Supporting Adopted Children and their Families: Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and Parenting (DDP)

Who this is for

Adoption practitioners and managers (Voluntary Adoption Agencies, Regional Adoption Agencies, Local Authorities, and independent social workers), children’s social care services, children and family social workers, foster carers, kinship carers, and other professionals working with children and families.

Details

Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), developed by Dan Hughes, is an approach designed to support children who have experienced trauma within the family. It functions both as a therapeutic intervention—offering direct support to the child alongside their parent—and as a model for parenting.

DDP-informed parenting helps parents build strong emotional connections with their children, increasing their sense of safety and security. The model recognises that many traumatised children can fear emotional closeness and supports them to overcome these fears and begin to heal. At the heart of DDP is the attitude of PACE (playfulness, acceptance, curiosity and empathy), which draws on the emotional regulation and reflective capacity of both therapists and parents, promoting greater security for the child and, within parenting, being combined with appropriate behavioural support.

This introductory session will explore the DDP model and its application in both therapeutic settings and parenting practice. It will introduce the neurobiological theories underpinning DDP, explore key principles of the model, and consider the concept of blocked care alongside the importance of carer wellbeing and resilience. The session will also support reflection on your own nervous system and examine the significant role that professionals play in offering co-regulation to families.

Learning 0utcomes

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Understand the DDP model and its application as a therapy
• Understand the principles of DDP-informed parenting support
• Understand the usefulness of this model for adoptive parents and their children
• Consider examples of DDP in practice

About the Trainer

Polly Nugent

Polly qualified as a Clinical Psychologist in 2009. She then worked in Bristol’s looked after and adopted children specialist CAMHS team for 10 years, where she used DDP principles throughout her work. She has a broad range of experience in offering DDP to families with complex needs, has provided supervision to a range of professionals developing their DDP practice, and has delivered extensive training to both parents/carers and professionals.

Polly is now in private practice, offering therapy to families, supervision to professionals, as well as group work and training. Alongside her strong commitment to DDP and relational approaches to working with trauma, she also has a keen and developing interest in polyvagal theory and what it can offer in terms of wellbeing, resilience and regulation.

Instructions

A member of staff will be in touch with attendees one week prior to the event to share a pre-event delegate pack.

If you have any questions regarding this webinar, please contact us at [email protected]. We will aim to answer your query within two working days.

CVAA accept online payments only. In case you do not have instant access to your company card, we suggest using your personal card instead to book a training event and claim it back with your agency in your expenses. Requesting an invoice to pay for our standard practice events is not possible.