Our Approach

Specialist therapy for children focused on trauma recovery, neurodiversity and wellbeing

Family Futures provides specialist therapy for children living with trauma, neurodivergent conditions or mental health issues. We were founded 28 years ago to provide support for care experienced children presenting with trauma, often interconnected with neurodivergence and mental health difficulties.

We work with parents, professionals and the wider support network who are part of each child’s life so that the healing process is carried into the child’s everyday life and brings about lasting improvements. Our experience of working collaboratively with families and professionals has been central to our journey to date – we listen to the needs of everyone we work with so that our approach is based on clinical evidence and lived experience. Since 2016 and 2019, we also have published research showing significantly improved outcomes for the children and families who come to us.

The Family Futures approach is neuro-sequential (following the brain’s development) and our unique therapy model we’ve developed is called ‘Neuro-Physiological Psychotherapy’ (NPP). You can read about our published research here, which evaluates our groundbreaking therapy model. Our experienced, multidisciplinary therapy team provide a service which goes up to the NHS equivalent of a tier 4 CAMHS service.

A brain and body approach to healing

At Family Futures we realise that we cannot just talk to children about their feelings and their past, which is a frontal lobe activity in the brain, when their experiences are ingrained in their nervous system. Children need a calm, regulated nervous system first. Then they can form secure attachments and engage with the healing process.

Children with complex trauma who are referred to Family Futures usually require a multidisciplinary approach that takes into account their unique history as well as their level of trauma. Children who are neurodivergent also require at times a multidisciplinary approach that understands their stress responses and the way their brain processes information and the world around them. Our assessment works out the level of the brain at which the child is currently functioning, so that the intervention can address this area of the brain.

How does NPP help dysregulated children?

Body based work aimed at regulation is the first focus of treatment. This takes into account the child’s fight, flight and freeze response to stress and works at calming their nervous system to enable them to engage in more reflective therapeutic interventions. Children who are traumatised struggle with dysregulation but children who are also struggling with making sense of the world and how to manage their sensory systems or the demands of daily life will often also struggle with high levels of dysregulation.

How does NPP help children heal from trauma in a holistic way?

We recognise that parent support, education support and further specialist assessments are often required to take into account the impact of developmental trauma on all areas of the child’s development. Children who are developmentally traumatised may also have neurodivergence which is heightening the challenges they face in managing home and school life. For some children who are neurodivergent, they may also find that home and school can be overwhelming and difficult to manage and they need additional support. We work collaboratively with the family and the professionals supporting the child. Our multidisciplinary team is made up of a range of highly qualified and experienced specialists who can assess all areas of development and then tailor the therapy programme to the needs identified.

Our evidence based assessment and treatment service has been informed over the years by the pioneering work of Dr Daniel Hughes, Dr Bruce Perry, Dr Bessel Van der Kolk, Babette Rothschild, The Theraplay Institute and Phyllis Booth, Dr A. Jean Ayres, Peter Levine, Pat Ogden, Bryan Post, Dr Raja Mukherjee amongst other clinicians. To find out more about our approach, download ‘Family Futures’ Neuro-sequential Approach to the Assessment and Treatment of Traumatised Children’ by Alan Burnell and Jay Vaughan, our co-founders.

To find out how our unique approach can help you, have a look at our Adoption and SGO Support information.

Contact us to find out more about our assessment and treatment services.