What is Therapeutic Support in Foster Care?
You may have heard the terms ‘therapeutic support’ or ‘therapeutic care’ before. But what does it mean, and why is it so successful in achieving great outcomes for children?
We spoke to one of our foster carers who has actively used TACT’s therapeutic training techniques and approaches with young people in her care.
What is therapeutic support?
Therapeutic support, within the context of foster care, is centred around using strategies tailored to a young person, using the P.A.C.E approach (Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy), to help re-route certain pathways in the brain that have become wired in a certain way due to a degree of mental trauma. We call these instances of trauma Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
Trauma can manifest in different ways, resulting in children having complex emotional, behavioural, or mental health needs that require additional support beyond what traditional foster care provides.
The aim of a therapeutic approach will be entirely dependent upon the needs of a young person, but it can potentially generate empathy, improve social skills, enable cause and effect thinking with improved self-regulation, and will help with forming secure attachments.
Read more about PACE, ACEs and how trauma affects the brain in our Therapeutic Parenting guide.
TACT’s Therapeutic Support
Lisa is a Therapeutic Social Worker within TACT’s Northwest region. She is qualified in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), meaning she also receives monthly clinical supervision from a consultant clinical psychologist.
Whilst she doesn’t carry a social work caseload, she is involved in care planning meetings and reviews for young people. She co-ordinates monthly clinical consultations which are there to provide therapeutic support to foster carers. Importantly, many of these consultations involve the whole network of professionals around a young person, shaping outcomes and providing a space to reflect on practice.
Lisa is also a certified trainer in foundations for attachment and nurturing attachments group programmes. She also provides 1-1 foster carer support.
Achieving great outcomes – a foster Carer’s Perspective
Adopting a therapeutic approach to care can have a remarkable impact on a young person. Jo-Ann, who has been a TACT foster since 2019, said: “I would describe a therapeutic approach to foster care as an approach to connect, empathise and understand a child within the foster care system who may have complex needs after suffering a lot of traumas throughout their life. It is used to help a foster carer understand the behaviours of a child and learn how to respond in a nurturing and empathetic way, and how to stay calm when the child is in a distressed state.
“It is also used to aid the connection between the carer and the child to build on healthy secure attachments and give a basis for other relationship attachments. It uses the importance of a stable and nurturing connection and how it can aid healing and the development of the child.
“I believe that giving a child a safe, calm, nurtured and secure space can help them heal and develop in a healthy safe way.
“Therapeutic training and skills are things that can come in very useful when working with all children and young people – and the training has helped me to keep it in mind ready for me to use as and when a situation arises for it to be needed. I would say that I would probably use it consistently when dealing with all children and young people.”
Jo-Ann, TACT Foster Carer Since 2019
“Through the training provided by TACT, they have supplied me with most of the therapeutic skills I use throughout my fostering journey – but I also believe that each situation has its own very different challenges. Ongoing therapeutic support as and when needed can be very beneficial towards working through the day-to-day challenges of fostering a child who has had a difficult start in life.
“My young person tends to go missing late at night when he feels overwhelmed which has been a real issue for us as getting him home safe and sound is tricky when he shuts off from me. Using my therapeutic training and the good advice given by TACT, I have managed to reconnect with my young person at times of distress and have managed to get him home safely without judgement or reprisal. He usually comes home tired and cold, so by empathising with him and allowing him to go straight to bed and talking to him in a nurturing and caring way the next day can usually help to settle the situation. Due to my therapeutic approach this hasn’t happened for while and the episodes of him going missing have reduced.”
Read more about Therapeutic Parenting.