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 In a residential setting like ours much of the “therapy” takes place within, and arises from, the spontaneous activities and shared experiences of everyday life and education within the home/ school. Therapeutic Crisis Intervention teaches staff how to maximise the frequency of therapeutic opportunities and how to exploit them more effectively when they do arise. We aim to process all major learning opportunities that arise in the course of the day to help the child to learn more effective coping strategies.
In addition we build counselling and individual therapy into the routine school timetable. We do not however usually refer to it as “therapy” but rather “supervision.” Few of our children have positive expectations of traditional counselling or psychotherapy when they first arrive. Indeed, most reject out of hand what they see as attempts to “get inside my head”.
At Da Capo children quickly discover that all staff have (and appear to value) regular supervision with the Directors in addition to their routine supervision with Registered Managers.
The children learn that this additional supervision with the Directors provides staff with a direct link to the Directors so that they can take up any concerns, worries, problems or grievances. They learn that staff are encouraged to use the Directors as resources - as tutors, trainers, coaches and counsellors and mentors in order to maintain and develop resilience,coping resources, skills and strategies.
In addition most of our children enjoy “supervision” with the Directors. Most enjoy the being the centre of attention, having somebody really listen with keen interest in them, their views, thoughts, feelings and opinions. Most enjoy the playfulappraoch the Directors take, their stories and flights of fancy. The children are encouraged to see their imagination and playfulness as a resource and rich source of solutions, comfort and even (whwn appropriate) distraction.
An Individual Supervision and Support Agreement is negotiated and signed by the child, their parents, corporate parents and the relevant Director. Issues such as frequency, location, who should attend in addition to the child and Director, outcomes to be achieved, techniques and approaches to be included are covered in the agreement.
The Directors have a range of qualifications as supervisors, coaches and therapists :
Chris is a qualified Social Worker [Dip SW], counsellor [Cert Couns.] and residential childcare manager [Dip. ACM.], TCI trainer, NVQ Assessor and Internal Verifier.
John is a qualified and widely experienced Social Worker [CQSW; M.Sc. in Social Services Management], NCH and UKCHO Registered Cognitive Hypnotherapist [H.P.D.; Dip C.Hyp; MNCH (Reg)],CNHC Registered Complementary natural Helthcare Practitioner, NLP Master Practitioner and NVQ Assessor.
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