Safe Hands and Thinking Minds Associates led by Dr Karen Treisman, MBE, (Clinical Psychologist, Author, Organizational Consultant, and Trainer) draw on a range of interdisciplinary expertise, theoretical perspectives, and evidence bases to promote, solidify, and develop high standards in areas of parenting/caring, trauma, adversity, attachment, grief and loss, fostering, adoption, residential, child in need, child protection, asylum-seeking & refugee young people, organisational trauma, moral injury, secondary and vicarious trauma, and culturally/adversity/trauma-informed and responsive organisations.
Dr Treisman and associates are dedicated to delivering specialist and tailor-made psychological and therapeutic training, workshops, thinking spaces, and consultancy to a range of diverse professionals, carers, and parents. These services are committed to providing attendees with increased knowledge, skills, and best practice models which aim to meet and exceed national minimum standards. All services are relationship-led and focused; and come from an attachment and trauma foundation. With real world and tangible applications and creativity and a multi-sensory lens at the heart. There is a focus on interactions modelling the modelling and of being meaningful and nuanced; rather than a tick box or tokenistic. We believe in this work to our core and are passionate about making change, supporting people and systems, and being hopeful disruptors.
The training and consultancy services offered are wide reaching and therefore please see the Training, Consultancy, and Online tabs on here for further information. However, specific needs should be discussed further so that a tailor made approach can be offered.
A Therapeutic Treasure Box for Working with Children and Adolescents with Developmental Trauma: Creative Techniques and Activities – 21 Sep 2017
Reviews:
‘This book is an extraordinary achievement. It is packed with myriad, tools, methods and suggestions that will be indispensable to therapists, parents and anyone working with traumatised kids. Most importantly, the book’s simplicity is deceptive as every page is built on the firm foundations of the latest science and a deep understanding of the effects of developmental trauma. I predict this will be a book that trauma therapists will be scared to leave home without.’
Dr Graham Music, Consultant Psychotherapist, Tavistock Clinic and author of Nurturing Natures
Children are doers more than they are talkers, and when we join them in doing, we find we are able to discover the story at the child’s pace. Dr Treisman has given us a wonderful book to help us to do this. Full of ideas, exercises and compassionate ways of joining with children to fully discover who they are, and to help them to manage difficulties that they are experiencing. This is grounded in the best of what we know about relational trauma. This book will enhance the most creative of us, and be a rich resource for those of us who doubt our own creativity. It will give all of us ways to go slower, to help children to feel safe enough to reveal their own story, and to find the confidence to allow us to share this story with their safe parents. Now healing can begin. My treasure box is certainly richer for having this book on my shelf.
Dr. Kim S. Golding, Clinical Psychologist and author
As a Treasure Box, Treisman has created exactly what it says on the tin. Embedded in the relational world of development, this book takes us on a journey of thoughtful, sensitive, creative and deeply moving interventions. The lives and minds of children and young people can only be enriched if we embed this magic in our work.’
John Simmonds, OBE, Director of Policy, Research and Development
at CoramBAAF, London
‘When we lift the lid on a child’s trauma it can feel overwhelming and impossible to address. Dr. Karen Treisman’s accessible, insightful and resource laden book will change this forever for every practitioner, therapist, parent and carer and the precious children they support.’
– Jane Evans, trauma parenting specialist, international speaker, freelance trainer and author
“Relational trauma requires relational repair’ says Dr Treisman throughout her book and it’s a mantra worth repeating. Her book explains what relational repair really involves, from creating safety and regulation, to exploring complex and layered emotions to tackling rage and sleep disturbances. It is packed with ideas and materials to guide and support therapeutic conversations, much of which could be used by therapeutic parents. What I especially love is the combination of compassion both for child and parent and its insistence on a sound, scientific approach. The pictures, the pebbles, the glue and the glitter are all set within a robust trauma-informed framework that reflect the emotional complexity of building a meaningful relationship with a traumatised child.
For those who labour at the coalface of relational repair, it is a nourishing read that will top up your therapeutic tank and make you feel just that little bit more encouraged and cherished and perhaps even vindicated. It deserves to be widely read by all those involved in supporting the healing of relationally traumatised children from commissioners, policy makers and academics right up to foster carers and adoptive parents”.
– Sally Donovan OBE, author of No Matter What and The Unofficial Guide to Adoptive Parenting and Editor of Adoption Today
Reviews for Working with Relational and Developmental Trauma in Children and Adolescents
“Dr Karen Treisman has written a most comprehensive book for preparing clinicians to work with the complexities of treating children and adolescents who have experienced developmental trauma. The challenges of providing such treatment is great on many levels and Dr Treisman addresses them all, from understanding and assessment to providing the most appropriate therapies for these young people and their caregivers. Not stopping there, Dr Treisman also informs us of the need to provide sensitive interventions within systems such as social services, education, and residential care that may themselves become traumatized through the challenges of caring for these very troubled children and youth. An important contribution to the field for both experienced clinicians and those just entering it.” – Daniel Hughes, Clinical Psychologist, developer of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, author of Building the Bonds of Attachment, 2nd edition, (2006), and Attachment-Focused Family Therapy Workbook (2011).
“An exceptional book by an expert clinician! This volume articulately delivers the essentials of trauma intervention with children and adolescents whose case histories are both complex and compelling. It emphasizes the importance of applying neurobiology-informed and brain-wise approaches, providing practitioners with a solid grounding in current best practices and trauma assessment through a highly accessible and readable format. All mental health professionals will find valuable resources, richly illustrated case examples, and pragmatic strategies to immediately apply in their work with youth that will expand their clinical repertoires in work with relational and developmental trauma.” – Cathy Malchiodi, PhD, LPCC, LPAT, ATR-BC, REAT―Founder/Director, Trauma-Informed Practices and Expressive Arts Therapy Institute
“This book is a wonderful resource for practitioners who work with children who have experienced relational and developmental trauma. The book includes a comprehensive overview of the impact of trauma on children, as well as assessment and treatment options. Dr Treisman also covers working with traumatized children in settings such as schools and residential care. Practical activities and reflective exercises are woven throughout the text to help the reader gain further insight into the material. This is an invaluable resource and a welcome addition to the trauma literature.” – Liana Lowenstein, MSW, author of Cory Helps Kids Cope with Sexual Abuse
A Therapeutic Treasure Deck- Sentence Completion and Feelings Cards (Available at http://amzn.to/2u6Upw0)
The perfect tool to add to any ‘therapeutic treasure box’, this set of 68 cards provide a way to help open conversations and structure discussions with children and adolescents aged 6+.
The treasure deck offers a fun, non-threatening way to help to build understanding and forge relationships. It also provides a safe, playful way for children to articulate and make sense of their feelings, thoughts, experiences and beliefs. The deck comes with two different types of card – the ‘feelings cards’ and the ‘sentence-completion cards’ – which can be used separately or together, and the cards are accompanied by a booklet which explains some of the different ways in which they can be therapeutically used.
A Therapeutic Treasure Deck of Grounding, Soothing, Coping and Regulating Cards (Therapeutic Treasures Collection)- Available to pre-order at http://amzn.to/2taWYRp
A pack of 70 cards and explanatory guide offers a playful, non-threatening way to explore feelings, and to form effective coping, regulating, soothing, and grounding strategies through a range of games and activities. Designed to work with both the brain and body, the cards address a wide range of common issues including anxiety, stress, low mood, sleep difficulties and emotional dysregulation. To do so, they employ a range of proven strategies including cognitive techniques, nurturing activities, sensory strategies, body-based activity and creative exercises.
