“Our new training package is designed to help parents who face the challenges of conflict and displacement.”
On 16 January 2024 we ran two days of training for an international audience on how to lead courses in TRT Plus Parenting, a new addition to our psychological support for children traumatised by war and other disasters.
TRT Plus Parenting provides five sessions for the parents of traumatised children, to be run in conjunction with children’s TRT groups. It gives parents information about trauma and how to help their children as they attend these groups. The sessions also help them with the challenges they will face in parenting children who are experiencing the stresses of conflict and displacement.
Originally conceived by our co-founder Bill Yule and Professor Rachel Calam of Manchester University, TRT Plus Parenting has been developed by two experts on parenting in conflict zones – Rachel Calam and Aala El-Khani. It has been used in refugee camps in the Middle East and in war-affected Ukraine. We are now gathering experience and evidence to show how this programme can help parents facing other kinds of disasters, such as earthquakes and fires.
Our January training was attended online by 38 caregiving professionals from the UK, Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt, Estonia, Austria and Germany. The children they work with include those affected by the war in Ukraine, by last year’s earthquake in Turkey, refugees in the UK and Austria, and unaccompanied minors in the UK.
The event was led by Rachel Calam, Professor of Child and Family Psychology at Manchester University, and Aala El-Khani, consultant psychologist at UNODC and research associate at Manchester University. The event was a collaboration with Manchester University and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
If you are interested in hearing about our future training sessions, please email us at training@childrenandwar-uk.org.
