The Haven Play Therapy

23/09/2024

Thank you PDA Society this looks great 😊

If you're a parent or carer of a PDA child, this 8-week course will deepen your knowledge and help you feel more confident supporting your child and advocating for their needs: https://ow.ly/7xjJ50TrPrP

The course combines self-paced learning with live sessions online, giving you the opportunity to connect with other parents and carers on a similar journey.

Live sessions will run on a Monday evening at 7pm - 9.30pm. For any questions we welcome you to get in touch at training.support@pdasociety.org.uk.

We also offer a parent/carer 5 hr subsidised course for £45 please visit our training pages for all courses for parents and carers.



*EDITED update* Our training helps us to fund all of our free information and support and we are committed to continuing to offer this support for free.

If the cost of this course would prevent you from accessing our training due to financial circumstances, please contact the training team for assistance. training.support@pdasociety.org.uk

Our support service is always available for free to everyone - I've put a link to ask for help in the comments.

10/09/2024

If you’re based near Guildford, Surrey I’m sure this will be useful in sharing ideas and ways to support siblings of children with additional needs.

09/08/2024

Please see really helpful guidance to support children through the distressing and troubling events in the last 2 weeks. Helpful advice for adults and professionals in how to best support children expressing worries or fear about events they have witnessed or been exposed to.

10/06/2024

Meet Buddy.
He is animal assisted therapy trained 😊

10/06/2024

I am hoping to run some nurture sessions around relationship building and creativity for children who are currently struggling to attend school, due to anxiety. This will be from September 2024.
These will not be play therapy sessions but a therapeutic space for a small group of children to feel safe and valued in a low demand environment.
These will be run on Tuesdays in Guildford.
If you have any thoughts or feedback on what might benefit your child please contact me.
I am hoping my animal assisted therapy dog Buddy will also attend 🐶

07/04/2023

Such a brilliant post describing the crisis brilliantly. So many children out of school, struggling to stay in education. They have changed, the world has changed but the system has not. These children and families need our support.

Ghost Children (with Missing The Mark)

What about the ghost children? The newspapers are full of them. The radio is discussing them. These apparitions who have apparently disappeared from our schools. Invisible children, calling us for help, tapping on the windows and wailing at night.

These children are terribly at risk, we’re being told. They may be being abused, being neglected, they may be dealing drugs or being radicalised. They must get back into school – where apparently, they can become real children again. They’ll get their bodies back. The risks will be over, back in the safety of school. Phew, we can all breathe out. School will work its magic.

It’s a gripping story. No wonder it’s all around us.

Except it’s not true. No children have disappeared. They are not drifting round the village green, or haunting the multi-storey car park. They are mostly at home, with their parents. They are known to GPs, to their local communities, to their relatives – but they can’t return to school.

In many cases, their parents would like them to be at school and in every case, their parents would like them to be receiving an education. Parents want help, but when they ask for it, they are told that their child’s difficulties don’t meet threshold. They are told that what’s required is ‘tough love’. They’re told it’s up to them, and some of them are given fines or threatened with court. There’s no talk of ghosts then. The demand letters are real.

Covid changed many things for ever. Many more adults now work from home. Events have been ‘blended’. Attending online is so much the norm that when I’ve run in-person events I’ve had people cancel at the last minute because they had thought it would be virtual. In the adult world, flexibility has become a standard.

Not so in education. It’s back to bums on seats. Improving attendance has become a stick for schools and families. We’ve ignored the many social and emotional ways in which covid affected our young people. It’s ‘get them in at all costs’ – and the costs are clear to see. Our children are showing us that this doesn’t work, that they need more than ‘back to normal’. School doesn’t feel safe to all children. Being in the school building isn’t enough for a child to be learning.

Parents tell me that they are faced with ghost services when they look for help. Years-long waiting lists where CAMHS used to be. They are told ‘We used to have someone to help with this, but they’ve been cut’. They ask for flexibility and are told that isn’t possible anymore. They ask for ways to help their children but they’re told that there’s no money for that. Instead of support, they get threatening letters.

There are no ghost children. There are children who need something different to what is being offered. They need help before they are in crisis. They need opportunities, not sanctions. They need flexibility, safety and relationships. They need adults who will help them learn, where ever they are. They won’t get that whilst we talk about them as if they don’t exist. As if their very bodily reality depends on them being in a classroom.

Say it loud for those at the back. Ghosts don’t exist.
Children don’t need school to make them real.