Akamas
Experience Learning
DEVELOPING STRATEGIC APPROACHES TO INTERVENTION WITH TRAUMATISED CHILDREN
Written By
Kate Cairns
Learning Outcomes
To achieve this unit a learner must:
- Prepare a strategic plan to increase the therapeutic properties of the environment for a traumatised child or young person
- Plan a systemic intervention to increase resilience and reduce vulnerability for a traumatised child or young person
- Devise a strategic plan to improve service provision for the treatment of traumatic stress disorders in children and young people
- Evaluate the plans you have produced
Content and Structure
MODULE 1
Increasing the therapeutic properties of the environment for a traumatised child or young person
The impact of the environment on recovery from trauma
- Links between sensory experience and healing: vision; hearing; smell; taste; touch; proxemics
- Hyperarousal and dissociation after trauma: extreme reactions to sensory stimulation
- The benefits of working with the child on creating an environment for healing
- Adaptability: recognising the dynamic quality of recovery from trauma
Environments that soothe, environments that stimulate
- Vision: light; colour; shape; vista; movement; images
- Hearing: ambient sound; sound quality; music; voices; rhythm; silence
- Smell: basic scent; specific aromas; body odour; animals
- Taste: association of spaces with food and drink
- Touch: texture; temperature; fabrics; surfaces; water
- Proxemics: establishing areas of closeness and distance
Applying the theory: planning the environment to enhance healing
- Assessing the milieux that form the environment for the child: home, school, other settings
- Working with all relevant parties, including the child or young person, to create a practical design to enhance the therapeutic properties of the milieu
MODULE 2
Increasing resilience and reducing vulnerability for a traumatised child or young person
Human ecology and resilience
- The human ecological system in childhood: child; family/care setting; significant others; wider society; social policy
- Trauma as a social phenomenon: trauma and recovery take place in a social milieu; humans cannot recover from trauma fully without secure attachment relationships; trauma touches everyone in the network
- Resilience as a social phenomenon: factors that increase resilience or vulnerability occur at all ecological levels
Domains of resilience and human ecology
- Resilience in childhood mapped against six domains: secure base; education; friendships; talents and interests; positive values; social competencies
- The six domains mapped against five levels of human ecology
- Implications of complexity for effective intervention
Applying the theory: planning a systemic intervention
- Assessing resilience and vulnerability at a point in time for a traumatised child or young person
- Working with all relevant parties, including the child or young person, to create a practical plan to increase resilience and reduce vulnerability
MODULE 3
Improving service provision for the treatment of traumatic stress disorders in children and young people
The three phases of trauma treatment
- Stabilisation: safety; education about trauma; words for feelings
- Integration: physiological self-management; emotional processing; cognitive restructuring
- Adaptation: social connectedness; self- esteem; the experience of joy
Therapeutic interventions at different phases
- Stabilisation: healing environment; teaching; work on feelings; play therapy; art therapy
- Integration: teaching relaxation and management of triggers; psychotherapy; play therapy; cognitive therapy
- Adaptation: groupwork; drama; art; music; travel; sport
Applying the theory: preparing a strategic plan for a child or young person
- Enabling and encouraging appropriate selection of treatment strategy
- Identifying resources and services available
- Preparing a strategic plan to encourage the development of a range of services in the treatment of traumatic stress
Level: 4
