FEATURE A Diverse Approach
Seren Grime, Senior Dramatherapist and Diversity Lead at Chroma, explains how the company’s therapists are adapting to provide more targeted support to families.
Choosing a therapist is one of the most important parts of a therapy process. Children are more likely to open up to a therapist if they can identify with them in some way.
Children are referred to therapy for a number of reasons, one of which may be behavioural issues. A child’s behaviour may be particularly volatile and the parent and child may struggle to understand each other at home and therefore find it difficult to connect. Oſten a child’s behaviour is actually a form of communication, which needs to be understood by the care- giver adults in their life. Connection is vital as it allows the child to feel safe and secure in their environment.
Identity is a common theme during therapy sessions with adopted children. More oſten than not, there is an identity struggle that needs to be addressed. This may be difficult for parents to discuss but Chroma therapists know it is important to be able to be open and talk about it as a family.
For example, in trans-racial adoption, a black child may struggle to identify with their white family. Having a black therapist could help the child better connect and improve therapy outcomes. Similarly, a transgender child may respond better to a therapist who is also transgender. The bottom line is, if the child can identify with the therapist sitting in front of them, they will be more comfortable to speak their mind.
Commonality is key because then the child can just ‘be’ with that person. This can be difficult for parents to admit but if families do not have these conversations, how can we understand each other and have an attachment?
Through data from the Adoption Support Fund freedom of information coupled with their own data capture of clients, Chroma recently discovered a high percentage of their adoption
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referrals were for white children aged between 0-16 years old. In addition, a recent internal survey of Chroma therapists revealed that their workforce was predominantly white females aged between 45-54 years.
“Connection is vital as it allows
the child to feel safe and secure in their environment.”
As a company, Chroma recognises there is work to do to become a diverse workforce, and has put new processes in place to help achieve that, so future clients and therapists from minority groups feel included.
Chroma’s referral team continues to make careful judgements taking into consideration new diversity information when matching therapists to families. The referral and clinical teams are supporting therapists to become more knowledgeable about diversity and the issues that can arise surrounding it.
The next step is to help support therapists to have difficult ‘diversity’ related conversations with the families because helping therapists to develop their practice and knowledge would ensure diversity is integral to their work.
https://wearechroma.com
www.tomorrowscare.co.uk
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