Applying Trauma Informed Practice

In this module, we will reflect on how to build a therapeutic alliance with young people who have had adverse childhood experiences. We will be looking at how maltreatment can take many forms, including physical, emotional, psychological and neglect. The critical missing ingredient for these children is a nurturing experience, the absence of which will often lead to developmental impairment (Howe, 2009).

Many of these children have learned that caregivers neglect their physical and emotional needs and have an internal working model that presumes all adults are a threat. The Secure Base model offers a way of developing a mind-minded approach to rectify the child’s internal working model.

It is essential that traumatised children get the help they need to work through their trauma or they will continue to experience these neurological, developmental and psychological consequences, even when placed in a secure nurturing environment.