shalamar children
East Tilbury
Shalamar Children’s Homes – Isola, Cairn, and shortly Glebeland – are based in
family-sized houses around rural Essex. We are residential children’s homes with
a therapeutic approach. Our aim is to resolve issues in young people and not to
merely contain them. We achieve this by using attachment-based care and to look
for the communication behind any behaviour. We believe behaviour is a form of
communication. We would look for the meaning behind all negative behaviour in
the young people within our care. From this, we work with our young people
helping them to not only to control their negative behaviours, but also
attempting to work through the issues which are the cause of these behaviours.
Shalamar carers use Dan Hughes’ PACE method to gain a positive attachment with
the young people within our care. PACE stands for Playfulness – Acceptance –
Curiosity – Empathy. Given time, we aim to create a stable, secure base and safe
haven for all young people staying at Shalamar, allowing the space and the
confidence to heal and develop. At Shalamar, there are daily community meetings
where young people have the opportunity to voice any issues they have with their
care, or state how it can be improved. This space allows for the young people to
feel listened to, raising their confidence, self-esteem and making them feel
valued and cared for. Shalamar’s work looks to change the negative way that
young people view themselves and the adults around them. Through
attachment-based nurture we restore their self-belief and provide positive
experiences with adults who care. We understand that many children who display
challenging behaviour have had trauma at some point in their life. This usually
manifests itself in emotional developmental delay. Therefore we treat the child
at their developmental/emotional age, rather than strict biological age. This
creates a realistic and settled environment for the young person who can succeed
and receive praise for their work and efforts. We also provide a psychodynamic
behavioural approach, which is worked alongside the attachment framework, where
we bring the subconscious to the conscious. This allows the young people to
understand why they are feeling and acting the way they are and is the first
step to taking control of their actions.
