PATHWAYS TO HEALING PARTNERSHIP

Pathways to Healing Partnership (PTHP) is a team which works to support the needs of vulnerable moms and families who have a history of adversity/toxic stress, and may be pregnant or currently caring for young children who are living with the outcomes of developmental trauma.

What We Do:

•  Offer two unique online peer-support/ counselling groups for moms and dads (including client support outside of the groups)
• facilitate system change through:
  – the experiences of our clients
  – the experiences and wisdom of local First Nations
  – community trainings around Trauma Sensitive Practices
  – case consultation with various care provider teams
  – facilitation of care-provider communities through ongoing reflective practice
• meetingsmaintain and support healthy dyads/families
• provide psychoeducational opportunities to community agencies around the underlying mechanisms of trauma and problematic substance use, as well as the connection between the two
• PTHP goals include supporting care-provider systems in gaining a stronger understanding of individual regulation, parent stress-reduction, promotion of parent-child attachment, increased parental competency, relational practices and  reflective practice.

PTHP recognizes the critical importance of early life attachment experiences, and that children who develop in adversity may face later functional difficulties such as caregiver attachment challenges, poor impulse control, aggression, emotional reactivity, sensory processing issues, anxiety, depression, sleep problems, attentional difficulties, and difficulty at school/daycare. The team also recognizes the impact which early relational adversity has on experiences throughout pregnancy, childbirth, and parenthood (such as substance use). PTHP works to support systems in understanding and responding to the needs of these families, in order to provide the most effective trauma-informed, and family centered care possible.

Who We Are:

• PTHP is grounded in Dr. Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) and Dr. Brazelton’s Touchpoints
• PTHP educates community partners who are supporting vulnerable families
• PTHP emphasizes relational and reflective practice
• Team members are post-graduate clinical specialists

Referrals

PTHP offers clinical counselling support as an adjunct of its two peer-support groups, Mothers for Recovery and Island Dads.  In addition to receiving support directly in the group settings, Vanessa and Andrew both connect with group members individually, as needed throughout the week.  Please see our group descriptions below for more details on how to join.

More About PTHP

Through being grounded in the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT), PTHP works with children and families, by supporting involved community partners in collaborating with those families to create developmentally and relationally-informed therapeutic plans which meet their clients’ unique needs.  One of the most powerful roles PTHP has, is in helping people see parents and children who are living with the outcomes of early adversity, through an empathic and developmentally-informed lens. This understanding can help the systems supporting a family, to compassionately understand why members of that family may be experiencing certain current life challenges, which could otherwise be misinterpreted in more negative and discriminatory ways.

Through PTHP’s training in Dr. Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics and Brazelton Touchpoints, they aim to support systems of care in providing interventions which target specific brain areas from lowest to highest. As these lower brain areas are healed, upper parts of the brain are more accessible, becoming new targets in the sequence of therapy/engagement. This therapeutic approach works by increasing the number and quality of healthy, relational experiences which clients have in one day, in order to provide healing strategies which are Rhythmic, Repetitive, Relational, Relevant, Rewarding, and Respectful. Some of the goals of PTHP’s therapeutic approach are individual regulation, parent stress-reduction, Promotion of parent-child attachment, increased parental competency, and supporting the community system change necessary to accommodate and support the realization and maintenance of these goals.

Support Groups

PTHP Project Partners:

Project partners include the BC Ministry of Health, Children’s Health Foundation of Vancouver Island, and BC Ministry of Children and Family Development.

Meet The Team