Supporting Carers: Foster and Kinship Carers and Adoptive Parents
Looking after children who have experienced early trauma, abuse and neglect can be rewarding, but inevitably, testing at times and relationships in the foster and adoptive family can come under considerable strain. Sometimes, looked-after and adopted children can relate to carers and families in ways that are repetitions of patterns rooted in earlier abusive and neglectful situations.
Carers and adoptive parents who are often on the receiving end of these ways of relating can have powerful emotions evoked in them, which are unfamiliar and disturbing, and they feel confused by their responses towards the child.
I offer therapeutic consultation and supervision to carers and adoptive parents to support and help them make sense of behaviours and emotional states.
Reflecting upon the meaning and impact of these behaviours and interactions can help the carer understand, contain, and best manage the children in their care. Having space for the carer to understand these complex dynamics can also help prevent placement breakdown and carer burnout.