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The Triple-A Model of Therapeutic Care

Thursday 24 March 2016

Hi! Welcome to the world of the Triple-A Model of Therapeutic Care. I hope that you find it to be a valuable addition to your knowledge about what to do when caring for children who have experienced abuse and neglect.

My name is Colby Pearce and I am an Australian Clinical Psychologist with more than twenty years experience as an applied researcher and clinician in child and adolescent mental health. I began my career conducting research into the factors that contribute to teenagers attempting to take their own life. For much of my working life since that time I have worked with children who have experienced significant adversity, and their carers. I am the author of two books and many articles about how adversity and trauma shape the development and adjustment of children and how to restore the foundations for a happy and successful life. I have extended my ideas to approaches to care that promote resilience in all children.

I developed the Triple-A Model of Therapeutic Care because I saw a need for carers of deeply hurt and troubled children to get a fuller picture of why these children behave in the way they do. I also saw a need for carers to know what aspects of conventional care and relational behaviour help these children overcome the effects of the adversity they have experienced and lead fuller and more satisfying lives.

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Some readers are new to parenting. In this handbook I talk often about what is part of conventional caregiving and what caregivers are already doing that is important. I write in this way for ease of expression. This does not mean that this handbook is not for you. Rather, treat it as a roadmap, as opposed to a parenting re-focus.

The handbook contains theory and strategies.  Though you may be tempted to skip the theory and get into the strategies, I have endeavoured to make the theory part as user-friendly as possible. I strongly encourage you to read the theory to better understand the rationale for the strategies in the model.

The strategies are presented in a simple step-by step manner, as opposed to a whole bunch of strategies and no direction as to what comes first and what order to follow. I trust that you will find this method easy to follow.

There is a section on carer self-care as your health and wellbeing are vitally important to the child or children in your care.

The Triple-A Model of Therapeutic Care incorporates an evaluation component. It includes Pre- and Post-Questionnaires that address the functioning of the child in your care. In addition, there are daily monitoring questionnaires that provide a baseline of the child’s functioning and the child’s ongoing functioning as you implement the strategies that form the Model. This is an important part of the process of ensuring and demonstrating that the Triple-A Model of Therapeutic Care achieves its goals.

Thank you for taking part in the Triple-A Model of Therapeutic Care. I sincerely hope that it will make a positive contribution to your life and the lives of children you care for.

Colby Pearce – January 2015

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