Connect Before You Correct: Everyday Therapeutic Parenting in Action
Children in care often display behaviours of distress that challenge those around them. While our immediate thought may be to correct the behaviour, therapeutic parenting teaches us to connect first.
Connection, with curiosity, allows us to understand the behaviour and validate the young person’s thoughts and feelings, enabling them to feel safe, cared for and understood. This approach also minimize shame, helping the young person to move out of their emotional brain and to engage their thinking brain. In this way, correction, when necessary, becomes far more effective, and young people learn that relational ruptures and missteps can be repaired.
This approach not only helps children improve their emotional and behavioural regulation, but it also reduces conflict in homes and residential settings. It allows carers and staff to maintain an authoritative position, without resorting to punitive measures, creating an environment where children can heal and learn.
Our Therapeutic Parenting course equips carers and staff with practical skills to connect, and to think about how we correct most effectively, ensuring every child has the opportunity to experience safe, nurturing and boundaried care.
