most suitable therapeutic approach.

If you would like to find out more about the therapies we offer, or if you are concerned about someone, please call us on 0845 026 7260.