IFCA training course for foster carers and practitioners in Counties Cavan and Monaghan

Understanding Attachment Trauma and Ways to Help Children in Foster Care to Recover and Develop Greater Internal Safety and Security

A 2-part course with Christina Enright, in association with Tusla

Session 1: Friday 23rd of October, 10am to 12.30pm

Session 2: Friday 6th November, 10am to 12.30pm

Venue: Errigal Country House Hotel, Cavan Rd, Errigal, Cootehill, Co. Cavan, H16 KX07

To Book Your Place: Email Katherine at learning@ifca.ie

Course Overview:

Child-parent attachment has become the most researched child development theory in history and tells us about the importance of relatively secure attachments for a child to develop well physically, cognitively, socially and emotionally into adulthood. This course presents what is known from research about child-parent attachment, what can go wrong and how children can develop secure attachments at any stage of development provided the ideal conditions of safety and security are provided by carers. This training will focus on building attachments with babies, children and adolescents.

Learning Outcomes – Session 1:

• The essential conditions within a child parent relationship for a sufficient degree of secure attachment to develop.
• What happens when parents are unavailable through neglect- the impact on a child’s cognitive, emotional and social development.
• How children develop attachment strategies in order to ensure their survival and how they become wired into the nervous system.
• How sensory regulation is impaired by attachment trauma.
• The difference between raising a child with a secure attachment and a child who has been hurt, harmed and is carrying the lack of trust and all of the complex feelings in relation to this.
• How do we help children to revise and let go of these strategies so that they can accept and take in the love and care that foster carers want to provide.
• Co-regulation and recovery from attachment trauma.
• The importance of understanding the link between our own attachment experiences and what comes up for us in a parenting role.

Learning Outcomes – Session 2:

• Understanding the attachment needs of teenagers and how to respond during this unique developmental stage.
• Responding to a child who is resisting closeness and intimacy or a child who is relentlessly clinging in fear.
• Practical ways of providing nurture and care to support healing and recovery from attachment trauma.
• The use of play as a way of building connection, trust and meeting unmet developmental needs.
• The importance of sensory regulation approaches for traumatised children and practical tools to provide this for the child.

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 children, adolescents and adults. Living and working in the UK until 2016, her experience includes setting up psychotherapy services in schools and the development of a multidisciplinary clinical service for families experiencing trauma 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.

Her specialist interest is in early childhood development and the impact of trauma on a child’s developing capacities, functioning and behaviour. Through her work with children and adults who have experienced developmental trauma characterised by neglect and abuse, she has found that a comprehensive, integrated approach is essential in order to address the complex therapeutic needs that these clients present. Whilst always holding the therapeutic relationship at the centre of her approach, Christina has undergone training in several therapeutic modalities over the years to bring a flexible approach to her trauma work.

Christina returned to live in Ireland in 2016 and currently works as a Developmental Trauma and Attachment specialist providing training, assessment and clinical consultation and intervention on behalf of Tusla Child and Family Agency. She also runs an independent practice where she sees children, adolescents and adults.

In addition, she delivers training on child development, trauma and attachment within the health service, education and social care systems in the UK and Ireland.