In Residence

The site at Toddington, Gloucestershire, which is now part of the Mulberry Bush Organisation was bought by the Homer Lane Trust in 1965 in order to set up a therapeutic community for what were then called maladjusted children. The Homer Lane Trust was founded by some members of a pacifist community (Roy Frye, Cynthia Cross … Read more

This is an adaptation of the first part of an 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 … Read more

On the night of 5th December 2018, citizens of Pangani Town were saddened by the news of the rape and murder of a local village nurse. People grieved for the sudden death of the 23 year old who disappeared immediately after the last ferry crossing from Pangani town to Bweni village where she had been … Read more

The TCJ continues to share members ‘lived experiences’ of the achievements, dilemmas and struggles to meet the needs of emotionally troubled and traumatised children and young people. Many of the papers in this edition reflect on what it means to be genuinely ‘alongside and attuned’ to those in our care. This edition opens with an … Read more

In a recent article for The Therapeutic Care Journal  I wrote at some depth and with more feeling than I had envisaged at the outset, about children who were “un-held in a healthy mind”.  Unsurprisingly, it was a worrying and rather distressing scenario.  Since then I have, of course continued to hold the matter, and … Read more

In the autumn of 2018 I exchanged emails, as we do from time to time, with my friend and colleague, Jerome Berryman, the founder of Godly Play. He is a polymath who worked (as well as many other places) at the Texas Children’s Hospital and Houston Child Guidance Centre, was Adjunct Asst. Professor of Paediatric … Read more

Working with children is important work, but we have to recognise that it can be quite difficult and demanding. As the manager of the assessment centre I used to work at put it, child care work is not for the faint hearted. Given how challenging the work can be, it is vitally important that staff … Read more

As more complex and troubled children and young people are routinely placed in care there has been much thinking about the types of model of caring that may work best for a routinely traumatised population. This has led to an increasing interest in what is often termed ‘therapeutic care’. This can lead to the term … Read more

As I was walking to the station yesterday evening two people were walking in front of me – a grown-up and a child. They were talking and strolling along. There was something special about their togetherness. The grown-up was clearly with and tuned-in to the child. Not wanting to eavesdrop on their conversation or to … Read more

This paper was an assignment for The Mulberry Bush Level 5 Foundation Degree in ‘therapeutic work with children and young people’, its full title was: With reference to relevant literature, in what ways do you consider play, whether formal or informal (or both) important to the development of the Children and Young People you work … Read more

In this edition of the Therapeutic Care Journal we take a look at the work of Leila Rendel, founder of the Caldecott Community. Mark Sevia opens the edition with a short piece on her life, and this is followed by her paper  ‘The child of misfortune’ a booklet written in 1952, in which she classifies … Read more

I have written before on the well-tried subject of the importance of a child “being held in a healthy mind”, but in the light of some sustained close observations over the past couple of years I now realise that a critical element of the theory underpinning what I wrote may need substantial revision.  What Goldfarb, … Read more