In Residence

The Double-Edged Sword Effect My name is Shirlee, and I was fortunate enough to be at The Mulberry Bush School from 1976-81. Being born into an extremely dysfunctional family, with a mother who was emotionally ill equipped to deal with two small children, and a narcissistic husband didn’t bode well. Unable to cope, my biological … Read more

The Mulberry Bush provides integrated 38-week and 52-week specialist residential therapeutic care, treatment and education for vulnerable and severely traumatised primary aged children and their families from across England and Wales.   The children struggle with all aspects of mainstream life and require a residential placement, which is evidence of how difficult it has been … Read more

Our mission is to share models for therapeutic care and to extend the influence and insights gained form our member networks, in order to improve services and outcomes for traumatised children, young people their families and communities. A warm welcome to our new members:Cristina Caeleira and Guida Bernardo of S.O.S Children’s Villages, Portugal.Josef Kala, Eva … Read more

The author of the following paper from The PET Archive was Doreen Weddell, who was the matron at the Cassel Hospital. It focuses on how nurses that came from more conventional hospitals learnt and adapted to working in a Therapeutic Community environment. Cassel Hospital is of particular interest in the Archive at the moment, as … Read more

A Finchden Experience.  By Alan Wendelken. It wasn’t a school, it wasn’t a hospital, it was a “third thing”- an “adventure in living” This was the view of George Lyward, the founder and head of the therapeutic community Finchden Manor, from its origins in the 1930’s until its demise in 1974. Alan Wendelken has every … Read more

In July 2018 I wrote a piece for The TCJ entitled “The Wheel Comes Full Circle”. I am not sure what metaphor to employ now because the wheel is continuing to roll and there may well have been another revolution.  And this is how it came about. Ruth and I were in the very same … Read more

I have written before in this journal about the connections between Bowlby’s theories on attachment and loss, on the one hand, and the concept of “nestness”, on the other. Put simply, it is possible to limit thinking about attachment largely or solely to the relationship between a child and a significant other, whereas  the idea … Read more

Sean Williams is Headteacher at the Forge Pupil Referral Unit in Redditch. The following is a talk given at the AGM of the St Paul’s homeless charity in Worcester. www. stpaulshostel.co.uk Thank you Claire for the introduction.  Yes I used to be a PE teacher in Worcestershire and before that I worked as a teacher … Read more

Welcome to our October edition of the IC newsletter. The International Centre is a free alliance of like-minded organisations and individuals who either practice or wish to learn about the role of therapeutic care – especially residential, foster care and adoption – for children, young people, their families and communities. We communicate with our member networks … Read more

The article comes from the International Journal of Therapeutic Communities, Vol 10, no. 2 (1989) It is from a Dutch perspective and looks at curative factors within Therapeutic Communities.

It’s been another of those weekends at Mill Grove, and I need to find ways of understanding not only how to describe and frame two extraordinary encounters that took place, but also how to identify and stay in touch with the personal feelings they have provoked in me.  Each of the people in question had … Read more