'Nurturing and healing through connection'
Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP)
Laura practices DDP informed sessions with her clients both adults and children and is working towards completing the practicum.
What is DDP
DDP (dyadic developmental psychotherapy) is a therapy that was originally developed by Daniel Hughes to help children who had been through developmental trauma, such as neglect, abuse, or chronic trauma.
The heart of DDP is to help a child feel safe through relationships. Sometimes, these relationships involve their parents, their adoptive parents, their foster parents or whoever the safe adult is in a child’s life.
How does it help
DDP helps to regulate emotions and to feel safe in relationships. If, for example, the child has lived through chronic stress and trauma, these will have affected the way in which the child’s brain has developed. This means that the child might become distressed more easily, the child might not be able to trust in relationships, or the child might not be able to connect in relationships in the way that humans are evolved to do.
What is the process
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Laura works with parents first to help them understand the reason for their child’s behaviour, where the child might be extremely rejecting or dissociating, the child might not be able to make relationships, or the child might be going through really difficult behavioural processes. Through a particular way of communication, DDP will then start making the child feel safe. At the same time, the relationship between the child and the child’s parents will also develop as a result of DDP.
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