I attended an excellent conference in Oxford, co-hosted by two excellence organisations. The International Centre for Therapeutic Care (https://mulberrybush.org.uk/mb3/the-international-centre-for-therapeutic-care/) and the Institute of Recovery from Childhood Trauma (https://irct.org.uk).
The conference explored the concepts of creating recovery environments for children who have experienced trauma and through a series of presentations we explored how assessment and intervention models could help us think about the types of environments which best promote recovery.
The concept of the ‘emotionally available adult’ was particularly relevant to our organisation, based on the our use of attachment theory and the secure base model. Julie Harmiseon, from Trauma Informed Schools (https://www.traumainformedschools.co.uk) summed up very well what we mean by an emotionally available adult as someone who can Protect – Relate – Regulate - Reflect.
This for me re-enforced the essence of what our great foster parents do, supported by our social workers, therapy, and support teams.
- Andre Palmer, Director of Mosaic Foster Care
