Moving, settling, belonging: recent research and clinical practice in Fostering and Adoption
Glasgow Conference: March 16 2018
I was delighted to present our research at this one day conference in Glasgow organised by Human Development Scotland. The conference drew in social workers, child psychotherapists and other professionals working in this field from all over Scotland even as far away as the Shetlands.
The conference revealed a wide range of practice when moving children from fostering to adoption and while some agencies had changed their practice so that the emotional experience of the children was centre stage and had set out a framework for contact with foster carers after the child had moved, others had not considered this.
In the reflective group I attended social workers spoke about the importance of working alongside child psychotherapists in order to benefit from a different perspective, and secondly the lack of a reflective space in supervision. So often procedure dominated over thinking about the emotional needs of the children.
Simon Cregeen, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist from Manchester gave a very moving paper on the need for adopted or looked after children to find a 'psychic home' in the minds of others and the emotional capacities required in their adoptive parents to provide this .
Mary Beek, Research Fellow at the University of East Anglia described the setting up and process of the Moving to Adoption Project ( a description of this project can be found here) . This practice development project is coming to an end in August and the results of the study will then be analysed.
Thank you for inviting us. It was a great day!
Glasgow Conference: March 16 2018
I was delighted to present our research at this one day conference in Glasgow organised by Human Development Scotland. The conference drew in social workers, child psychotherapists and other professionals working in this field from all over Scotland even as far away as the Shetlands.
The conference revealed a wide range of practice when moving children from fostering to adoption and while some agencies had changed their practice so that the emotional experience of the children was centre stage and had set out a framework for contact with foster carers after the child had moved, others had not considered this.
In the reflective group I attended social workers spoke about the importance of working alongside child psychotherapists in order to benefit from a different perspective, and secondly the lack of a reflective space in supervision. So often procedure dominated over thinking about the emotional needs of the children.
Simon Cregeen, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist from Manchester gave a very moving paper on the need for adopted or looked after children to find a 'psychic home' in the minds of others and the emotional capacities required in their adoptive parents to provide this .
Mary Beek, Research Fellow at the University of East Anglia described the setting up and process of the Moving to Adoption Project ( a description of this project can be found here) . This practice development project is coming to an end in August and the results of the study will then be analysed.
Thank you for inviting us. It was a great day!
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