Training with Us
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Specialist therapeutic training from a relational and developmental trauma perspective: Supporting professionals working with care experienced children, young people and adults.
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COURSES:
DDP Refresher and Supervision Group
Course price: £80
Friday 24 July 2026 | Presented by Dr Jess Christopher
Friday 25 September 2026 | Presented by Dr Jess Christopher
Friday 16 October 2026 | Presented by Dr Jess Christopher
Friday 13 November 2026 | Presented by Dr Jess Christopher
Friday 11 December 2026 | Presented by Dr Jess Christopher
Friday 15 January 2027 | Presented by Dr Jess Christopher
Friday 12 February 2027 | Presented by Dr Jess Christopher
We are now providing DDP supervision groups for social workers and
therapists who are using a DDP approach in their work.
Dr. Jess Christopher is a Clinical Psychologist and Certified DDP
Consultant, with over 20 years’ experience working with care-experienced
children and young people, in health and social care.
Dr Jess Christopher will be providing DDP supervision, support, and
refresher. These sessions are aimed at those who have undertaken DDP
training and are incorporating DDP principles into their practice.
At any stage of the DDP journey, regularly reviewing the model and
practicing skills can be valuable. It is hoped that these sessions will build
on DDP training, further deepening DDP skills and understanding, and
support the DDP approach to become part of everyday therapeutic
interactions.
For more information please click here
A New Way to Care: Transforming Residential Care with DDP
Course price: £240
Recording | Presented by Edwina Grant, Kim Golding & George Thompson
Recordings available to purchase. Have access to this conference at a time that suits you!
Discover how Dyadic Developmental Practice (DDP) - a proven, relationship-based therapeutic approach - can bring real, lasting change to your services and the young people in residential care.
Learn from experienced residential care leaders, who have implemented DDP in the UK and USA, about the obstacles they've faced - and the creative, compassionate solutions that have worked.
Hear directly from young people about how DDP made a difference in their lives, and what safe, trusting care feels like.
Find out how managers and staff teams have been supported, strengthened and re-energised through adopting a DDP approach.
Explore vital topics like recruitment, staff wellbeing and leadership - because supporting your team well is the key to supporting children well.
For more information please click here.
Therapeutic Social Work
Course price: £1900
Starts 17-18 September 2026 | Presented by Dr Karen Treisman & Joanne Alper
This 8 day modular programme is for Social Workers interested in working therapeutically with families supporting children with relational trauma and attachment difficulties.
For further information and individual dates please click here
Staying Relational and Emotionally Healthy when Working with and Supporting Young People who have Experienced Developmental and Relational Trauma
Course price: £160
23rd September 2026 | Presented by Dr Karen Treisman
Working with children and young people who have experienced trauma is profound, meaningful, and often deeply human work. But it’s also work that can stir our own emotions, beliefs, past experiences, and sense of self. Whether you’re a foster carer, adopter, residential worker, or youth worker, this training explores how the pain, hope, and complexity of others can tap into our own ‘stuff’, sometimes in quiet ways, sometimes like a crashing wave. Using a mix of metaphor, real-world examples, practical tools, and reflection, this session offers you the chance to pause, recalibrate, and deepen your awareness, so that you can stay present and compassionate without becoming submerged.
For more information click here
Theraplay Level One
Course price: £990
7-8 & 21-22nd October 2026 | Presented by Fiona Peacock
This four day training workshop is for qualified professionals who wish to undertake training on child/family counselling and attachment therapy.
Theraplay is short term play therapy for children and their carers with the goals of enhancing adult-child relationships and resolving behaviour problems.
For more information please click here
Understanding FASD and Developmental Trauma: Supporting Children with Complex Needs
Course price: £160
16 October 2026 | Presented by Dr Jacqueline Lynch
This course will look at the symptoms of FASD, trauma and attachment disorder. It will focus on the how to distinguish FASD in children and young people and the emotional and behavioural impact this condition has on them especially alongside attachment disorder. It will also cover research into what has and has not been helpful for children/families with FASD, and therapeutic strategies that may be more beneficial.
For more information click here
Facilitator Training: Foundations for Attachments and Nurturing Attachments Group Programmes
Course price: £840
2 - 4 November 2026 | Presented by Dr Kim Golding - Fully Booked
This train the trainers programme provides delegates with training that will equip them to deliver the Foundations for Attachments and the Nurturing Attachments Group Work programmes with parents and carers parenting children who are living away from their birth parents e.g. foster carers, adopters, residential workers and kinship carers.
For more information please click here
DDP Level One
Course price: £920
10 - 13th November 2026 | Presented by Dr Vicky Sutton
This four day training introduces DDP and the broader framework of Dyadic Developmental Practice within which the therapy is applied. The core components of DDP will be presented and explored through discussion and experiential exercises.
For more information please click here
Therapeutic Life Story Work
Course price: £295
18th & 25th November 2026 | Presented by Katie Wrench
This 2 day course aims to provide participants with a 3 stage framework for practice together with direct work tools and techniques to undertake this important work with young people. We are delighted to be hosting Katie Wrench, a nationally renowned life story expert and author to guide you through a range of practical and creative resources that will help you in this task.
For more information, please click here.
Group Theraplay
Course price: £240
26th November 2026 | Presented by Jo Williams
The Theraplay approach can very quickly and dramatically improve the quality of the classroom or other group setting and provide teachers, counsellors and therapists with resources to maintain an emotionally positive and cognitively enriched environment.
This 1 day course is suitable for Residential Care Workers, Social Workers, Teachers and Learning Support Assistants who have attended the 4 day Level 1 Theraplay training.
For more information click here
Neurodiversity, Maltreatment and DSED/RAD
Course price: £160
2 December 2026 | Presented by Professor Helen Minnis & Dr Claire Davidson-Jamieson
The course is about the trauma and stressor related disorders of childhood, known as Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) and Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder (DSED). These are disorders thought to be ‘caused’ by maltreatment (abuse and neglect). We will start from a grounding in attachment, and you will learn how attachment is important and related. However, you will also learn the ways in which these childhood disorders are about more than attachment and why a broader range of needs must be considered, particularly in the case of DSED. We will also consider what it means to be neurodivergent and the challenges that some young people can face, as a result. This training will cover trauma and neurodiversity, including what we know about neurodiversity and maltreatment. And importantly, we will consider the complex overlap between neurodiversity, maltreatment and DSED/RAD. We will think about these in terms of why identification and differentiation can be important and end with why we need to be holistic in our thinking and our support.
For more information click here
An Introduction to Internal Family Systems
Course price: £160
12 November 2025 | Presented by Sue Smith - Fully Booked
This one-day workshop will give a grounding in the Internal Family Systems Model (IFS). IFS therapy was developed by Richard Schwartz in the USA in the 1980’s and is now rapidly spreading across the world. IFS is used as a gentle, respectful, and powerfully transformative model of psychotherapy. It is also used by professionals in a wide range of settings as a clear and empowering framework with which to understand and compassionately relate to ourselves, to other people, and to wider systems, families, organisations etc, of which we are all a part.
At it’s most basic IFS is based on the principle of multiplicity, that we all have many different parts of us, which is a good thing. However, due to trauma, attachment wounds and neglect, these parts can get locked into extreme roles and negative cycles within our own psyche and in relation to our interactions with other people.
For more information click here
Bespoke DDP Level One for Children's Residential Care
Course price: £920
27-28 November & 2-3 December 2025 | Presented by Dr Vicky Sutton - Fully Booked
This therapeutic course takes into consideration the unique and specific needs of those working within children’s residential care. Our bespoke course is focused on Dyadic Developmental Practice (DDP) a powerful therapeutic approach designed for children who have experienced developmental and relational loss and trauma. This course has been designed specifically for those working in children’s residential care; to help them navigate the challenges they face and offer the best possible support to children and young people. Our training is led by Dr Vicky Sutton, a DDP accredited Clinical Psychologist with extensive residential care experience.
For more information click here
Theraplay Level One
Course price: £950
20-21 November & 4-5 December 2025 | Presented by Dr Fiona Peacock - Fully Booked
This four day training workshop is for qualified professionals who wish to undertake training on child/family counselling and attachment therapy.
Theraplay is short term play therapy for children and their carers with the goals of enhancing adult-child relationships and resolving behaviour problems.
For more information please click here
Support for Adopted and Fostered Children and Young People with Autism and ADHD
Course price: £90
18 September 2025 | Presented by Dr Dora Whittuck - Fully Booked
As a society we are thinking about neurodivergence more than we ever have. This training provides an opportunity to gain an overview of the key issues, opportunities and challenges that face parents and carers when we try to navigate this complex territory of autism and ADHD. This session will give you a comprehensive overview of the knowledge and tools to support, empower, and advocate for neurodivergent children and young people who have experiences of adoption, fostering and care. We’ll think together about the overlap between neurodivergence and trauma, along with exploring routes to diagnosis. We’ll also spend time talking about the support we need as parents and carers, and where we can find communities of shared experience. The training will centre on autism and ADHD, as opposed to other areas of neurodivergence such intellectual disability, dyslexia and dyspraxia.
For more information please click here
Violence and Aggression in Children and Young People & its links with Sexual and other Addictive Behaviours
Course price: £150
13 September 2024 | Presented by Dr Graham Music - Fully booked
This course explores how and why some children and young people become reactive and even violent. We will look at the roots of antisocial behaviour, and in that process we will think about different kinds of aggression. We will then also make some links between these issues and other addictive behaviours such as sexual addictions and addictive online behaviours.
For more information click here
Emotional Regulation - Creative Ideas and Tools
Course price: £150
22 January 2025 | Presented by Dr Karen Treisman - Fully booked
This workshop is facilitated by award winning psychologist and bestselling author Dr Karen Treisman. She will present some creative, physical, sensory, and cognitive emotional regulation tips and tools which can be used and transferred to work with children, adults, and parents, including for our own regulation and wellbeing. This will include some of the tools from her bestselling creations; Presley the Pug, The Therapeutic Treasure Box, and the Therapeutic treasure deck of cards. We will learn breathing tools and techniques, sensory ideas, creative extensions of the safe place exercise, grounding, and the use of sensory boxes and much more.
For more information click here
Resparking - Working with Shut-down and Deactivated States
Course price: £150
7 February 2025 | Presented by Dr Graham Music - Fully booked
This day will focus on emotionally hard to reach children who seem more shut-down. The day will have two parts, each focusing on different presentations of deactivated states. The first will look at the profound effects of neglect rather than overt trauma. We will look at what the effects are of neglect on the brain, the nervous system and how clients present, as well as the challenges of staying psychologically alive and interested in their presence and drawing them into life. Clinical examples will be presented and, time allowing, some discussion of case examples Part two will look more at shut-down after overt trauma, and dissociation, and how this leads to different bodily states in patient and therapist. Again implications for our practice will be elaborated on, such as the need for a more careful and embodied practice. Such dissociative forms of shut-down will be differentiated from another form of shut-down, that which is seen in forms of depression and learned helplessness which again requires different approaches.
For more information click here
Supporting Young People who Self-harm and have Suicidal Thoughts, through a DDP and a Trauma-informed Parts Work Approach
Course price: £180
7 March 2025 | Presented by Dr Vicky Sutton - Fully booked
This workshop integrates Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) and Parts Work Therapy (Janina Fischer's TIST model) in supporting young people who self harm and who have suicdal thoughts. The workshop offers a brief introduction into the neurobiology of trauma, the role of implicit memory, the impact of trauma on the nervous system and the development of a fragmented self. Unsafe behaviours are understood as the triggered states of the parts of the self which hold the implicit memory of the traumatic experience and their survival responses. The DDP model is applied to working with all of the young person's parts, holding an attitude of PACE to create the safety needed to explore and understand the role of the parts in the young person’s survival. With this insight and understanding, the young person can be supported to “unblend" from their parts and gain greater mastery over their unsafe behaviours.
For more information click here
New Science and Therapeutic Understanding of Middle Childhood
Course price: £150
21 March 2025 | Presented by Dr Graham Music - Fully booked
There is so much written about infancy and about adolescence but for some reason primary age development gets far less attention, despite the fact that most children seen for therapy are of that age. This course looks at newer understandings of this period and compares it to classic therapeutic accounts of a latency period. It introduces the little known biological hormonal developments of this period and how these link this to the tasks of middle childhood, such as the development of social capacities and executive functioning. It also looks at cross-cultural theory and how it might cast light on the original psychoanalytic conceptualization of latency.
For more information click here
DDP Refresher / Group Supervision
Course price: £55
17 June 2025 | Presented by Dr Vicky Sutton - Fully booked
Dr Vicky Sutton is offering a morning supervision session to those professionals who have undertaken their DDP Training. The group is open to professionals who regularly practice DDP and are looking for additional support in working with complex families; as well as to those professionals who might be at the very beginning of their journey and wanting to explore if the model is a good fit for their practice going forward.
For more information click here
Talking with your Child about their Past: A Guide for Foster Carers, Adopters, Kinship Carers and Residential Care Workers
Course price: £90
2 July 2025 | Presented by Rachel Staff - Fully Booked
Understanding and making sense of past losses and traumas is essential for improving emotional health and well-being as we move into adulthood. Unfortunately, children in foster care, kinship care, adoption and residential, have experienced multiple losses, traumas, and transitions, which they need help to process and understand. While tools like life story books, memory boxes, and later-in-life letters can aid in this process, they alone are not enough to help children develop a clear, cohesive narrative of their experiences. Additionally, some children may not have access to these resources or vital information about their past, which they still need support in making sense of. Caring for children day to day brings with it opportunity for discussion and reflection that can be supportive and help with healing.
The training will focus on the ‘day to day’ life story conversations that support the child’s developing identity, whether in addition to, or without the benefit of written information that the child may have access to.
For more information please click here
If you can not see a date for the training you are interested in please email us to be notified when the new date is confirmed.
All courses are held at our offices at the following address:
Moulsoe Business Centre
Cranfield Road
Moulsoe
Milton Keynes
MK16 0FJ
Click here for a Google Map, we are five minutes from Junction 14 of the M1.
The best postcode for SatNav is MK16 0HB which is for Cranfield Road, Moulsoe.
Refreshments and lunch are provided.
Click here to fill out our booking form.
Payment plans are available on request.
Contact training with us via email:trainingwithus@adoptionplus.co.uk
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"The venue is wonderful and very nurturing. I felt really well looked after and the 'touches' are appreciated - flowers, good coffee, tea and all refreshments."