John Diamond summarises what is included this month…

“The first paper is by Mark Brady who is a service manager at Amicus Foster Care. In his paper ‘Can Youth Work Underpinned by Therapeutic, Mental Health and Wellbeing Principles Promote Confidence and Resilience?’ Mark writes “In October 2020 I set up several youth groups and activities to work with a small group of children, this was in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus was to maintain, and in some cases, create relationships with young people whom like all of us were experiencing huge changes to their lives and the way they lived them. My aim within this assignment is to use the model of action research to explore the role of therapeutic youth work”.

This is followed by an assignment by Sophie Warrell who works as the Family Link Worker at The Mulberry Bush School. Her paper ‘What is the Impact of Attending Mulberry Bush School Groups on Adoptive Parents, Special Guardians and Fosters Carers?’ is action research, exploring how ‘the support groups for Adoptive Parents, Special Guardians and Foster Carers at The Mulberry Bush School are facilitated in a way whereby participants can choose whether or not to contribute and are able to raise what they feel is important for them, within the group’.

The final assignment from this module is by Geraint Matthews who works as a Therapeutic Care Practitioner at the school. His paper ‘White People Talking About Race in a Therapeutic Setting’ is a reflective exploration of the complex dynamics that we face as we continuously aim to grow an informed and equitable culture, which takes into account issues of privilege and prejudice which lie at the heart of our therapeutic work with children and families.  

Finally, Keith White offers three more of his regular reflective papers brought from the lived experience of his work at Mill Grove, a therapeutic community in South London. His paper ‘The Gardener and the Boy’ is based on observations of a child during their annual holiday in North Wales. In ‘The Fathers Day it all Came Together’ Keith shares his insights into how annual events such as Fathers/Mothers day can remain troubling or positive experiences depending on the quality of ‘emotional holding’ in the residential environment, and his third paper ‘Lies and Life Stories’ is a fascinating exploration of the role of lying for children, maybe as a form of defence to avoid often painful feelings emanating from their own life narratives and stories.”

Source October 2021 Edition: The Therapeutic Care Journal – October 2021 Edition