International Centre News August 2021

Welcome to our August edition of the TCJ and IC news. For your summer reading we bring you another set of excellent papers exploring global perspectives on the important role of residential care in providing protection and therapeutic healing experiences for children, young people and their families. This current set of  papers reaches us from Brazil, Cambodia and the UK.

Our first paper in this edition is by Professor Ewan Anderson and Norman Cooke OBE entitled ‘The Environments for Residential Living for Children and Young People Under the Age of 18’ this follows on from their paper in our April 1st edition. The paper provides a comprehensive overview of the range of the internal physical environments of residential services, and their relationship to the external policy environment leading to the referral of children and young people.

Our next paper ‘Joint Protective Shelters For Children And Adolescents And Their Mothers As A Protective Care Alternative In Brazil’ by Patrick Reason, founder and director of the NGO Associação Beneficente Encontro com Deus and National Secretary of the Brazilian Movement for the Rights of Children and Adolescents to live in Family and Community. Patrick writes ‘This article presents the joint protection method of care for vulnerable and at risk children and adolescents together with their mothers, implemented in Curitiba in Southern Brazil for over twenty years. Similar in practice to shelters for women suffering domestic abuse, this method of care is an alternative care model where the child or adolescent is at the centre, and their right to both protective care, and the right to live with their mother when this is both beneficial and safe, is upheld’.

Keith White writes from his lived experience of daily residential life in Mill Grove with three articles: In ‘Mill Grove And Topsy’ he gives a brief history of Mill Grove and how the unique  culture and ethos of this therapeutic community have evolved since it was founded in 1899. In his next article ‘A Place Where Things Are Mended’ Keith describes how Mill Grove provides the continuity of a healing ‘secure base’ to which successive generations of it’s ‘extended family’ feel welcome to connect with and return to. This  experience is captured in his final piece ‘A Day To Remember’ which celebrates the role of Mill Grove in supporting such familial bonds and relationships across time and geographical distance.

In Our Research Section:

We serialise Part 2 of The Butterfly Longitudinal Research Project with ‘Journeys Of Faith For Survivors Of Sex Trafficking In Cambodia’ By Glenn Miles, Vanntheary Lim and Channtha Nann. The Butterfly project is a 10 year research project following the lives of 128 survivors of human trafficking.

We finish with a book review of ‘Nobody’s Child: Growing Up In A Yorkshire Children’s Home’ by G.J Urquhart. Review written by Keith White.

Stay safe and well,

Warm wishes,

John Diamond

Call For Papers

Our aim is for our October 1st edition to be a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott and his work and influence. This is a ‘call for papers’ for anyone who would like to contribute to the October edition.

Please send your papers to [email protected]

Questionnaire To Gather Your Thoughts On The TCJ And The ICTC

The Therapeutic Care Journal (TCJ) has just celebrated its 6th year of publication as part of The Mulberry Bush International Centre for Therapeutic Care (ICTC), and so we thought that this was a perfect opportunity to ask you for your thoughts and opinions about the journal and how you would like to see it, and the International Centre, develop over the next five years.

Share your thoughts here.

International Centre News And Upcoming Events

‘Perspectives On, And Environments For Recovery’ Events.

Our recent online July 6th day event ‘Perspectives on Recovery’ in partnership with the IRCT was very well received by all those who attended, and a reminder that it links with our next Face to Face event ‘Environments for Recovery’ at the Oxford Quaker Centre on November 12th 2021.

Save The Date…
We also have two ‘save the date’ events for you to add to your diary where we’re just finalising the final details. As soon as we have further information available we will share we will get in touch via email to keep you up to date.

  • 9 November 2021  – Our next International Centre Research Group.
  • 12 November 2021 –  Our Child Care History Network event in partnership with Dartington CSP ‘50 years of Early Years provision 1971- 2021’ with a range of fantastic speakers.

Analysing Aspects of Harold Bridger’s Personal Papers: A Discussion on Therapeutic Practice Past and Present

Thursday 23 September 2021, 11am – 1pm
Online via Zoom

In May 2021 letters from some of the 20th century’s most influential psychoanalysts were found within Harold Bridger’s personal papers, which are currently being catalogued at the Planned Environment Therapy Archive. This event will provide the opportunity to view these archival records and learn about Bridger’s relationship with psychoanalysts such as Melanie Klein and John Bowlby during the 1940s and 1950s. The letters will also serve as inspiration to explore a number of aspects to Bridger’s career such as psychoanalytic practice, therapeutic communities and group dynamics. This will be discussed in relation to both past and present therapeutic practice and in relation to the work at The Mulberry Bush Charity.

The structure of the event will include four fifteen minute talks that will provide an insight into the work of all of our speakers. There will also be an opportunity for discussion and questions at the end of the talks.

Find out more and book your place here.

Talking Strategies: Working with Traumatised Children, Young People and Group Work.

Friday 24 September 2021, 10am – 1pm
Online via Zoom
The Mulberry Bush and Orb8 present an online seminar

Learning Objectives:

  • Strategies to re-navigate our work with children and young people
  • Exploring and sharing strategies for recovery across different sectors
  • Providing opportunities for mutual support and networking
  • Understanding and using play therapy to communicate
  • Working with families of children in residential care
  • Using groups to understand social dynamics

Find out more and book your place here.

Trauma Informed Practice – Environments to Promote Recovery

Friday 12 November 2021, 10am – 4 pm
Oxford Quaker Meeting House.
A conference presented by the International Centre for Therapeutic Care (ICTC) and the Institute for Recovery of Childhood Trauma (IRCT).
Learning Objectives:

  • Debate what ‘recovery’ means
  • Explore the idea that there should be a ‘right to recovery’ enshrined in UK legislation through the UK signing up to the UN Human Rights Bill
  • Discover what the active ingredients for recovery are
  • Find out how to put theoretical ideas into practice in different work contexts: foster care;school; residential care; secure accommodation
  • Learn how to create psychological safety in schools that can benefit all children
  • Discover resources you can use in your practice

Find out more and book your place here.

How do the International Centre and the Therapeutic Care Journal Promote the Spirit of an International Community?

Monday 1 November 2021, 2pm – 3.30pm
Online via Zoom
An online event where you’ll be able to learn about the work of the International Centre, the Planned Environment Therapy Archives, the International Centre Research Group and the Therapeutic Care Journal.
Find out more and book your place here.

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