This online seminar will focus on the impact of trauma on early attachment relationships and how this affects children’s view of themselves and other people, their development, and their social and emotional well-being. The seminar will be presented in a live, online, interactive format with time for questions and participation factored in. The morning session will cover how children form attachment relationships, the different types of attachment, traumatic stress, and complex trauma. Attachment and trauma will then be looked at together through the Relational Learning Framework (RLF). The RLF was developed by the trainer to understand what children learn about themselves and other people from traumatic experiences, maltreatment and/or disruption of care. We will then consider how to develop a treatment plan to help the child change any negative beliefs they may have about themselves or others, based on the trauma they have experienced. This seminar will cover theory and provide ideas and techniques for understanding the issues facing maltreated and traumatised children and a practical method of working out what the child needs to learn from current relationships, both caregiving and therapeutic. The types of therapy useful for this population will be outlined but the seminar will not cover how to deliver specific therapy. 

Wendy Kelly is a clinical psychologist who has worked in the child protection and mental health fields for 35 years. Wendy first began working with trauma at the Wellington Sexual Abuse Help Foundation in 1985 and subsequently worked for Child, Youth and Family (now Oranga Tamariki) in both employed and contracted roles for 15 years. Wendy runs a private practice specialising in child maltreatment/foster care and adult trauma and is a supplier and provider for ACC sensitive claims counselling. Wendy is also a Clinical Practice Advisor with the clinical psychology program at Victoria University and completed her PhD in 2015 on the topic: ‘Looking after children in care: What psychological factors affect the foster parent--child relationship’. She published a book entitled ‘Understanding children in foster care: Identifying and addressing what children learn from maltreatment’ in 2017. Wendy has been providing seminars throughout the country for Compass Seminars since 2003 and provides workshops for a variety of agencies including Werry Workforce Wharaurau, Oranga Tamariki and Explore Services. 

Further information can be found here