Therapy for adopted children
We know that children adopted from care will have experienced trauma and loss, even if they were adopted shortly after birth. Our team of highly qualified clinical psychologists and therapists are experienced in the unique and sometimes complex challenges and difficulties that can arise in an adoption or special guardianship situation.
Therapeutic support for adopted children
The team at Gateway are highly skilled in helping adopted/SGO children, young people and their families with the difficulties they might be experiencing.
Emotional, behavioural, relational or developmental difficulties
Trauma
Attachment and relationship difficulties
Strengthening attachment relationships
Sibling relationships
Parent/carer stress or blocked care
Placements at risk of breakdown
Our therapeutic model
At Gateway Psychology, we aim to help each child or young person through the challenges or ‘gateways’ faced at a particular time, whether emotional, behavioural, relational or developmental.
The Gateway Model explains how we work. Our therapeutic model is based on research about how trauma affects the brain, and informs the therapeutic interventions, assessments and training programmes we deliver.
Our therapeutic approach
Our therapeutic approach is always tailored to the needs of the child or young person.
Focused on the child or young person
Considers the whole system around them
Flexible and timely
Highly qualified and professional
Supportive and compassionate
Working with Gateway Psychology
We value our working relationships. We know that we are more likely to achieve positive outcomes for a child or young person when the system works together.
That’s why we do our best to go ‘above and beyond’ for the organisations we work alongside. From our administration support team through to the leadership, all our team members work hard to provide a professional, flexible and timely service to our clients and the Local Authorities, Regional Adoption Agencies and public sector organisations we work with.
Our therapeutic expertise
Research shows that using a multi-modal intervention is often the best way to support a child or young person. That’s why our clinical team are trained in a wide range of evidence-based therapeutic interventions to help achieve positive outcomes for the children and young people we work with. We will always consider their needs when putting together a package of support, ensuring that we use the most appropriate therapeutic approach*.
Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) is a therapy, parenting approach and model for practice that uses what we know about attachment and developmental trauma to help children and families with their relationships.
Therapeutic parenting requires a special type of parenting to help support a child who has experienced a difficult start in life. While evidence suggests that therapeutic parenting can make a positive difference for children and young people, it can be a difficult approach to ‘get right.’ Therapeutic parenting support sessions, based firmly on attachment principles, give parents and carers the space to talk about their own feelings and difficulties, while providing them with one-to-one support in therapeutic parenting techniques.
Theraplay® informed interventions are a practical, play-based approach to help build relationships and attachment between the parent and child, and help facilitate change within the child. They incorporate developmentally challenging activities, and tender, nurturing activities. The parent/carer and child will play together, guided by a qualified Theraplay® practitioner. These sessions are usually informed by an assessment called a MIM (Marschak Interaction Method) to help inform the direction of the therapy.
Systemic therapy focuses on relationships between a group of people, rather than solely on an individual’s thoughts and feelings. It helps with the relationships and connections between people within the system. This ‘system’ could be a family (and often is with the work we do at Gateway), or even a group of colleagues (such as care home staff).
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a therapeutic approach to help people recover from trauma and other distressing life experiences. Rather than focusing on changing the emotions, thoughts, or behaviours resulting from the distressing issue, EMDR allows the brain to process the trauma and begin to heal itself.
Video Interaction Guidance is an intervention through which a practitioner aims to enhance communication within relationships. It is most typically used for interactions between children of any age and adults, either parents or professionals, although it can also be used within pairs (or even groups) of adults. In VIG, the client is guided to reflect on video clips of their own successful interactions. The process begins by helping the family or professional to negotiate their own goals. Asking them what it is they want to change helps to ensure that they are engaged in the process. Adult-child interactions are then filmed and edited, to produce a short film that focuses on the positive.
Therapeutic Life Story Work offers children the opportunity to explore, question and understand past events of their life. Within this, it gives them a voice and safe space to feel and express their emotions when making sense of past experiences and the relation it has to their current thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
* These approaches are an example of the type of therapeutic approaches our clinicians are trained in. We regularly undertake additional training to ensure our clinical staff members are qualified in the latest evidence-based therapies.
Therapy and the Adoption Support Fund
Our recommended therapeutic support often falls into the therapy Fair Access Limits for adopted children. If your Local Authority or Regional Adoption Agency would like to commission a package of support, please contact us and we will provide a quote.
If a child or family is accessing support funded by the Adoption Support Fund, an assessment of therapeutic need might be required before a package of therapeutic support takes place
FAQs
If you are a post-adoption support social worker, please get in touch with us to make a referral. We may call you to ask for further information before putting together a quote. We may recommend an assessment of therapeutic need before progressing with therapeutic input.
If you are an adoptive parent or special guardian, we recommend talking to your Local Authority or Regional Adoption Agency to find out how to access our services.
No, we do not operate a waiting list. We aim to see clients as soon as possible once funding is approved. This is usually within 6 weeks once funding approval has been agreed.
Our clinicians are highly experienced, and regularly undertake training to stay up to date in their fields. Because our clinicians are trained and skilled in multiple approaches, we are able to be flexible in shifting the focus and approach of the work to suit the individual’s needs.
The therapeutic approach (or approaches) for each individual case is always tailored to the individual and the situation. The approach is often decided by an assessment of therapeutic need, which will determine the direction of therapy we plan to take.
Our therapeutic work is goals-focused, which means it is designed to address a certain difficulty (or set of difficulties). These goals are identified at the start of a piece of work, then addressed and monitored throughout. The clinician will put together a brief report at the end of the piece of therapeutic work.
We also undertake outcome measures for all our adoption/SGO cases. These outcome measures help us understand how a case is progressing and monitor success.
We also value the subjective experience of the child and parents/carers in helping us monitor the progress of the work.
We have a large, varied team of experts here at Gateway Psychology. Our clinical psychologists and therapists are highly experienced in their fields of expertise, and regularly undertake additional training to develop and enhance their knowledge.
One of the benefits of working with Gateway Psychology is that our team have specific areas of expertise and interest, which means we are able to help and support children and families who may be experiencing a wide range of different difficulties. We always allocate the most appropriate clinician to each case, ensuring that children, young people and families are able to access the right support for their needs.
With this in mind, it is not possible to choose or request a specific clinician. Our Clinical Director and leadership team make allocations on an individual basis.
We often say ‘as long as it takes to help with the problem!’ We know that in-depth, long-term therapeutic support is often required to address the difficulty a child, young person or family may be experiencing.
The length of a piece of work is decided before a piece of work begins. We may request additional work if it is deemed necessary.
Therapeutic interventions and assessments may be accessible through your Local Authority or Regional Adoption Agency if you are an adoptive parent or special guardian. These are often funded under the Adoption Support Fund. You will need to speak with your post-adoption social worker to discuss this.
We are a registered Adoption Support Agency and regularly provide trauma-informed therapeutic interventions and complex psychological assessments. As such, we are inspected by Ofsted for our work with adoptive families.