What is Therapeutic Parenting?
Therapeutic Parenting is a nurturing parenting approach that empathise on empathy and understanding a child’s journey.
I assure you that therapeutic parenting is not a complex type of care. You can become good at it once you fully understand what it is.
Defining therapeutic foster parenting
It is a type of care that offers support to vulnerable children and young people who have faced severe life disruptions caused by abuse or trauma. The issue that the child is facing could have happened before the child is put in foster placement.
Therefore, your task as a foster carer is to care for the child’s needs with empathy and support. Just like any other type of fostering, therapeutic parenting requires that you work closely with the team around the child.
Is it challenging to become a therapeutic carer giver?
It can be challenging since you have to acquire some skills you may have to learn. Furthermore, you will be constantly caring for these children, despite their challenging backgrounds.
Therapeutic parenting foster care training and support
We understand how challenging therapeutic parenting can be, therefore we, offer training and continuous support to foster carers.
As an agency, we have several training courses that covers therapeutic parenting to enhance our support to foster carers. The training is a reference tool that you will always have when taking care of vulnerable children.
We also have a therapist who provide professional assistance when you are facing unique challenges. Therefore, our guarantee is that you are never alone taking care of a child experiencing the effects of trauma; we’ll always be here for you.
How to become a reliable therapeutic foster carer?
In addition to motivation and training, you should also be aware of the five dimensions of the Secure Base Model and PACE.
What is the Secure Base Model?
It is one of our researched models that we recommend foster carers adopt when caring for foster children. This model’s focus is on providing a secure base for vulnerable children in need of foster care.
The following are the principles of the Secure Base Model, which will make you a better therapeutic foster carer:
- Availability: You should be available to the child and help them to gain trust
- Sensitivity: You should help the child in managing their feelings
- Acceptance: You should help the child to build his/her self-esteem
- Cooperation: You should work with all interested parties for the betterment of the child
- Family membership: You should help the child to feel that they belong to a family.
These principles are extensive and we would take honour in guiding you through them.
What is the PACE?
The other researched model that we recommend foster carers in working with children who have experienced trauma is PACE. This model uses firm but fair boundaries and routines to help children to development of new neural pathways in their brains so that children may gain trust in adults and make sense of the world.
The PACE model foster carers work on the principle of
- Playfulness to connect and diffuse a situation
- Acceptance of the child whilst not accepting of aggression
- Curiosity to detect the child’s needs
- Empathy to understand the feelings of the child
Getting started
Therapeutic parents are not therapists. Caring for children who have who have experiences of trauma and attachment difficulties is a tough job; however, therapeutic parenting is a way to parent children, differently.
Whether or not you feel qualified, get in touch with us today about your desire to become a foster carer who is therapeutic in their parenting. We assure you that it will be a fulfilling life moment to shape the lives of vulnerable children.
