Group Program
The TtLG program offers a weekly therapeutic group for a small number of participants (up to seven) facilitated by a clinician and an “early childhood educator” in partnership from that specific child care centre.
The group processes support participants to examine themselves and explore their parenting and relationships with their child in a safe secure, holding environment.
The group program sessions are two hours duration run over a period of 18 weeks. The children are in child care while the group is running. Ability to attend the weekly group sessions is an essential criterion for inclusion in TtLG. The group program is a combination of structured activities, information, discussion and processing of video.
A videotape of each participant interacting with their child is taken by the clinician during 1:1 counseling meetings and utilized during the group program in later weeks.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->To provide support to participants in a safe comfortable environment enabling them to express their feelings, experiences, difficulties, ideas and aspirations relating to their parenting.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->To facilitate linking with others to decreasing social isolation.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->To educate, by providing and sharing knowledge/information, and opportunity for participants to contribute through discussion, exploration and reflection. Participants gain greater insight into the issues that impact on their parenting and become familiar with attachment and Circle of Security concepts, being able to apply these concepts when faced by challenges.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->To increase participants’ level of confidence in the parenting ability.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->To promote self-awareness and personal growth by supporting and encouraging participants to observe themselves and others involving exploration, reflection and active participation in activities. This increases participants ability to recognize and respond to their child’s cues and become more perceptive, having greater empathy for their children.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->To value their role as parents through seeing themselves through their child’s eyes, and to increase their realization and valuing of their importance to their children.
THE GROUP PROGRAMME
Weeks 1 & 2 of the program are focused on building a safe, comfortable and secure place for participants by building trust. This is done by setting some boundaries for group functioning being group norms, goals and setting the scene for the coming weeks.
Weeks 3-10 of the program introduces the theoretical concepts of attachment, secure base, identification of childrens cues, the 'Circle of Security' and 'Circle of Repair' graphics. It includes viewing support videos and sharing information, experiences, observations and reflections. Several activities are introduced that support participants experiencing the concepts together followed by facilitated discussion.
Weeks 11-17 focus on viewing short vignettes of participant interactions with their child. Each week a different participants vignette is viewed. All participants participate in the reflection processes. These provide the focus for exploration, discussion, reflection and learning with an emphasis on the strengths and positive intentions of the parent. Participants share their feelings and thoughts and relate the observation of the vignette to the 'circle of security' graphic.
Weeks 17-18 focus on reviewing the concepts and learning from the group program and supports the linking and connection to the broader community for further support. A formal celebration and recognition of their success. Participants share the experience of their journey so far, their learning and discovery.
VIDEO WORK
The video taping and discussion is an opportunity to explore in partnership the interaction between parent and child and share the intimacy of the experience. The clinician provides a safe holding environment in which the parent can explore feelings, beliefs, memories and experiences to better understand the relationship.
Videotaping gives parents a chance to develop their observational skills a chance to witness and reflect on their interactions with their child/ren in order to develop their capacities as sensitive caregivers.
Videotaping provides a focus on the parent child relationships, highlights the parents capacity and is a record of the interaction that can be viewed several times offering an opportunity for the parent to see the behaviours the child uses to communicate need. It also provides an opportunity to reflect on what they see, what they are feeling, and what they are doing.
Through exploration participants begin to understand and gain new insights into how their relationship history and feelings influence their attitudes and expectations of their child and hence their relationship. The opportunity to reflect on this, imagining themselves in the childs place provides a unique opportunity to empathize with their child. This experience allows the parent to identify with their own experience of being parented as well as the experience of their own child of their parenting and the feelings that are associated with it.