Helping residential care staff provide trauma-informed care to the children or young people they work with

This one-day course for residential carers is designed to be an informative, interactive and interesting way for carers to learn more about caring for children who have experienced early trauma, abuse or neglect. It provides an in-depth overview of the knowledge and strategies incorporated within therapeutic caring.

What does the course cover?

  • Introduction to the course as a whole
  • Introduction to the concept of attachment
  • What children gain from a nurturing relationship/attachment
  • The development of the child’s world view and expectations – ‘internal working model’
  • The impact of attachment on brain development

  • The impact of inadequate early relationships/attachment experiences on children’s emotions and behaviours
  • Understanding of the puzzling and challenging behaviours frequently displayed by these children
  • Further understanding of the impact of early neglect and trauma on the child’s ‘internal working model’ – and how this relates to insecure attachment styles
  • Further understanding of the impact of early trauma and neglect on a child’s brain development – including the ongoing effects of early, repeated stress

  • Differences between the child’s early experiences and the experiences we would wish to provide for the child
  • Understanding the need for different ways of caring for the child who has had difficult early experiences (specific strategies for therapeutic re-parenting)
  • The importance of a relational foundation to behavioural management strategies
  • The importance of using a Playful, Accepting, Curious and Empathic approach to parenting

  • Further attachment-building strategies are discussed and practised in this session:
  • Unconditional positive experiences with the child
  • Discovering and encouraging ways for the child to experience a sense of belonging with you
  • The importance of supporting the child at times of overwhelming emotion (finding ways to de-escalate the situation without minimising the child’s emotional experience)

  • How to manage difficult behaviour and how to get the behaviour you want
  • Commonly used disciplinary methods and how these might be experienced by a child with attachment difficulties
  • The importance of instilling structure and firm boundaries (thinking about commonly used strategies, why these might not work for these children, and how to do it differently)
  • Thinking about the child’s emotional capacity; adapting strategies commonly used with much younger children for use with children of all ages, and particularly at times of high emotion and ‘risk’

  • Reasons behind the child’s puzzling and/or challenging behaviours are revisited, as well as the importance of the foundational relationship-building strategies.
  • The importance of providing the child with teaching opportunities rather than punishment experiences.
  • Choices and consequences
  • Alternatives to commonly used strategies such as ‘time out’
  • The importance of relationship repair

  • Introduction to the concept of ‘re-enactment’ and the influences (past and present) brought into the relationship by both child and carers
  • The impact of the child’s earlier experiences upon current situations
  • Reflection on the carer’s own ‘stories’ of challenging and emotive situations (no pressure is placed upon anyone to share their experiences with the group)
  • Consideration of the carer’s own particular ‘hot buttons’

  • Discussion of the question: ‘Why is it important for you and the child that you look after yourself?’
  • The ‘Container of Stress’ model, and the importance of recognising stress early
  • Introduction to the concept of ‘Blocked Care’, with reference to the effects of stress on the carer’s own ‘parenting brain’
  • Ways to look after oneself

Exercises, activities, video clips and discussions are used throughout the course to enhance the teaching and content.

Training is delivered by a highly qualified clinical psychologist and/or therapist with many years’ experience working with trauma and attachment.

Course details:

Level: Foundation

Days: One

Session length: 7.5 hours

Cost: £2000 + VAT

Maximum participants: 12 (please contact us if you require a larger group)

Location: This course can be delivered virtually (Zoom) or at our specialist training facility in Stoke-on-Trent. If you would prefer us to deliver the course at your facility, additional travel and accommodation costs will be incurred.

Dates: Please contact us to book this course for your team. Alternatively, please view our upcoming events.

Consultation package: ongoing support for your team

This one-day course can be followed by regular (monthly or bi-monthly) consultations with the staff team, facilitated by a Gateway Psychology clinician, to assist in application of the ideas and principles of the programme. However, this is not costed for within the one-day training fee and would need to be negotiated separately.

What professionals think about our CPD courses

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“Informative and helpful course. Engaging and educational, with practical tips to apply to real life situations.”

“Very informative. Great to learn about things that relate to daily struggles and having strategies to try to support the children.”

“Very very interesting, informative, useful and engaging. Couldn’t have gone any better. Taking a lot from it. Best training I’ve been on. Thank you!!! :)”

“The best CPD training, will definitely recommend.”

“Powerpoint and discussions all directly linked to what we hoped to achieve. Engaging from start to finish. Thank you.”

“Having light bulb moments and being able to think of specific children and now understand how to help more and support them.”

Upcoming CPD courses

Preverbal Trauma Training for Professionals (Apr 2025)

8 April 2025 @ 09:30 - 16:30

Understanding Blocked Care Training for Professionals (Jul 2025)

8 July 2025 @ 09:30 - 16:30

Understanding Dissociation for Professionals (Sep 2025)

16 September 2025 @ 09:30 - 16:30

FAQs

There are a variety of ways to access our training services. If you wish to book on to a session as an individual, please view our upcoming events. You will find more details on how to apply on the specific event page.

If you want to book a dedicated training course for your team, please get in contact with us for a quote. It would be helpful for us to know if you would prefer us to deliver your training programme face-to-face or virtually, and your expected numbers.

For our live, interactive courses, each participant will need a laptop or tablet device, webcam, microphone and an internet connection. Mobile phones can be used, but they do not offer the best possible experience for the participant.

We typically host our live virtual courses on Zoom.

Please contact our team to discuss your requirements. We will discuss feasibility with you, and provide an outline of costs.

Yes, we offer a range of options to help provide ongoing support to your team.

Please get in touch with us to talk about your consultation requirements, such as frequency, your goals and the type of families your organisation works with (or the difficulties they typically experience). We will work with you to create a bespoke consultation package that works for your needs.

Cost is dependent on the type of course you are accessing, in addition to the length and number of clinicians presenting. Please take a look at the individual course pages for more information.

Bespoke courses may involve a higher cost, as development time will need to be included. We will work with you to find a pricing structure that works for your needs.