Conventional parenting is not adequate to address the needs of children whose emotional development has been frozen, distorted or interrupted as a result of trauma. Therapeutic parenting is a psychodynamic model of parenting tailored for traumatized children, providing a safe, secure environment in which the traumatized child will have the best opportunity to recover.Living Alongside a Child's Recovery asserts that a good understanding of child development and attachment theory is essential to effective therapeutic parenting of a traumatized child, and the book details the roots of trauma as well as the impact this has on a child's ability to maintain normal family bonds, whether with birth parents, foster parents or with staff in a residential setting. It also explains the practicalities of carrying out effective therapeutic parenting, including how to design a therapeutic physical environment, the importance of routine and security, how to approach issues of hygiene and organizing mealtimes. The authors examine individual and group work settings, and also explore transitions; how to manage a child's move to a permanent placement while at the same time ensuring that their needs are prioritized.This book forms part of SACCS' integrated approach and is an ideal accompaniment to The Child's Own Story: Life Story Work with Traumatized Children by Richard Rose and Terry Philpot and Reaching the Vulnerable Child: Therapy With Traumatized Children by Janie Rymaszewska and Terry Philpot, both of which also feature in the Delivering Recovery series.
