Our Model Of Care…
At Caring Steps we support Children and Young People by incorporating the PACE Model, which is a trauma-informed approach of thinking, feeling, communicating and behaving that aims to make children and young people feel safe. It is done by communicating the four elements of PACE together flexibly, not as a step by step process.
PACE was developed by Dr Dan Hughes (a clinical psychologist specialising in childhood trauma) more than 20 years ago as a central part of attachment-focused family therapy. It was created with the aim of supporting adults to build safe, trusting and meaningful relationships with children and young people who have experienced trauma. The approach focuses on building trusting relationships, emotional connections, containment of emotions and a sense of security.
The Adult team at Caring Steps receive training usually during team meetings on PACE which is delivered by the therapist linked to the home; who is a qualified Practitioner Forensic Psychologist, registered with HCPC (Health Care Professions Council).
PACE stands for:
Playfulness
Acceptance
Curiosity
Empathy
Playfulness
This is about finding joy and being light with each other. It is about discovering the child uniqueness and strengths through play and fun. Playfulness gives the child and adults a break from the trauma and its toxicity. It helps to shift, in small steps, the child’s perspective on the relationship with adults through experiencing positive emotions.
Acceptance
Acceptance is about conveying to the child our psychological stance of “no matter what”. It is an expression of unconditional regards. Acceptance refers to child’s internal experience and should never be mistaken for a lack of boundaries and discipline. We explicitly communicate to the child that their inner world of feelings, thoughts, beliefs or wishes are neither right or wrong, they just are and we do not evaluate them or try to change them. Yet, we set the limits to behaviour to keep everyone safe.
Curiosity
This is about discovering the narrative, the story of the child internal world. It is an attitude of now knowing while expressing a non-judgmental, active interest in child’s experience. This attitude awakes child’s curiosity to explore together. It is about reading the child story through the lenses of love and compassion so that the child can start to experience himself as being known and accepted. Curiosity is about helping the child to make sense of their own experience.
Empathy
This is about communicating our acceptance and understanding and helping the child to regulate their experience at the same time. Empathy co-regulates child experience. Empathy provides reflective components and increases understanding of the child inner world. Empathy is about being fully present without being dysregulated by our own experience of the situation.
Therapeutic Life Story Work…
All children and young people placed in the care of the local authority are entitled to and should have some life story work which represents a realistic and honest account of their circumstances, their family, identity and an age appropriate understanding of their journey into and through care however, we at Caring Steps we acknowledge that not all children and young people have this important piece of work carried out which is why we at Caring steps offer this to all our children and young people once they are settled in our care.
We have an experienced Therapeutic Life Story Practitioner who holds a Diploma in Therapeutic Life Story Work and was trained by world legendary professor Richard Rose who is an expert when it comes to TLSW.
Our TLSP uses The Rose 2012 Model which is designed to be implemented in three stages, with stage one being background gathering, stage two direct work and stage three completion of a book in partnership with the child/young person.
She will work with our children and young people to help them to understand how their past experiences have moulded their behaviours and feelings to support them to reflect upon and work through them, she will use the information obtained from local authorities and the sessions to create a Life Story Book for each child once the work is complete.
In addition to the work by our Therapeutic Life Story Practitioner the Adults in the home will create a record of each individual child/young persons time with us via a memory book to capture memories of their journey. This book will be gifted to the child when they are ready to move on from us and will also be shared with the Child’s allocated Social worker.