CETC - Trauma-informed relationship-based recovery reflection tool - Practice tool - CETC

trauma-informed-relationship-based-recovery-reflection-tool-hero-image

Trauma-informed relationship-based recovery reflection tool – Practice tool

Foster care Kinship care Reflective Practice Residential care

Download PDF

Nov 2021

Written by Noel Macnamara

Children and young people need adults who can co-regulate with them and teach them about feelings and their inner world. This Trauma Informed Relationship-Based Recovery Reflection tool can be used by an individual or with a group to reflect on what children and young people need to recover from trauma and how you can help meet these needs.

Audience

This resource can be used with all of those caring for or supporting children and young people in care.

What you could do

Print and use this tool in a reflective practice session with direct care staff and other carers you are supporting.
Use this tool to reflect on your own capacity to meet the different needs of a child or young person you are caring for.

You may be interested in: Foster care Kinship care Reflective Practice Residential care

Creating positive social climates and home-like environments in therapeutic care - Practice guide

This guide has been developed to support the implementation of Essential Element: Physical Environments from the Ten Essential Elements of Therapeutic Care. It explores how to create therapeutic care contexts...

Reflective practice: enhancing practice in therapeutic care - Practice guide

Reflective Practice is one of the 10 Essential Elements of Intensive Therapeutic Care. This guide has been developed to support Therapeutic Specialists to engage staff in critical Reflective Practice -...

Putting theory into practice

Sometimes you might wonder why you need to learn about theory. I have heard people say: Residential work with young people is often conducted amidst high anxiety, uncertainty and...

What does stability in residential care mean? Part I

After four years working in residential care, both on the floor and as a clinician, I wanted to better understand what stability really means for young people in residential care?...

Stability in residential Care: Part II

Sarah is 14 and has been in placement for 18 months. She lives in a residential house with two boys and one girl. The boys display aggressive behaviours and are...

8 ways to support young people in residential care during COVID-19

How do we keep to the therapeutic care principles of safety, consistency, predictability, and routine in a world that feels like it has turned upside down overnight? It’s near impossible!...

How do we create excellence in Intensive Therapeutic residential care practice?

What creates high quality therapeutic residential care? This is the question often asked of agencies, of staff, of policy makers and of the young people themselves. There is no simple...

Cultivating curiosity in Therapeutic residential care

Curiosity is something that has excited me my whole life. I am sure a lot of you share my fascination and enthusiasm for curiosity. There seems to be wide support...

Therapeutic residential workers? Who are we?

This blog is to introduce my recent research with therapeutic residential workers. Further blogs and practice guides relating to finding, keeping, acknowledging and celebrating the best person for the job...

10 ways to enable young people's participation in therapeutic residential care

In this blog, I’m keen to offer practitioners in therapeutic residential care some ideas about how to involve young people in decisions that affect their lives. Many young people in...

The Intensive Therapeutic Care dance

Therapeutic residential work can be conceptualised as a dance. It works best when therapeutic workers display therapeutic presence, are in sync with the young person, can making meaning of the...

Understanding and supporting young people who self-harm in residential care

Some of the young people we care for in the ITC programs deal with emotional distress and pain by hurting themselves physically. Young people hurting themselves is distressing to them...

What are the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in care? Research brief

Indigenous children and young people face unique challenges in the child welfare system. The dimensions of this problem are complex and multifaceted. Providing culturally safe and traumainformed therapeutic care to...

‘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...

The 10 essential elements of Intensive Therapeutic Care NSW - Practice guide

This guide has been developed to describe the 10 Essential Elements that form the basis for Intensive Therapeutic Care (ITC) service provision in NSW. The 10 Essential Elements have been...

The essential elements of therapeutic foster care - Research brief

As far back as 2002 in the creation of the Catalyst Program, Mitchell developed what was Australia’s first therapeutic foster care program and one of a handful of pioneering programs...

What makes a good therapeutic residential care worker? Practice guide

Trained staff and consistent rostering are essential elements of therapeutic residential care. The purpose of this guide is to consider more broadly what makes an excellent therapeutic residential care worker...

How do you prepare for the transitioning of young people into an Intensive Therapeutic Care house? Part 2

In the first part of the Blog, we explored limit and expectation setting, maintaining a state of occupancy and the planning process for a successful transition. In part two of...

How do you prepare for the transitioning of young people into an Intensive Therapeutic Care house? Part 1

This is a two-part blog and will focus on the transition of young people into an Intensive Therapeutic Care house; however, most of the content is transferrable to other placement...

Changing your practice to being trauma informed in therapeutic residential care

Whilst the following Arabian proverb takes a bit to get your head around it leads rather nicely into this blog and our brief introduction on the relevance of the conscious...

How to thrive in lock down, lean into what works in therapeutic care

Lockdown means we lose touch with many things: friends, family, freedom. For young people, therapeutic youth workers and other staff in Intensive Therapeutic Care, however, it also offers an opportunity...

Client mix and client matching in therapeutic care - Practice guide

Client mix and the process of client matching is one of the 10 Essential Elements underpinning the Intensive Therapeutic Care (ITC) system in New South Wales. This guide has been...

Trauma-informed care - Research brief

This research briefing aims to define and clarify what trauma, complex trauma and trauma informed care are. Extensive literature has now surmised that exposure to adverse experiences such as child...

Q&A with the trainer: Harmful sexual behaviour

Working with young people who engage in harmful sexual behaviour is complex and challenging. Cyra Fernandes and Dan Howell have spent over a 1000 hours in the past year helping carers and professionals...

Strengthening connections & relationships project

What is this research about? Young people in residential care face major challenges that can prevent them from forming healthy relationships and a strong personal identity, which are critical building...

Come on it’s only a game

Many of you will have experienced something like the following… A residential worker is observing two young people playing table tennis in the rear yard of the residential unit. One...

Frequently asked questions by foster carers: Behaviours that challenge

In Australia, there are about 18 thousand children and young people in foster care. Most foster carers will be the first to tell you how rewarding it is – but...

Understanding the needs of kinship carers in Australia - Research brief

Kinship care placements in Australia are now more prevalent than foster care. They are the fastest growing form of out-of-home care in this country (AIHW, 2021). On 30 June 2019,...

Sibling placement in out-of-home care - Research brief

The significance of sibling relationships for children and young people in out-of-home care is well documented by national and international scholars (Luu, Conley Wright, & Cashmore, 2020). These relationships offer...

‘Drop and run’ - the experience of kinship carers in the Australian child protection system

Recent research was conducted by the Southern Cross University and the Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care (McPherson, Gatwiri, Day, Parmenter, Mitchell & Macnamara, 2022) into the experience of kinship...

Do ‘no touch’ policies in residential care keep workers and children safe? It’s not that simple

Lyn was 16 and had grown up in foster and residential care. Lyn was interviewed about her experience and views about out of home care. She was extremely positive about...

Blocked care: ‘You’re not alone; it’s a brain thing.’

“No one knows what it is like to care for a child in trauma until they have cared for a child in trauma,” said Noel MacNamara in one of his...

What Was I Thinking? Handling the Amygdala Hijack

Remember that time when you put the child you care for back to bed for the fourth time? Your thoughts suggested a level of desperation and wishful thinking, hoping that...

12 ways foster and kinship carers can promote compassion and self-compassion in children and young people

What are Compassion and Self-Compassion?Compassion is the ability to feel and connect with the suffering of another human being, self-compassion is the ability to feel and connect with one’s own...

‘There was no support’: Getting kinship care support right

We did not and am still not receiving support requested or needed. Case managers or staff change without us being informed. Phone messages left at their offices and drop in...

Fight, flight, freeze, and fibbing: Lying as a trauma-based behaviour

In almost every session I have run for foster and kinship carers, someone tells a story about a child or young person in their care who regularly lies. I can feel...

Christmas in residential care: It doesn’t need to be the most wonderful time of the year

Christmas is a time of joy and celebration for many Australians, but it can also bring pressure and unrealistic expectations. The shops are decorated, Christmas songs are everywhere, and cheesy...

Living with the Fast and the Furious

You have opened your homes and your hearts to children who are unable to live with their parents. You want to help them access a better life. To feel safe,...

Trauma-sensitive family time is about connection and repair

Relationships with family come with good times and challenges for everyone, but for children and young people in care, this birthright of family connection can often be deprioritised for the...

Trauma-informed care connects to children’s needs; trauma-informed carer training should connect to carers’ needs

The CETC is thrilled to announce our new online course “Caring for Children and Young People with Trauma” is now live and free for all South Australian kinship and foster...

How are restrictive practices interpreted in therapeutic residential care?

This blog article was written by Glenys Bristow, Senior Specialist, Therapeutic Residential Care, CETC. Restrictive practice in therapeutic care The Royal Commision into Violence, Abuse and Exploitation of People with...

What do foster carers tell us about their support needs? - Research brief

Foster carers are a crucial human resource in responding to children and young people who have experienced abuse, neglect, and trauma. The design and implementation of foster care programs varies...

Thirteen coping strategies that caregivers can use to support young people through their grief process

Being in out-of-home care (OOHC) often means loss: loss of parents, siblings, extended family, pets, home, school, and friends. Grief is a normal and healthy response to loss. Children can...

The most difficult thing about residential care work

The most difficult aspect of working in residential care is not managing the behavioural challenges of the children and young people, the demanding shifts, or the lack of resources. Rather,...

Hearts of Gold: Reflecting on Foster Care Week 2023

Foster Care Week, observed from September 10-16, is an annual celebration acknowledging the incredible contribution our volunteer foster carers make to the lives of children in out-of-home care. The theme...

Spotlight on a therapeutic specialist in out-of-home care - Jess Wright

Foster Care Week 2023, celebrated from September 10-16, is an annual celebration of foster carers and their supporters for the contributions they make to the lives of children, young people,...

Research Update: Understanding Relationships in Therapeutic Residential Care

The Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care (CETC) is engaged in ongoing research to understand how positive, trusting relationships and social connections can be fostered for young people in Therapeutic...

Meet the CareSouth team

CareSouth was recently awarded the Outstanding Therapeutic Residential Care Team Award at Youth Action NSW's Youth Work Awards. The CETC proposed the new Outstanding Therapeutic Residential Care Team award category...

Christmas time when glad tidings of joy should abound, and love be with us all

Christmas, for many, is an exciting time of year. However, for some children and young people, particularly those who have experienced attachment difficulties, trauma and/or adverse childhood events, Christmas can...

What is neuroaffirming practice and how can it help young people in out-of-home care?

The 2nd of April is World Autism Awareness Day, celebrating and promoting understanding and inclusiveness of people on the autism spectrum. In out-of-home care, neurodiversity is a highly prevalent and...

The essential role of collaboration in clinical assessments for young people experiencing complex trauma

As a clinician supporting young people who engage in harmful sexual behaviour, I have the privilege of travelling across the northern region of Victoria and engaging with many residential workers....

“I’m not a Barbie girl”: Spatial design reform in residential care

The Create Voices in Action conference was held in Adelaide in March 2024. Three compelling voices at the conference belonged to Professor Suzie Attiwill and Create Consultants Hayley and Ella. ...

What you told us about restrictive practices

In July 2023 we asked for your help to better understand how ‘restrictive practices’ were understood and interpreted in therapeutic residential care (TRC) across Australia. Through a blog on our...

On-Demand: What we’ve learnt delivering trauma training to carers online

Over the past 18 months, we have been asking ourselves how online training can help meet the knowledge and support needs of foster and kinship carers. What are the benefits...

Ask us: How do you help young people feel safe in residential care?

At the CETC, we know how important it is to listen and learn from residential care workers about what works for young people in care. Recently, we interviewed several residential...

Research findings - Phase 1: Policy Analysis

Phase 1: Policy Analysis This document presents an overview of the findings from Phase 1 of the Strengthening Relationships and Connections in Therapeutic Residential Care project. This phase focused on analysing...

Reflections on the National Kinship, Permanent and Foster Care Conference

At this week’s National Kinship, Permanent and Foster Care conference held in Melbourne, the experiences of pleasure and pain faced by kinship carers were clearly evident. Amidst the stories of love and...

Too exhausted and overwhelmed for self-care

Working with trauma-impacted children and young people can be exhausting and overwhelming. This feeling is often compounded by not having the resources to help these children and young people in...

Grandparent kinship carers: the pleasure, the pain

Today in Australia, the preference for and growth of kinship care has meant that the majority of children in out-of-home care are now placed in relative or kinship care arrangements...

Online gambling harms: Why young people in care need targeted protection

Online gambling is a significant risk for young people, particularly those in out-of-home care. The Australian Government is currently considering its response to the 31 recommendations from the parliamentary inquiry...

In defence of the humble print photo

In a world dominated by instant, swipeable, and disappearing photos—where Snapchat, TikTok, and digital galleries rule—the humble printed photo may feel a bit “retro.” But during a recent visit to...

Making Christmas magical and safe for foster and kinship children

Christmas time can be a whirlwind of joy, excitement, and emotions. However, supporting foster and kinship children during the Christmas period requires thoughtful planning, empathy, and an understanding of the...