ACEs Recovery Toolkit Programme Blog
ACEs Recovery Toolkit Programme Blog
For the next 10 weeks we are going to be featuring a Blog written by Chris Devaney, Senior Family Support Worker from Birmingham Children’s Trust. Chris is the lead facilitator delivering an ACEs Recovery Toolkit Programme.
We thought you would like to know more about what it is like to run the ACEs Toolkit. So enough from us – I will hand you over to Chris…..
Week One: “Something Just Clicked”
So, today was the first session of the ACEs Recovery Toolkit. I felt pretty nervous, given that I was one of the first people to be running this programme in the UK and the World…talk about pressure!
We’d had 28 referrals come in from a wide variety of agencies – health, police, education and social care. We screened 18 as suitable (some we had to decline due to unmanaged mental health, children currently being removed from parental care). We had to make sure that it was the right time for them to be on the programme!
We were expecting 14 females, and 4 males.
I kept running through my list in my head… “Post-it Notes. Check. Handouts. Check. Stickers. Check. Tea, Coffee. Check, Check, Check. I wasn’t new to the Recovery Toolkit world, I’ve facilitated the Adult and Children and Young People Domestic Abuse Toolkit… I knew this model inside out; why was I so nervous? In hindsight, I now know it was because I wanted everything to be perfect for those that were brave enough to walk through the door.
These people had all experienced some form of trauma in their lives; I needed to make this a safe and comfortable environment for them to begin their recovery.
The first people arrived, I greeted them at the door, directed them to tea and coffee, and politely asked them to sign the register. The room began to fill…2 became 4, 4 became 11. One last deep breath, and off I went. There was no holding me back now!
Luckily, following the round of introductions, and then identifying what animal they’d be and why, nerves had settled (both mine and the attendees) – fortunately we didn’t end up with any peacocks, though I was surprised not to have had any exotic animals; just your standard household cat and dog. I’m always amused at some of the weird and wonderful creatures people would like to be (in case you are wondering, mine would be a panda – they just sleep, eat and get away with mischief; sounds perfect to me!)
We got through the ‘My Special Room’ activity, went through the session plan for the next twelve weeks, and half way through explaining the CBT triangle, I heard crying.
Louise (name changed for confidentiality) just looked at me, sobbing! The other attendees in the room just stared at me too, I stared at my co-facilitator, she stares back, I stare back at Louise…we’re all staring at each other…I wasn’t expecting tears so soon.
My colleague approached Louise, and asked if she needed ‘five’, but she said she was crying out of relief.
Louise stated, “something’s just clicked”.
Louise had suffered at the hands of an abusive partner for many years and explaining that behaviour is impacted by our thoughts and feelings, allowed Louise to see that her children’s behaviour was the result of the early adversity’s they had experienced, which in turn had impacted their thoughts, feelings and behaviours; not that they were purposefully going out of their way to upset her.
I turned to my co-facilitator at the end of the session and said, “and we’re only on week 1”.
This session just reinforced what I already knew; Rock Pool’s programmes work. I’ve seen it with my own eyes – it’s powerful stuff. Do not underestimate its simplicity.
The attendees felt that raising their worries for the programme at the very beginning helped, with them all managing to take something positive from the session.
They all left talking about NATs and ACEs – which was lovely to hear!
Bring on Week 2!!
For more information about our ACEs Recovery Toolkit please click here….