Signals of Safety

Therapeutic Parenting Approaches for Eating, Sleeping & Toileting in Adoption

A brand NEW specialist therapeutic parenting programme for adoptive parents led by Clinical Psychologists Dr Helen Kirkaldie & Dr Victoria James-Perkins. This 4-week course will take place on Thursdays from the 16^th of October to the 13^th of November (break for English half term 30^th).

Objectives of the Programme

🧠 Emotional Regulation & Attachment

— Enhance your ability to co-regulate your child’s emotional states during toileting, mealtimes, and bedtime routines.

— Strengthen your parent-child attachment bond by using therapeutic parenting strategies that foster felt safety and trust.

🛏️ Routine & Predictability

— Develop consistent, nurturing routines around eating, sleeping, and toileting to reduce anxiety and oppositional behaviours.

— Empower you to use structure and attunement to help children feel safe and in control.

🧃 Sensory Integration & Body Awareness

— Help you understand sensory processing difficulties that may underlie toileting, eating, or sleep issues.

— Introduce sensory strategies (e.g. sensory diets, calming techniques) to support regulation and body awareness.

🗣️ Psychoeducation & Reflective Parenting

— Educate you on the impact of early trauma on bodily functions and self-care behaviours.

— Foster reflective parenting by helping you explore emotional responses and triggers.

🧩 Behavioural Understanding & Reframing

— Support you to reframe ‘challenging behaviours’ (e.g. food refusal, bedwetting) as communication of unmet needs.

— Equip you with therapeutic responses that reduce shame and promote connection.

👥 Peer Support & Shared Learning

— Create a safe space for you to share experiences, reduce isolation, and build confidence through mutual support.

— Model and practice therapeutic parenting techniques in a group setting.

Booking

— Open to all adoptive parents from CCS Adoption, Adoption West and any other agency.

— Please return this Reservation Form to therapeuticservices@ccsadoption.org. Once this form has been received, an acknowledgement email will be sent to you, and you will be placed on our reservation list.

— If you have marked on the reservation form that you wish to fund your place via the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), we will take receipt of this form as your agreement for us to contact your Local Authority (LA) in order to request that they apply for funding from the ASGSF.

— Once notification of ASGSF funding is received from the LA and confirmed to CCS Adoption, your place(s) on the course will be confirmed via email.