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Mother and daughter share tender moment outdoors

Parenting and Attachment Coaching

Parenting and Attachment Coaching – Post Placement

1. Tailored 60–90 Minute Sessions (1 to 3 total)

  • Delivered virtually via a secure platform and facilitated by a trained TISWA parenting and trauma-informed practitioner.
    Each session is fully tailored based on:

  • The child’s assessment profile

  • The carer’s caregiving history and confidence

  • Cultural and language needs

  • Type of placement (e.g., grandparent in a rural setting vs. birth father in a repatriation context)

  • Sessions can be spaced weekly or bi-weekly depending on carer need and time zones. Carers receive written summaries or coaching handouts after each session.

Core Topics Offered

Understanding Trauma and Attachment in Young Children

  • How children experience loss, separation, and sudden change

  • Recognising “survival behaviours” like clinging, aggression, withdrawal, or hyperactivity

  • Why trust, not control, should be the foundation of early caregiving

Mother and daughter share a tender moment.
Smiling mother and son using laptop together on couch

Managing Regressions: Sleep, Toileting, Eating and Emotional Outbursts

  • What regression looks like and why it is normal during transitions

  • Non-punitive, nurturing responses to accidents or tantrums

  • How to rebuild basic trust through routine and response

Saying “No” Without Reactivating Loss or Shame

  • How to set healthy boundaries with warmth and clarity

  • Tone, body language, and repair strategies after discipline

  • Understanding discipline through an attachment lens

  • Avoiding culturally embedded punitive responses that may inadvertently retraumatise the child.

Parents comforting upset daughter at home

Culture and Discipline: Avoiding Shame-Based Approaches

  • Exploring traditional caregiving models versus trauma-informed care

  • Addressing “obedience culture” in a way that centres healing

  • Encouraging child voice while maintaining respect in the home

  • Localised examples (e.g., “In our culture, children are expected to be seen not heard” → reframing this)

Sessions can be translated or supported by an interpreter where needed.

Benefits

  • Equips carers with therapeutic parenting techniques they may never have previously needed or accessed

  • Reduces carer anxiety, particularly for those worried about “getting it wrong” with traumatised children

  • Prevents placement breakdown by promoting confidence, consistency, and emotional insight

  • Culturally sensitive, recognising that parenting across countries, generations, and customs may look different

  • Reinforces attuned caregiving, helping carers to see behaviour as communication, not defiance

  • Promotes healing, enabling the child to feel safe, seen, soothed, and secure in a new environment.

Nurturing Play and Connection

  • How to create moments of safety and closeness through daily play

  • Structured play activities to help children express feelings

  • Using play to reduce fear, build routine, and create joy

  • Examples include: “follow the leader”, sensory storytelling, role-play with dolls/teddies.

Flexible Add-Ons (Customised Modules)

Parenting in Kinship Placements

  • Shifting from grandparent/uncle/aunt role to parental figure

  • Managing divided loyalties and blurred boundaries

  • Handling questions about birth parents and past trauma

  • Supporting a child who may idealise or fear their biological parents

parents-comforting-their-daughter-with-loving-embrace-helping-her-feel-secure-protected-as
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