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Somerset Phoenix Project

Working alongside professionals and supporting children, young people and families affected by sexual abuse.

A specialist service supporting the development of professionals in Somerset. We are here to reduce the negative impact of child sexual abuse (CSA) on the lives of children and families living in Somerset

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Support for Children and Young People

The Somerset Phoenix Project is here to help children and young people who have been sexually abused. We also help the families of those young people and the professionals working with them. The service is for young people living in Somerset.


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Happy New Year!
03 Jan 2024

Happy New Year!

Somerset Phoneix Project can provide support to young people through:

  • Specialist trauma recovery work
  • Counselling
  • Professional consultation (also known as co-delivered specialist trauma recovery work) - this where the key professional working alongside the child delivers our supportive pre-written workplan, with all resources included
  • Therapeutic parental support

 

Specialist Trauma Recovery Work

Specialist trauma recovery work can offer an ample number of sessions to help children and young people understand what has happened and start to come to terms with this. The sessions will be in 8 week blocks and be reviewed regularly to see what needs to be done next. The workers are highly trained in working with young people who have experienced trauma and sexual abuse. They can work with children/YP to identify things in their lives that they may be finding difficult, and support them to make changes so that life becomes easier. They can help them understand why they feel the way they do and equip them to start to feel differently. They will not ask to discuss the details of the abuse, but if the child/YP wants to talk about it, they are trained in responding to this. They can provide support, advice, guidance and understanding. Specialist trauma recovery work is usually delivered in the school/college day and is led by the child/YP. If they like to be creative, we deliver the support in a creative way. They can also walk and talk, create bird boxes, go for drives in the car etc - we deliver the work through the most comfortable way for them.

 

Counselling

Counselling provides a safe, non-judgemental space in which the child/YP can talk to a trained, experienced trauma counsellor about their thoughts and feelings. 
Counsellors will work with them at their pace and will not advise them on what to do, but support and empower them to find their own answers, in order to help them cope and recover. A counsellor will usually offer 12-24 sessions, for 50 minutes once a week. This could be virtually or face-to-face.

 

Professional Consultation

(Also known as: Co-delivered specialist trauma recovery work)

We support you as the professional in the child or young person's life, to deliver the recovery work through the relationship you have with them. We provide a programme of recovery support with all the resources needed. We offer ongoing support throughout this process.

Please note: in order to utilise this service you must submit a request for support form and it must be accepted by the triage team.

Aims and outcome of engaging in professional consultation for the children/family:
  • To make a full systemic assessment of the child/young person and their family in order to decide on an appropriate action plan.

  • To advise on workable trauma-informed approaches/techniques to help support the child.

  • To take away a trauma informed plan and resources to support the child or young person, the family and your work with them.

Professional consultation will start with a virtual meeting. We will discuss the child/young person, their family and educational provision and jointly assess whether they are ready for recovery work to start. If recovery work can progress, we will take you through our pre-written programme of support during the initial virtual meeting. We will then make the programme of work bespoke for the child/young person and send it to you with all the resources and training needed to deliver the work. At the end of the meeting we will make a further date to get together to see how we can help further. In between the first and second meeting, the professional delivering the work can contact a named person in the Phoenix team to get support, if needed.

You have the relationship, this is where the magic of trauma recovery lies. 

 

Quote from a professional delivering our trauma recovery work programme

'Thank you for the amazing programme and resources you gave me after our first session together. They are so detailed that I felt really confident to deliver the work. It is great to know you are on the end of the phone or email if I get stuck and I am not alone. I am really enjoying delivering it'.

 

Requesting Support

To request support please head to our Request Support page. On there you can read our service criteria and download the most appropriate form to fill in and email to us. 

Barnardo's is a charity (216250 / SC037605) and a company limited by guarantee.
(61625 England - see the governing document). Registered office: Tanners Lane, Barkingside, Ilford, Essex IG6 1QG | VAT number 507477337