Developments in Family Work at the Mulberry Bush School. By Jennifer Browner and Stuart Harragan

The Mulberry Bush provides integrated 38-week and 52-week specialist residential therapeutic care, treatment and education for vulnerable and severely traumatised primary aged children and their families from across England and Wales.   The children struggle with all aspects of mainstream life and require a residential placement, which is evidence of how difficult it has been … Read more

Book review of ‘A Finchden Experience’ (Author Alan Wendelken). By Dr Chris Hanvey

A Finchden Experience.  By Alan Wendelken. It wasn’t a school, it wasn’t a hospital, it was a “third thing”- an “adventure in living” This was the view of George Lyward, the founder and head of the therapeutic community Finchden Manor, from its origins in the 1930’s until its demise in 1974. Alan Wendelken has every … Read more

A Homely Nest. By Keith White

I have written before in this journal about the connections between Bowlby’s theories on attachment and loss, on the one hand, and the concept of “nestness”, on the other. Put simply, it is possible to limit thinking about attachment largely or solely to the relationship between a child and a significant other, whereas  the idea … Read more

Working with Trauma. By Sean Williams

Sean Williams is Headteacher at the Forge Pupil Referral Unit in Redditch. The following is a talk given at the AGM of the St Paul’s homeless charity in Worcester. www. stpaulshostel.co.uk Thank you Claire for the introduction.  Yes I used to be a PE teacher in Worcestershire and before that I worked as a teacher … Read more

Resilience Revisited. By Keith White

There are fashions in academic and professional disciplines, just as there are in clothing, music and holiday destinations, and there comes a time in life when you find them coming round again: endorsed and advocated enthusiastically by those who are encountering them for the first time.  So I well remember when I first heard the … Read more

Nowhere to turn: How the UK is Failing Destitute and Vulnerable Migrant Children. By Alexandra Jarvis

Migrant families with No Recourse to Public Funds’ (NRPF) are at the mercy of underfunded public services, leaving children trying to cope in the worst of situations. What are the challenges faced and what changes can be made in order to prevent children experiencing destitution? The children of migrants in the UK are finding themselves … Read more

Using a reflective seminar technique. By Rita Baptista.

This is an assignment written by Rita Baptista a Therapeutic Care Practitioner for the Mulberry Bush/UWE Foundation Degree in ‘therapeutic work with children and young people’. All names have been anonymised.    This essay proposes to critically analyze my experience using the seminar technique, where I would discuss an area of my work relating to … Read more

A Foreign Correspondent (Part 3). By Angus Burnett

Part 3 of an adapted M.A. dissertation by Angus Burnett. It is about leadership, task and organisation in a therapeutic community for children. The M.A. in Therapeutic Child Care at The University of Reading was run by Adrian Ward, Dr. Linnet Mc Mahon, Paul Cain, Deborah Best and Theresa Howard at the Dept. of Community … Read more

Exclusion and Embrace. By Keith White

These words form the title of a remarkable book[1] by Miroslav Volf, a Croat whose family and people were among the victims of the Serbian atrocities in Srebrenica, and written when the traumas were still raw.  After a lecture that he gave, he was asked whether, as a follower of Jesus, he could embrace one … Read more