Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T08:26:16.390Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From therapy to therapeutic: the continuum of trauma-informed care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2019

Claudia A. O’Hara
Claudia A. O’Hara*
Affiliation:
The Australian Childhood Foundation, ACT Together, Bruce, Canberra, Australia
*
Author for correspondence: Claudia A. O’Hara, Emails: claudiaaohara@gmail.com; cohara@childhood.org.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

On 1st July 2015, Out of Home Care (OOHC) services in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) joined together to form the ACT Together consortium and aimed to improve outcomes for children and young people who are unable to live with their birth families. Within the consortium, the Therapeutic Services Team (TST) steers the evolution of trauma-informed therapeutic practice, a key focus of which is the establishment of therapeutic care. Current research indicates that a holistic therapeutic approach has the greatest impact in supporting a young person to overcome adverse childhood experiences. This leads to the necessity of a therapeutic care system providing input across the whole domain of OOHC, including trauma-informed therapeutic carers. A common issue met by the TST is the lack of clarity regarding the difference between therapeutic intervention and therapy. This paper defines the concepts of therapy and therapeutic care, discusses how this forms a continuum which flows throughout the whole OOHC system and reflects on what support carers require to make the shift to becoming therapeutic carers, including outlining their role in underpinning better outcomes for the children and young people who pass through their doors.

Keywords

Traumaknowledge-based practicefoster carecritical reflectioncounselling
Type
AFC Conference Paper
Information
Children Australia , Volume 44 , Issue 2: Special Conference Issue – The Neuroscience of Trauma and Development in The Everyday , June 2019 , pp. 73 - 80
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Australian Childhood Foundation (2006). Phases of Therapeutic Care. Practice Guidelines, Australian Childhood Foundation.Google Scholar
ACT Government (2014). A Step up for our Kids. Office for Children, Youth and Family Support Community Services. Retrieved from https://www.communityservices.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/682623/CSD_OHCS_Strategy_web_FINAL.pdfGoogle Scholar
Attachment Trauma Network, Inc. (2018). Understanding Attachment (online). Retrieved January 19, 2019, from https://www.attachmenttraumanetwork.org/understandingattachment/Google Scholar
Australian Childhood Foundation (April, 2018). Brain based parenting & blocked care. Slide 24. In Presented during ACT Together carer training event. Canberra, ACT, Australia.Google Scholar
Badenoch, B. (2017). The heart of trauma. Healing the embodied brain in the context of relationships. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc.Google Scholar
Beckes, L., & Coan, J. A. (2011). Social Baseline Theory: The role of social proximity in emotion and economy of action. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5(12), 976–988.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cairns, K., & Cairns, B. (2016). Attachment, trauma and resilience therapeutic caring for children. London: coramBAFF.Google Scholar
Coan, J. A., & Sbarra, D. A. (2015). Social Baseline Theory: The social regulation of risk and effort. Current Opinion in Psychology, 1, 87–91. doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2014.12.021.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cook, A., Blaustein, M., Spinazzola, J., & van derKolk, B. (Eds.) (2003). Complex trauma in children and adolescents. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Retrieved from https://www.nctsn.org/resources/complex-trauma-children-and-adolescents.Google Scholar
Eisenberger, N. I., Taylor, S. E., Gable, S. L., Hilmert, C. J., & Lieberman, M. D. (2007). Neural pathways link social support to attenuated neuroendocrine stress responses. NeuroImage, 35, 1601–1602.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hughes, D. (2013). Brain-based parenting: The neuroscience of caregiving for healthy attachment. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
O’Hara, C. A. (2018). The continuum of therapeutic care. In Australian Childhood Foundation 3rd International Childhood Trauma Conference, 1st August 2018. Melbourne Convention Centre.Google Scholar
Perry, B. (2006). Applying principles of neurodevelopment to clinical work with mal-treated and traumatised children. In Webb, N. (Ed.). Working with traumatised youth in child welfare. New York: The Guilford Press. Chapter 3.Google Scholar
Porges, S. W. (2001). The polyvagal theory: Phylogenetic substrates of a social nervous system. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 42(2), 123–146.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Porges, S. W. (2007). The polyvagal perspective. Biological Psychology, 74(2), 116–143.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Porges, S. W. (2015). Making the world safe for our children: Down-regulating defence and up-regulating social engagement to ‘optimise’ the human experience. Children Australia, 40(2), 114–123. doi: 10.1017/cha.2015.12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porges, S. W., Doussar-Roosevelt, J. A., Lourdes Portales, A., & Greenspan, S. I. (1996). Infant regulation of the vagal “brake” predicts child behaviour problems: A psychobiological model of social behaviour. Developmental Psychobiology, 29(8), 697–712.3.0.CO;2-O>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, D. J., & Bryson, T. P. (2012). The whole-brain child: 12 revolutionary strategies to nurture your child’s developing mind. Brunswick, Vic.: Scribe Publications.Google Scholar
Van der Kolk, B. A. (2015). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma (pp. 105–161). New York: Penguin.Google Scholar