Our Service Model

TESSA support starts with parents because parents are a child’s safe base. The more flexible, resilient and supported parents feel, the stronger the family unit will be.

Through counselling we provide a safe and confidential space for you to share your feelings, explore challenges and reflect on your relationships. Sometimes parenthood isn’t what we expect it to be, sometimes parenthood is harder than we expected it to be and sometimes we, as the parent, just need some time to ourselves to process all of these feelings.

We offer training and individual support in therapeutic parenting. Therapeutic parenting begins with an understanding of the how trauma has impacted our child and how we can parent therapeutically to support them through these challenges.

Furthermore, we at TESSA understand that sometimes it can feel hard to parent therapeutically, particularly when family life feels very challenging. Through our therapeutic support we aim to educate, support, and create space to consider ourselves and our needs, as the parent, and how we can be the version of ourselves we aspire to be.

Narrative Coaching

In addition to these services, we also offer a narrative coaching support. This work is competed with parents and so is different to life story work where a social worker would work directly with a child. Our narrative coaching aims to empower parents to become the teller of their child’s story. This means that as a child grows and their questions and need for information grows, you as the parent will feel prepared and equipped to answer these questions in a safe and child-friendly way.

Connection and re-connection are at the heart of all we aim to do. We believe that you and your family, are the experts of your own lives, and such we promote a family-led approach to our support. We cannot tell you what your family need, we can inform you with what we can offer your family, and how it may be able to benefit, it will be up to you to decide your support.

After we have supported the parent(s) we conduct a review to see how things are going and how life is at home. If it is felt that a child(ren) is in need of additional therapeutic support, beyond what is available from within the family, then we can discuss options of support for children or child and parent together (dyadic). Children’s support can include art therapy, cranial sacral/osteopathy, drama therapy, equine therapy, filial therapy, play therapy, mindfulness, and music therapy.

Educational Support

In addition, we can also offer support towards a child’s educational needs. We can offer in-schools training to help teachers and classroom assistants understand why our children often struggle with school and how they can best support the needs of these children within the school setting.

Confidentiality

We are a funded service and as such we are required to monitor and evaluate the services we deliver and the impact of those services on the families who receive them. For this reason, we do need anyone who avails of our supports to complete pre and post-evaluation forms. Please be assured that any reports completed by counsellors and therapists are treated confidentially and all feedback to our funders is anonymous.