When Great Trees Fall: Culturally Affirming Care of Children and Young People from Diverse Backgrounds who are Experiencing Separation and Loss

With Chichi Okoli, Care Experienced 3^rd Level Student, and Christina Enright, Psychotherapist and Attachment Specialist

Tuesday 10th November, 7.30pm to 8.30pm

Online via Zoom

For Foster Carers and practitioners throughout the country

To Book You Place: email Katherine on learning@ifca.ie

Overview:

“Great souls die and our reality, bound to them, takes leave of us.

Our souls, dependent upon their nurture, now shrink, wizened.

Our minds, formed and informed by their radiance, fall away……..

……..And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly.

Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration.

Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us.

They existed. They existed.

We can be. Be and be better. For they existed”

from When Great Trees Fall by Maya Angelou

Overview:

In conversation with Christina Enright, Chichi Okoli, a care experienced third level student of South African and Nigerian heritage, will reflect on her experience of grief and loss while in the care system. Together they will explore cultural issues in grief and loss and how we, in fostering and care system, can better understand and be more sensitive to cultural differences around grief and loss. They will consider the conversations foster carers and practitioners can have with children whose parents are chronically ill and whose health difficulties mean that they cannot care for their children. They will consider the kinds of responses that are culturally affirming and so more supportive of children from diverse cultures as they grieve and navigate the challenges of separation and loss in care.

About Chichi Okoli

Chichi is a care experienced third level student of South African and Nigerian heritage. She is currently studying for the Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and French at the University of Limerick. Chichi has volunteered with various local organisations such as the Access Campus, Swap’N’Serve, and the Be Mindful programme at UL. She is currently working on a research project on cultural competency within society and in the foster care system as she spent the earlier years of her life in foster care. Chichi wishes to advocate for children within the foster care system and especially those from migrant backgrounds. Chichi’s research interests include race, racisms, and the foster care system. She plans to complete a Master’s in Social Work and continue to do research which will help contribute to cultural literacy studies within Ireland.

About Christina Enright

RN, BSc Psychology, Dip in Family Therapy, MA Child Psychotherapy, Dip Clinical Supervision. Over the past 20 years, Christina has worked as a psychotherapist with traumatised children, adolescents, and birth parents as well as with foster carers and adoptive parents. Her experience includes the development of a multidisciplinary clinical service for families experiencing trauma and attachment problems who were reluctant to engage with main-stream social care and mental health services. From 2015-2017 Christina provided trauma consultancy to the clinical team developing a children’s service within the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in the UK.

Christina’s special interest is in early childhood development and the impact of trauma on a child’s developing capacities, functioning and behaviour. From her experience working with children who have endured developmental trauma characterised by neglect and abuse, she has found it necessary to use a comprehensive integrated approach in order to address the multiple complexities which such children present with. Christina returned to live in Ireland in 2016 and currently works as a Developmental Trauma and Attachment specialist providing training, assessment and clinical interventions on behalf of Tusla Child and Family Agency and in independent practice with birth and adoptive families. She also delivers training on child development, trauma and attachment both within the NHS and other education and social care systems across the UK and Ireland.