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Telly addicts

A Home For Maisie

75 replies

alwaysaskingquestions · 11/04/2011 21:05

Trying to watch this programme but unfortunately I'm being distracted by the nose hair.

OP posts:
ThatVikRinA22 · 12/04/2011 13:40

www.familyfutures.co.uk/familyfutures/index.html

these are the people who gave maisie the counselling.

they have a 95% success rate at keeping families together. 1 in 3 adoptions break down, so thats pretty good going

i would rather believe this centre of excellence than wikipedia.

FilingCabinet100 · 12/04/2011 13:42

I wouldn't attack anyachaika too quickly: Family Futures say on their website that they use "Short-term Focused Attachment Therapy - a combination of Theraplay, Sensory Integration and Dyadic Psychotherapy". Holding Therapy is a branch of Attachment Therapy. Attachment Therapy is controversial and in great disrepute at the moment, so it is surprising that Family Futures would even use the name. Many of the elements seen on the doc last night are classic Attachment Therapy: laying the child across the adults' laps and (gently in this case) keeping her there, touching, encouraging catharsis etc. So anyachaika is not barking up wrong tree.
However, the therapy as seen with Maisie obviously only took the best elements of Attachment Therapy, and it seemed to work.... a brilliant documentary and very moving.

southeastastra · 12/04/2011 13:57

i thought they therapy sessions seemed a bit iffy but then again i have no experience in this area. pleased they adopted her but they weren't too sure were they? would like to research this further though. poor maisie all in all :(

ThatVikRinA22 · 12/04/2011 13:59

i am talking only about this particular documentary, not the use of that particular therapy in general.

anya is saying that holding therapy was used in this programme, and i read her link, no where could i see that kind of "therapy" being used in this documentary, and i just think its a shame to pour scorn on what was one of a few success stories - one of maisies siblings was already in a secure unit for children who are unmanageable in a family setting - i think that speaks volumes about Maisie, her wonderful adoptive family and her therapists.

i would love to provide a home for a child like maisie some day.

anyachaika · 12/04/2011 17:44

FilingCabinet100 What I would say about this particular documentary is that, if you look carefully there are some, somewhat disguised, elements of coercion and restraint within the therapy. The locking of Maisie's legs by her adopters and the holding of her wrists and waist are not there to prevent her from harming herself it seems. These are classic HT/AT techniques which incorporate deliberately distressing the child and then retraining her when she reacts, This puts the child in a kind of double-bind situation where there is no way out.

The therapy, only ends when the child breaks down or capitulates. The way this film portrays it is, I feel, designed to disguise the need to produce submission by the child to the adopters.

The reason why this documentary is so potentially dangerous is because this is precisely the kind of promotion that was used in the US and, to a lesser extent, the UK to act as a cover for more overtly aggressive techniques that were used in private.

Remember, this film was produced for an audience and each person was essentially playing a role - they, and the company,knew this was being filmed. What worries me is that the organisation that the young man in my blog was placed in had used very similar marketing techniques to promote their form of therapy as nurturing.

Bananaketchup · 12/04/2011 17:56

I'm sorry but you know nothing about adoption theory or the therapy provided by centres like Family Futures if you think that either 'deliberately distressing the child' or 'produce submission by the child to the adopters' plays any part in the reparenting of damaged and challenging children like Maisie. Perhaps you and your soap box should move on, as you seem to have been watching a different documentary than the rest of us.

ThatVikRinA22 · 12/04/2011 18:10

absolutely spot on bananaketchup

as a result of watching this, ive had a discussion with DH today, and this documentary has made us consider adopting an older child, if the type of support and therapy was in place that family futures provide. (its not a whim - ive been working on him for 10 years!)

what would you have preferred anya? for maisie to be placed into secure care and classed as unmanageable? the therapy in this programme was slow, at her pace, and touched on some very difficult memories for her, but only so she could understand her own feelings of anger. i cannot believe that you think the therapy in this documentary was damaging! what WOULD have been damaging for Maisie would have been to label her as unmanageable and put her in institutionalised care.
you are off your rocker lady.

mrsthorbs · 12/04/2011 22:08

Hi everyone
I too was very moved by the documentary and am full of admiration for the parents featured in this film. I am a clinical psychologist. I don't work with looked after children (rather, adults with brain injury) but from what I saw in the documentary, the restraint techniques used seemed appropriate and part of what is known as positive handling technique. This is used as a last resort to protect the client (child in this case) from harming themselves or others when they display aggressive behaviour. I received training in this as a supportive technique for managing patients with challenging/aggressive behaviour. I am not fully familiar with the therapeutic techniques used by this centre but I believe that anyachaika has made the comments above without having enough information to support her view and this is a great shame as the aim of the documentary appears to have been to highlight the plight of these very vulnerable children and the huge amount of support, patience and consistency they need to develop trust in adults and ultimately in the world.

STARTLOOKING · 12/04/2011 22:43

Read between the lines people anya i think is quiet right to raise this issues of H/T and after watching it myself i agree with anya this documentry has been carefully put together step by step to ensure the adopters and the centre are seen in a positive light and have the great big happy ending which will be every ones main focus the happy endings but if you have worked with in H/T or have had dealings with H/T and yes the brief sections of the therapy shown does appear to be a certain process within HT
i would urge you to take on bord what anyas has said yes would we all love happy ending but i urge you to look in the baaf paper and the british social work journal its fantastic news she has found a forever family but please all you looking ino H/T and what in entails i 100 know if they had shown the viewers at home a full therapy session without the fantastic editing of the bbc i really do you think you would questioning these practices.

susansocks · 12/04/2011 22:54

i wonder if it worked though.
in the end it was still the father she went to.
she seemed unwilling to go near her mother.
and i wondered whether the therapists shoudl be so blunt in a young girl telling her her family history.

ThatVikRinA22 · 12/04/2011 22:58

im going to leave this thread as im getting quite angry with some of the stupidity being displayed here by the minority of individuals living in cloud cuckoo land

i come from a background in care. Maisie had a lucky escape in finally finding a forever family and the only reason this worked for her was the therapy worked for her.

i saw nothing remotely disturbing or cruel in the therapy sessions and the practice linked to in the earlier post by anya clearly did not happen in this case on the documentary.

NonnoMum · 12/04/2011 23:07

I did find it very uncomfortable viewing seeing the little girl being distressed as part of her therapy.

Sort of - we have to break you before we can mend you...

Was lovely to see her being adopted. Hope the family gets tons of on-going support. From my (albeit) limited experience, things cango wrong for an adopted child after adolescence...

Good luck to everyone.

STARTLOOKING · 12/04/2011 23:14

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STARTLOOKING · 12/04/2011 23:18

nonno mum

you hit the nail on the head we have to break you before we can mend you

finally some one who can read between the lines

ThatVikRinA22 · 12/04/2011 23:28

that little girl had to confront her feelings of anger in order to understand why she felt so angry towards sue, her anger was making it impossible for anyone to adopt her (she had 2 failed adoptions behind her and 10 foster placements) and she was heading for a life of institutionalised care that her brother was already in - at enormous personal cost to the child and massive expense of the state.

i take it then startlooking you are some expert?

well so am i. i was in her position once, i have successfully raised a family to adulthood (including one with special needs) with no support, and i came from a background in care., i would have loved the support that she and her family were getting to live a normal life.

ive reported your post - name calling is really the last resort of someone who isnt eloquent enough for rational conversation.

susansocks · 12/04/2011 23:35

oh come on

susansocks · 12/04/2011 23:35

a daft moo????
Bear

STARTLOOKING · 12/04/2011 23:46

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ThatVikRinA22 · 12/04/2011 23:57

who on earth do you think you are to call into question my intelligence?

or make huge sweeping assumptions on if i was adopted, or not?

i think, if you have to attempt to analyse me, on a forum, and make such ridiculous sweeping statements on the state of my mental health, whether or not i was part of a family, and question my intellect and name call on what is a general discussion on a tv programme i think it just may be you who is displaying issues that you clearly haven't let go of despite your protestations.

the lady doth protest too much me thinks. now im not going to stoop to your level by telling you to fuck the fuck right off and when you get there to go fuck off some more.
i simply wouldnt do that as that would im sure that would give you some tenuous excuse to try and psycho analyse me some more.

gnite lovey. xxx

ThatVikRinA22 · 13/04/2011 00:02

oh btw - i think capitals denote shouting on the net - do you have anger issues STARTLOOKING?

STARTLOOKING · 13/04/2011 00:42

wow @ Vicarinatutu

I must admit your reply came some what of a shock how foul but in my mind it confirms that somthing of what i said struck a chord!

as for the capslock really does it denote shouting on the net wow you learn somthing new every day i must remember not to use caplocks other wise the net police will be after me lol good night god bless and may your life fill you with love and joy

jellybeansontoast · 13/04/2011 01:00

If you watch the documentary, the mother talks about when Maisie ran away in the shopping centre and became violent, aggressive and a danger to herself. She said, with great sadness and upset, that on that occasion it had been necessary to 'restrain her.'

By singling out that particular time and expressing such regret that the situation had arisen whereby for her own safety Maisie had to be restrained obviously shows that restraining the little girl was not common practice and not something they wanted to do.

The leg-locking etc is not the same as handling therapy and it is not the same as restraint. She was 9 years old and strong, she could easily have got through it. It's about setting up gentle boundaries and keeping her calm and safe. Those of you who think that the therapy was harmful clearly weren't watching the same documentary as the rest of us - it bloody worked, didn't it, or was I imagining Maisie being adopted and looking like the calm, happy child she has the right to be?

ThatVikRinA22 · 13/04/2011 01:19

jelly, you're were clearly imagining things - you should be outraged, apparently at seeing therapy being carried out successfully in a safe loving environment, because its upsetting, so best not to do it then and just hand her back like an unwanted puppy, to live her life free of upset in a secure unit for children who are unmanageable in a family setting, apparently. she wouldn't be upset at all if her 3rd adoption placement broke down and she lived out her childhood in care would she?

do i bother to explain myself for the benefit of the troll? ...don't think i'll bother. 4 posts. all on this thread.

PixieOnaLeaf · 13/04/2011 23:34

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