"Supporting Young People to live successful and fulfilling lives"
Therapeutic Support (Counselling)
Helping young people make sense of their past traumas whilst helping them build a brighter future.
London's Assisted Semi-independent Housing Alliance is a Holistic and Therapeutic provision.
We adopt 'The Secure Base Model’ of therapeutic care-giving which helps children and young people develop trust and resilience.
The Secure Base Model provides a framework for caregivers and for those who support them to think in more detail about the different but connected care-giving approaches that can help a child/young person move towards greater security. It is a positive, strengths-based approach that focuses on the interaction between the caregiver and the young person, but also considers how that relationship can enable the young person to develop competence in the outside world and manage often complex relationships with others.
Traditional supporting techniques and skills may not work with our young people and therefore we recognise the need to provide alternative therapeutic ‘parenting’ and support techniques to help build their resilience.
We do not provide ‘care’ as defined by Ofsted however we want our young people to know that we do care about them and want the very best for their futures. As a Therapeutic provider with several years of experience supporting the needs of children and young people we understand and have witnessed the impact of abuse and neglect on their lives, our experiences and extensive knowledge allows us to offer the nurturing support and guidance which our young people require.
Schofield and Beek (2009, 2014) developed the framework (The Secure Base Model) It focuses on the interactions between caregivers (us the provider) and young person and is based around five caregiving dimensions:
Availability – helping the child/young person to trust
Sensitivity – helping the child/young person to manage feelings and behaviour
Acceptance – building the child/young's person self-esteem
Co-operation – helping the child/young person to feel effective
Family membership – helping the child/young person to belong (Schofield and Beek, 2014).
At LASHA we only select the most experienced and skilled staffing team who are able to implement these principles. Our staff are fully committed to their relationships with the young people as well as eager and determined to see our young people build healthy relationships and achieve positive outcomes.
Keyworkers who provide secure base care and relationships are a key therapeutic resource for young people.
To complement our Therapeutic Model we also offer in-house counselling by a Qualified and Registered Therapist who practices using a integrative approach of Person-centred, Psychodynamic and CBT.
Meet our Counsellor
WHAT IS COUNSELLING?
Counselling offers our young people the opportunity to discuss something that is of concern to them with a trained counsellor (a person who has been trained to offer support on personal or psychological problems). Counselling can mean different things for different people but the overall aim of counselling is to change something, to come to terms with something or just to explore thoughts and feelings in more depth. Counselling is offered confidentially so our young people can feel comfortable in discussing their thoughts and feelings. Counselling offers support beyond that available from family or friends.
ABOUT ME
My name is Lavern Palmer. I am a qualified counsellor who holds a BSc Hons degree in Counselling. I am a registered member of the Government regulating body, British Association for Counsellors & Psychotherapists and uphold its principles. I am here to listen and support young people to work through anything they are finding difficult in life. They might, for example, feel anxious, depressed, finding relationships difficult, all of which are okay and can be worked through. I will ensure that when working with them that they are provided with a safe and confidential environment that will be accompanied by warmth and free of judgement. I am based at 'The Rising' Semi-independent provision based in the Tooting area SW17. I know how important it is for young people to choose the right therapist.
I therefore invite young people to contact me via email or telephone if they have any queries and be comforted knowing they will not be under any obligation to uptake a service.
My Therapy Practice
I describe myself as an integrative counsellor.
What that essentially means is that I refer to a range of approaches in my practice to meet the individual's needs. In brief, the approaches I use are:
· Person-centred – this approach can be used if you want to deal with the ways in which you perceive yourself consciously.
· Psychodynamic – this approach can be used if you want to understand how past experiences may contribute towards the way you are at present.
·Cognitive Behavioural therapy (CBT) – this approach can be used if you have a specific problem and want to find a way to solve it, and can set timely goals for yourself.
It is important for young people to know that they will choose the approach that most suits them best, and I will support them throughout.
They will work at their own pace and decide if they want us to work together on a long-term or short-term basis. My practice has included working with issues around loss, depression, trauma, anxiety, abuse and neglect, feelings of abandonment, low self-esteem, anger management and setting life goals. I work with young people and I deliver therapy by individual face-to-face work, as well as Online