“Practitioners working directly with traumatized children need reflective practice that supports the development of emotional resilience, both for their own wellbeing, and because emotionally resilient staff are more able to remain empathic and thoughtful in challenging situations.”
A research paper recently published in the journal Residential Treatment for Children & Youth[1] highlights the importance of reflective practice for people working with children who have experienced trauma. It concludes that the key elements for implementing and sustaining a reflective culture that permeates the whole organisation are:
- Senior management commitment to and visible participation in regular reflective practice;
- Regular reflective supervision for in-house or external reflective practice and group supervision facilitators;
- A clear, trauma-informed theoretical underpinning for the reflective practice model chosen;
- Mandatory reflective practice attendance across the organization;
- Free, mandatory in-depth qualifying training for new employees with a strong, assessed reflective practice component; and
- A commitment to a reflective practice policy that is a “living” document open to change and adaptation following regular consultation with staff.
The researchers heard from staff at the Mulberry Bush children’s home and residential school which provides specialist therapeutic services to emotionally troubled children who’ve experienced complex trauma. Reflective practice at the Mulberry Bush is aimed to provide staff with a safe space in which to understand more about the emotional dynamics and feelings they are experiencing with the children or in their teams, to inform their practice and prevent malpractice. Reflective practice is facilitated through:
- Training for all new staff incorporating reflective practice modules and an ongoing student reflective group
- Regular, mandatory experiential group reflective practice for all staff
- Ad hoc reflective practice at transition and handover points and social spaces
The report describes how reflective practice supports the capacity of staff to simultaneously hold in mind and understand the thoughts, feelings, wishes and desires of both oneself and the children they work with: to examine “whose feelings am I feeling?” Reflective spaces gave staff the opportunity to apply concepts they had learned about to their practice and experiences. They also benefited from a culture of where they were encouraged to be both open to being challenged about their own practice and to offer challenge to their colleagues in the spirit of being a “critical friend”. They experienced this as supportive rather than punitive.
Staff appreciated the way the Mulberry Bush resourced regular reflective practice, provided a reflective space with no “agenda”, and impact on the depth and strengths of their relationships with colleagues. Examples of how this helped in their work included:
- Acceptance, support and gentle curiosity when being around a particular child was feeling too difficult;
- Support in exploring a feeling or “intuition” about a child, to work through to its source;
- Review and discussion after a demanding event or critical incident
- Encouragement to step back from a relationship that was potentially straying away from therapeutic working
- Validation and support for a plan for changing the way of working with a child.
I have experienced the power of reflective practice in services supporting young people who’ve experienced care, homelessness and trauma. In my experience it contributes to improved critical thinking and resilience among staff, reduces stress, promotes mutual support and learning among colleagues and contributes to improved practice.
Get in touch if you would like support to implement or improve reflective practice arrangements in your organisation, training or supervision for reflective practice facilitators, or someone to facilitate group reflective practice sessions.
[1] Heather Price, Joanne Brown, Jane Herd, and David Jones, “A Bit Like You’re Going to therapy”: Reflective Practice Provision at the Mulberry Bush School. Residential Treatment for Children & Youth, 40(4), 517–536 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/0886571X.2023.2205186?needAccess=true