Therapeutic Care Blog
The CETC blog tells the stories behind 'what works' in Intensive Therapeutic Care
Behaviours that challenge: What has happened to you?
Children and young people living in Therapeutic Residential Care in Australia often present with a range of behaviours that challenge us. The complexity and difficulty in working with these challenging behaviours led us to write a Practice Guide: Behaviours that Challenge to assist therapeutic residential workers to better understand why young people might display these …
Read MoreAchieving Effective Supervision – Games That Supervisors Play
In the previous blog, we discussed how easy it is for the supervisor/supervisee relationship to be consciously or sub-consciously ambushed by power/defensive game play. Kadushin (1968) described games as repetitive patterns arising between supervisor and supervisee, where one or both players consciously or subconsciously adopt a strategy to maximise safety and minimise potential threat. Even …
Read MoreHow do you support staff feeling defeated and powerless? A Case Study
My work as a Therapeutic Specialist is about finding ways to equip and support staff to provide high-quality therapeutic care for young people living in Intensive Therapeutic Care homes. It is about sharing knowledge, facilitating reflective practice and, perhaps most importantly, holding the hope that positive change is possible. In this blog, I want to …
Read More‘Tis the Season to be Jolly’ – but not for everyone
It’s all too easy to get wrapped up in the fun and happiness of Christmas and forget that, for others, the season isn’t necessarily a joyful one. For some the young people in the ITC system, Christmas has not been a happy time and can bring back difficult memories. Arguments, violence or aggression in the …
Read MoreThe Healing Power of Friendship
“A friend is someone who helps you up when you’re down, and if they can’t, they lay down beside you and listen.” Winnie the Pooh Can the friendships and connections that can develop in Intensive Residential Care be nurtured and grown rather than feared? I would like you to take a moment to think back …
Read MorePutting theory into practice
Sometimes you might wonder why you need to learn about theory. I have heard people say: “caring for kids in residential care is common sense” “theory is OK for academic’s but not for the everyday work of residential care” Residential work with young people is often conducted amidst high anxiety, uncertainty and emotion. Within …
Read MoreAn emerging paradigm – Welcome to our new Therapeutic Care Blog
Over the past two decades, the term therapeutic care has emerged as a new paradigm used to integrate constructs that had traditionally been considered separate – therapeutic processes and the care of young people, many of whom have experienced significant trauma and present with a range of complex needs and challenging behaviours. National and international …
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