Workshops (further details to be added as available)
Workshop
Play Therapy – practical workshop, Using play
to enhance attachments
This experiential workshop will allow
participants to explore how Stepping Stones
(Child Therapy Consultants) use play
therapeutically with families to enhance
attachment. The workshop will include case
studies to illustrate how these techniques are
used within a clinical and home setting. This
workshop will involve exploring techniques
which will assist adopters and professionals in
helping children to regulate feelings and
behaviours. Attachment theory and research
informed by the work of Daniel Hughes, Ann
Jernberg and Phyllis Booth and their model of
Theraplay® will be referenced, and additional
reading material provided. Theraplay® is an
approach used to produce healthy parent-child
interaction, it is structured, engaging in a lively
way, nurturing, and playfully challenging. Each
participant will receive a tool kit of resources for
future use.
Young people's needs in the criminal justice
system
Applying the Trauma Recovery Model
The Trauma Recovery Model (TRM) is an
attempt to bring together current
understanding about young offenders in order
to create an applied intervention strategy. It is a
composite model drawing on a range of
psychological and criminological approaches,
combining cognitive theories of
child/adolescent development, attachment
theory, desistence theory and understanding of
neurobiological development. The model was
developed for use within secure settings but the
latter stages were designed to aid the smooth
transition between custody and community,
allowing work in the community to build upon
that which has been achieved during
detention. This workshop will explore the
applicability of the model and discuss how this
can be achieved within existing service
provision.
Workshop Facilitators (additional
facilitators will be added)
Lisa Waycott and Clare Carbis, Stepping
Stones
Dr Patricia Skuse, Clinical Psychologist,
NHS Wales
Jonny Matthew, Hillside Secure Unit,
Swansea
Migration and Displacement
The migration experience threatens
attachment and in many instances it is of
unwanted separation and loss. When the host
country fails to provide a safe
haven and immigrants meet with post
migratory stressors, and inadequate systems of
support, the emotional and physical wellbeing
becomes at risk. In an unwelcoming
environment, there is the likelihood that the
individual is overcome by a sense of
dispossession and loss and this may be
expressed in a variety of ways.
For refugee children and young people,
attachment is both a prominent stressor and
mediator, and research alludes to the negative
impact of the migration experience, which is
compounded by a lack of acknowledgement in
policy and practice, of their status as children
first, migrant second. It is important that those
in the helping professions working with refugee
children recognise the importance of
attachments and utilise the UNCRC in promoting
emotional health and wellbeing and longer term
resilience.
In this workshop, participants will explore the
concept of attachment as it relates to children in
forced migration, and consider factors that
hinder and help children in their making sense
of, and settlement in their future lives. The
concept and applicability of attachment and
children’s rights will underpin this exploration.
Poverty and Deprivation
Bringing up children in poverty makes parenting
more difficult. Poverty threatens the physical
and emotional well-being of children, their
parents and carers, and family members. A
range of government initiatives are currently
being implemented to promote children’s wellbeing and ensure they fulfil their potential. This
workshop will explore the relationship between
secure attachment and poverty from a
children’s rights perspective. The workshop will
examine the relationship between children’s
rights to provision and practical intervention to
support disadvantaged families to improved
Dr. Tracey Maegusuku-Hewett,
Swansea University
Dr. Elaine Arnold, Separation and
Reunion Forum
Charlotte Drury, Attachment Network
Wales
Dr Simon Hoffman, Wales Observatory
on Human Rights of Children and Young
People
levels of well-being.
Participation and Attachment
Trudy Aspinwall will set out the legal framework
for the participation of children and young
people under the UN Convention on the Rights
of the Child and in domestic legislation, policy
and practice as it relates to Wales and in
particular to children in touch with children’s
services. Kathy Evans will build on Trudy’s
presentation to suggest a developmentally
appropriate model of participation in relation to
children and young people with attachment
difficulties. A joint case study exercise will
explore the issues of participation, best
interests, rights and best practice in relation to
children with attachment difficulties.
Adopted and Looked After Children: rights,
relationships and attachments
The workshop will look the challenges of ‘doing
families’ across childhoods marked by
nomadism, and at practical support for adoptive
and foster families to help them do the all
important work of building good attachment
relationships between children and parents. The
workshop will explore the question of whether
there is any potential clash between an
emphasis on rights and the relationship-based
ethic of care.
Research and rights in the family courts
In the workshop we will consider Professor
Harold's research with CAFCASS Cymru and how
the family courts receive and regard children's
rights and messages from research in their
decision-making.
Education, Schools and Learning
Article 28 of the United Nations Convention on
the Rights of a Child (UNCRC) states that every
child has a right to education and learning. The
majority of children are able to access and enjoy
this right by attending school. However each
child is totally unique and many come to school
with a range of diverse and often highly
complex circumstances which make it difficult
for them to access the learning opportunities
available for them.
Disability and Childhood Illness
Participants will be invited to consider poor
Trudy Aspinall, Save the Children
Kathy Evans, University of South Wales
Dr. Sally Holland, Reader in Social Work
at Cardiff University
Ann Bell, Manager for Adoption UK
Wales.
Alison Perry, Wales Observatory on
Human Rights of Children and Young
People
Professor Gordon Harold, University of
Leicester
Sarah Hooke, UNICEF
Linda Nicklin, Place 2 Be
Caro Archer, adoptive parent and
author on attachment
attachments as ‘hidden disabilities’ which must
be identified, alongside the more readily
recognisable disabilities and illnesses, in order
to meet the needs and fulfil the human rights of
our children and young people.
Discussion will include issues from birth through
to transition into adulthood in order to focus
participants’ minds on important developmental
areas, to challenge existing perceptions of
children and young people with disabilities and
ill-health, and to explore improvements to their
access to mainstream and specialist services
within the context of families.
Exploring the impact of physical punishment
and effective discipline in parenting
relationships.
In this workshop we will examine firstly the
exercise of parental disciplining of their children
within the context of children’s rights. This will
involve examining the thinking, research
support and policy position of the Children Are
Unbeatable Campaign.
Secondly we will examine the issue of setting
and maintaining boundaries within the context
of attachment relationships in families.
Developing toddlers, children and teenagers
need safe space in which to grow, explore and
establish their own identities. The type of
attachment relationship a child has with parents
or carers will strongly influence the quality of
this space. How boundaries are set and the
methods used to maintain them is a key part of
the parenting relationship and has longstanding
implications for the child’s future development.
In this workshop we will show how the
approaches and methods parents choose to
achieve this impacts on the attachment
relationship both immediately and as the child
matures and grows.
Children’s Right to Play, and Attachment
This workshop will explore children’s play as a
right and how play helps to develop attachment
to primary carers, significant others, peers and
place. All being well these attachments develop
naturally but we’ll also explore practical
examples to support play when life’s realities
Charlotte Drury, Attachment Network
Wales
Viv Laing, NSPCC
Menna Thomas, Barnardos Cymru
Wendy Russell, University of
Gloucestershire
Sarah Mutch, Caerphilly Flying Start
get in the way.
The Earliest Relationship- attachment and the
rights of the child
This workshop explores the fundamental and
profound importance of attachment on
development, and how Article 6 and other
relevant UNCRC articles address this.
In particular, the workshop examines:
-the effect of disordered attachment on neural
networks and emotional development and
subsequent legacies in childhood and
adulthood;
-child perspectives and experiences;
-models of prevention;
-risk factors;
-pan-Wales strategy development for
prevention underpinned by the UNCRC and
Guiding Principles.
Art Psychotherapy – practical workshop
At times, the use of words is not sufficient and
does not adequately express the complicated
feelings of psychological pain and emotional
discomfort that can result from poor
attachment and a lack of representation of
one’s rights. This workshop allows the
participants to explore an introduction to the
processes of Art Psychotherapy through art
materials as well as an opportunity to discuss
what may be understand to be the additional
benefits of working with both tactile and visual
responses in a boundaried and confidential
manner. No previous use of art materials or
understanding of Art Psychotherapy is
necessary, only a willingness to engage with the
materials supplied.
Dr Elspeth Webb, Cardiff University
Dr Aideen Naughton, Public Health
Wales
Helen Jury, University of South Wales