Our Mission

T-Junction has a dual focus in the work it does with children and young people. On the one hand, we prioritise keeping children safe in all the ways that will enable them to become more resilient individuals, better able to learn themselves and construct their own identity as good human beings.  On the other hand, we prioritise creating an environment which has the relaxed feel of a warm family home where children and young people may, for example, have a hug from their parental figures when they need it and can participate in some of the decision-making. To that end we …..

Have a lot of conversations with children about their safety

Are super-observant about any shifts in children’s moods, and what they might need from us.

Recognise our ongoing need to make ourselves emotionally available to children in our care.

Ensure we establish good lines of communication with school and ask our young people about how their day has been.

Invite them to reflect with us on their thoughts & feelings – & the behaviours that result.

Try to establish what matters to them and why it matters.

Hold our young people in mind, even when off shift, confident in the knowledge that our mindfulness is a strong protective factor.

Psychotherapist
 
In our quest to ensure that all team members are continuously developing the insights and therapeutic toolkit to meet the needs of T-Junction’s children and young people, we recruited a psychotherapist.
 
 Our psychotherapist spent the first part of her career in teaching – working at universities, colleges, secondary schools and a young offenders’ institution. After twenty-eight years in the profession she left her post as an academic head of department and school counsellor and set up her own counselling and training practice. After four years she was invited to become the Director of Therapy and Support Services at a large fostering organisation and she did this for ten years before resigning to do more freelance work. She currently specialises in training teachers about the impact of attachment and trauma on children’s behaviour and learning and delivers webinars and face-to-face training for a range of local authorities and organisations. She is a graduate of Durham and Edinburgh Universities and has an MSc from London University in Counselling with a particular focus on psychodynamic work with adolescents.
 
As well as her counselling qualifications she is an experienced dyadic developmental psychotherapist, having trained with Dan Hughes in USA over a four-year period and she holds the DDP advanced diploma. She is married with two birth children and many more foster children, having fostered over a twenty-seven year period. She has both foster grandchildren and birth grandchildren. Each home has a whole day of two-monthly clinical supervision with our psychotherapist where we examine in depth the behaviours we have observed in the intervening period with each of our children, and make sense of them. The strategies that we discuss then inform the work that we do with a child in our care on a day-to-day basis. Every member of staff also attends obligatory training on attachment and trauma as well as on PACE, to help them to develop the therapeutic toolkit so essential to the work that we do.
 
Play Therapist
 
In our quest to build our young people’s ability to develop healthy and resilient relationships, and to work though traumatic experiences which may be troubling them along with wanting to further support the adults with their PACE approach we recruited a play therapist
 
Our Play Therapist spent the first part of her career in a school, working as a teaching assistant where she worked with a number of children with different needs. She has completed some Play Therapy hours with Primary aged children individually and in groups. She is a graduate of De Montfort Hall and Leeds Beckett Universities. She has a BA of Educational Studies with Psychology and a Diploma of Play Therapy. As children can struggle to express themselves using words, Play Therapy gives them a chance to do this through play, as playing is a child’s language. In Play Therapy sessions a child has a number of mediums such as sand, water, puppets, arts and crafts, books, musical instrumentals and objects to use to express themselves. Our goal for children is for them to develop an understanding of their own feelings and where they came from, in a safe space. Play Therapy has a number of benefits for children, they can develop coping strategies, learn stronger social skills, learn how to express their feelings, learn empathy and respect and lots more. Playing is the brains favourite way of learning!
 
Clinical Psychologist
 
In our quest to build our young people’s ability to develop healthy and resilient relationships, and to work though traumatic experiences which may be troubling them along with wanting to further support the adults in their work we recruited a Clinical Psychologist. “a Chartered Clinical Psychologist with more than 15 years’ experience of supporting people with their mental health. I have worked across a wide range of services, including the NHS, local authority, and private sector organisations. I specialise in child and family work and have a special interest in attachment and developmental trauma, and neurodiversity. I am passionate about understanding young people in the context of their experiences (past and present) and working closely alongside families and other professionals to develop a shared understanding of the young people they support. I take an eclectic approach to my work and draw upon principles from a range of different psychological theories and models. This allows me to tailor my support and intervention to the needs of the individual and/or group. I am trained in DDP (Dyadic Developmental Psychology) and draw upon this, and other approaches in my work with families and organisations. I have a passion for teaching and training and enjoy working collaboratively with other professionals to better understand and meet childrens’ needs. Having worked for a national children’s residential care provider, I have experience in supporting staff and organisations develop a trauma informed approach to care. I work closely with a number of organisations, including schools (mainstream and specialist), local authorities and social care, providing consultation, training, and regular supervision for staff.”

Testimonials

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