Welcome to Aspire

Dyadic Theraplay® is a child and family therapy for building and enhancing attachment, self-esteem, trust in others, and joyful engagement. Theraplay is therefore ideal for building bonds between resource parents (foster/adoptive parents) and their child and/or for parent-child relationships where there has been an attachment rupture, or where the parent/child has some difficulty with bonding due to their own additional needs e.g. physical mobility, mental health, communication disorder etc. It is based on the natural patterns of playful, healthy interaction between parent-child and is personal, physical, and fun. 

A number of our clinicians are Level 1 and Level 2 trained and in practicum to become Certified Theraplay Practitioners. Dr Day is a Certified Theraplay Practitioner, and certified trainer. 

The therapist guides the caregiver through interactions focused on four essential qualities found in parent-child relationships: Structure, Engagement, Nurture, and Challenge.  By creating an active, emotional connection between the child-caregiver, change occurs in the child's view of self as worthy and lovable and of relationships as positive and rewarding. The very act of engaging each other in this way helps the parent regulate the child’s behaviour and communicate love, joy, and safety to the child. It helps the child feel secure, cared for, connected and worthy, thus healing attachment trauma and resolving behaviours which challenge.

Theraplay can also be delivered as a group. Because Theraplay is play-based rather than language-based, it is an especially suitable treatment for anyone who struggles with social communication, has early levels of language development or cognitive impairment (such as dementia or intellectual disability). We offer Group Theraplay for neurodivergent children and adults to build connection, social engagement and emotional regulation.

See how Theraplay works https://www.youtube.com/user/TheraplayIn 

Disability Psychotherapy describes the use of psychological therapies in work with people with disabilities. It is used by people with intellectual disabilities, physical disabilities, and autism. 

Disability Psychotherapy is an adapted form of psychotherapy for people with disabilities and neurodevelopmental conditions, which adheres to a core ethos of respect for the individual, understanding that disability itself can be a form of trauma, that people with disabilities and cognitive impairments can have an intact emotional inner world, and that social and cultural context contributes to the experience of disability and impairment. Disability Psychotherapy draws from a broad range of therapeutic approaches and is creative and practical in its adaptation of these models to suit individual needs and make psychotherapy accessible. 

We currently offer a Disability Psychotherapy approach to a number of referral issues such as:

• Vulnerability and risk: Social safety, Relationship & Sexuality Education (RSE)
• Mental health difficulties
• Identity work

Disability Psychotherapy was founded by ground breaking clinicians, who formed the Institute of Psychotherapy and Disability, of which Dr Day is a member. Dr Day is fortunate enough to have been trained in institutions such as the Tavistock Clinic, where these ground breaking clinicians, such as Valerie Sinason, practiced and consulted. 

Intensive Interaction is an attachment-based approach to interacting and communicating with people who are at early stages of communication or development e.g those with profound and multiple disabilities and/or significant communication difficulties such as severe autism, dementia, or those who are pre-verbal. 

Since these clients are at an early stage of communication development, Intensive Interaction uses the 'Fundamentals of Communication' attainments such as: use and understanding of eye contact, facial expressions, vocalisations leading to speech, taking turns in exchanges of conversation, and the structure of conversation. This leads to learning to enjoy interactions with others, reduced isolation, human connection and reduced risk of behaviours which challenge.

Intensive Interaction can be taught to and used by all: parents/carers, support workers, teaching assistants, OT's, SALT's, PT's, anyone who works with this population.

Dr Day is a Certified Intensive Interaction Reflective Practitioner and an II Mentor/Trainer-in Training. For further information and to see videos of Intensive Interaction in action, see the Institute of Intensive Interaction website  www.intensiveinteraction.org

Dr Day uses her extensive experience of working with people with additional needs and/or communication difficulties to adapt and accommodate a range of psychological therapies, including CBT, DBT & trauma-focused therapies such as EMDR. In this way, an inclusive service with equal access to all can be developed.  Aspire aims to be inclusive and accessible in every way; whether that means physical access, or providing accessible information such as large print or Easy Read formats. We are always looking for ways to improve, please let us know if you have any suggestions and we will do our best to accommodate those.  

If you are an employer, educator, health provider, mental health professional, caregiver, or any other service provider; and would like consultation to adapt or accommodate your services for people with additional needs, contact Dr Day to discuss your requirements.  

Aspire runs various psychotherapeutic groups, all of which are licensed and copy righted, meaning that they are developed by experts in the field, with proven efficacy and effectiveness. It also means that the group materials are standardised and the group facilitators and/or supervisors are trained and supervised by the developer of the group, or are following a published manual and supervised by our consultants in order to ensure quality.

 Dyadic Developmental Practice is a model that brings together knowledge about developmental trauma, attachment, interpersonal neurobiology and child development.

DDP practice is an all encompassing approach that includes parenting and caring for children as well as the therapy. It helps the professionals understand, work together with and be effective in their support of children and their families.

DDP is a way of helping children and young people who have been adopted or fostered or live in kinship care, or residential homes. It can also help children who live with their biological parents if the home and parenting provided is now safe and nurturing, both emotionally and physically.  

At Aspire we also use DDP to help other parents and children who are struggling to connect due to neurodiversity (e.g. autism). DDP builds trust and safety in relationships, where connection and bonding may have been impacted.

Dan Hughes, a Clinical Psychologist, created Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) as a treatment for families with adopted or fostered children who had experienced neglect and abuse in their birth families and suffered from significant developmental trauma. Since neurodivergent children can be more vulnerable to developmental trauma, we find this approach extremely useful for the whole spectrum of neurodiversity. 

The therapist will ask to meet with just the parent for the first phase of the treatment. These sessions are to get to know you and ensure that parents are comfortable with the DDP parenting approach and to provide them with help to develop this further if necessary.

• Help you and your child talk about things that happen now
• Help you and your child make sense of his or her past experiences and how these might be linked to things that happen now
• Help your child understand and reduce the shame that may be underneath current behaviours, which originated in his or her traumatic past.
• Help your child to discover qualities of self that might elicit pride, not shame, and joy, not despair. This is done as your therapist helps you to discover these same qualities in your child that lie underneath his or her traumas and challenging, shame-based behaviours.
• Work with you to help your child be more aware of his or her thoughts, emotions and wishes as well as his or her possibly traumatic memories. This will be done slowly and only when the time is right
• Help you all work out the most helpful ways of you parenting your child
• Help you and your child build a narrative together that makes sense to all your family

 You may be invited to join a parenting group called FOUNDATIONS FOR ATTACHMENT©. The course is designed around three modules: understanding the challenges of parenting; therapeutic parenting and looking after yourself. It aims to teach parents the theory behind the DDP model, and help them to adopt the parenting attitude of PACE. We run this course for different parenting experiences such as foster/adoptive parents, biological parents and parents of neurodivergent children.

Key components:

• Didactic Approach
• Role-Play Demonstrations
• Interactive Exercises
• Group discussion
• Home-Work Tasks/Reflections
• Weekly Handouts

Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy

Central within DDP is PACE, a way of thinking which deepens the emotional connections in our relationship with others.

Playfulness brings enjoyment to the relationship. Acceptance creates psychological safety. When we curiously explore within a relationship we express a desire to know the other more deeply. Empathy communicates our curiosity and acceptance, as we recognize and respond to the other’s emotional experience. 

 Parents & Carers - DDP Network 

Neurofeedback training is increasingly applied as a therapeutic tool in a variety of disorders, with a growing scientific and clinical interest in the last two decades. 

Neurofeedback (NFB) is a form of brain training to improve functioning. Infra-Low Frequency (ILF) Neurofeedback is a type of neurofeedback that focuses on both higher frequency brain waves, as well as extremely low frequency brain waves. 

NFB is a safe, non-invasive and non-verbal approach. It works by engaging the brain’s own mechanisms of self-regulation. NFB is not about learning to relax. The client is instructed not to try and do anything beyond attending to the process.

Our brain can sometimes become stuck in hypervigilance, hyper-excitability, and/or dysregulation, and this is not by choice, but a consequence of events in our life. NFB does not suppress normal emotions, energy or creativity. Rather it opens possibilities for clients who are otherwise unable to reach their potential. 

Four to five EEG sensors are placed on the scalp to pick up brain wave activity that controls the feedback on the screen. Clients watch a video or play a video game that provides the brain with feedback on its performance. Because the feedback is embedded in either a movie or video game format and requires no conscious effort, it can be used with clients across the life span or who demonstrate little insight or even actively participate in the therapy.

All neurofeedback uses digital filters to analyze various frequency bands in the EEG.   Over many years and with improvements to the underlying technology, the clinician is able to deliver frequencies so low that the brain is simply allowed to track the ebb and flow of the actual signal. The clinical effects become observable more quickly at the lower frequencies, typically in a matter of minutes. They manifest initially as state shifts on the part of the trainee. The brain recruits the signal into its regulatory regime as an additional feedback loop. A continuous signal not only offers more information than the occasional discrete reward, but it also allows the brain to respond to the subtlety in the signal that gets suppressed in an operant conditioning design. By now it is quite clear that the brain benefits from access to subtleties in the signal. 

It is usually recommended for 20 sessions, 3 times a weeks 

NFB is pan-diagnostic because improved neural self-regulation impacts:

- Focus

- Sleep

- Mood

- Pain

- Emotional regulation

- Impulse control

- Energy

- Social awareness

- Anxiety

- ADD/ADHD

- Autism Spectrum Disorders 

- Cerebral Palsy

-  Depression

- Dissociative Disorder

- Dementia

- Epilepsy

- Learning disorders 

- OCD and Tourette's syndrome

- PTSD

- Pain

- PMS

- Migraines

- Movement disorder

- Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) 

- Stroke

- Substance abuse

- Violence

- Schizophrenia & Biopolar

MI is an Evidence-Based Intervention which aims to improve client engagement and accelerate behavioral change. It is a directive, client-centred counselling style for eliciting behaviour change by helping you to explore and resolve ambivalence. 

 - Building your self-confidence and trust in yourself. 

- Helping you to take responsibility for yourselves and your actions. 

- Lowering the chance of future relapse. 

- Preparing you to become more receptive to treatment. 

- Most importantly, showing you that you have the power to change your lives yourself.

 Originally, motivational interviewing was focused more on treating substance use disorders by preparing people to change addition-related behaviour. Over time, however, motivational interviewing has been found to be a useful intervention strategy in addressing other health behaviours and conditions such as:

- Diabetes control

- Diet

- Obesity prevention

- Physical activity

- Sexual behaviour

- Smoking

MBSR, short for Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, is an evidence-based program developed in the late 1970s by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. Initially designed to help chronically ill patients, MBSR has evolved into a widely practiced mindfulness training program, benefitting hundreds of thousands of individuals worldwide. It is a secular program grounded in medical and psychological research, making it accessible to people from all walks of life, irrespective of their religious beliefs.

MBSR equips participants with practical tools to enhance self-awareness, make informed decisions, and navigate life's challenges mindfully. By focusing on the present moment without judgment, MBSR has helped people to reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain. It offers a holistic approach that encompasses mindfulness meditation, body awareness, yoga, and self-exploration.

Scientific research conducted globally has consistently demonstrated the positive impact of MBSR on participants' lives. The potential benefits include:

• Stress reduction
• Improved management of physical symptoms
• Enhanced self-care practices
• Better coping with anxiety and depression
• Breaking  free from negative thought patterns and habits
• Mitigation  of burnout symptoms
• Greater  self-awareness, enabling proactive emotional responses
• A compassionate perspective on challenging thoughts and emotions
• Improved  overall well-being and a deeper connection to everyday life's simple pleasures

An MBSR course typically spans eight weeks and consists of a blend of weekly group meetings, a day-long mindfulness retreat, and daily homework assignments. These sessions incorporate various mindfulness practices, including body scans, sitting meditation, yoga, and loving-kindness meditation. Group discussions are vital, and it's essential to engage in the program under the guidance of a certified instructor.

MBSR offers a pathway to greater resilience, balance, and peace of mind, making it a valuable resource for those seeking to reduce stress and enhance their overall well-being. Whether you're dealing with chronic illness, daily stressors, or seeking personal growth, MBSR can be a transformative journey towards a more mindful and fulfilling life.

 Family Life isn’t always easy…  

• It can be complicated because everyone is unique. Each person thinks and talks about things in different ways, has different ideas, feelings, worries and strengths. 
• All kinds of changes can make family life more stressful such as – mental & physical ill health (such as eating disorders, chronic pain etc), unemployment, death, moving home, new family members, divorce & separation, family conflicts, adoption & fostering, and survivors of many other traumatic events. 
• Some families find ways to manage these changes and challenges and some families find it much harder for all kinds of reasons. 

•  ‘Family’ is used to describe any group of people who care about each other and call themselves ‘family’.   
• As well as parents and children of all ages, they may involve grandparents, uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters, friends, carers and other professionals. 
•  They include anyone who is important to the family 

Family Therapy can help families when they’re feeling overwhelmed, sad, angry; when they’re not sure what to do and feel ‘stuck’ in repeating patterns of hurtful or harmful behaviour. 

 Family Therapists: 

• Respect the importance of each person’s beliefs, culture and life experiences. 
• Encourage everyone in the family to talk about their experiences and to listen to each other. 
• Help families stop blaming each other understanding the impact words and actions have on each other. 
• Adapt their approach to suit ages, needs and preferences with each family.  
• Offer a mixture of individual, couples and family appointments. 
• Help family members understand and support each other. 
• Try to help everyone feel safe so they can talk about their difficult thoughts and feelings and understand each other’s experiences and views 
• Appreciate differences within families, build on family strengths, talk about individual and family hopes and goals 
• Work together to make useful and sustainable changes in their relationships and lives