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Olivia Okonkwo
Dr Dean Whittington previously worked for 16 years as a psychotherapist within the addictions/self-medication field, initially based in Deptford SE London, and then latterly working across South Lo...ver másDr Dean Whittington previously worked for 16 years as a psychotherapist within the addictions/self-medication field, initially based in Deptford SE London, and then latterly working across South London. In the process he devised the first BAME, Women and Men’s therapeutic drug services along with support for young people at school.
This therapeutic work unearthed issues relating to trauma in childhood during the 1990’s, dynamics that later shaped adolescence and adulthood often hidden from mainstream services. Therapeutic insight became a way of understanding the young people’s behaviour as opposed to imposing labels, idealisations and projections upon them. In the therapeutic work undertaken with the homeless from 2006-2011, underlying traumatic issues
were unearthed.
This discovery provided the basis for the launch of psychologically informed environments, later used by the Dept of Communities and Local Government in a more truncated form. The basis of LIFE is a return to the more expansive holistic and phenomenological foundations of PIE; erased within the current ideations. This expansiveness is highlighted here:
Emotional recovery and positive interventions require building on key individual strengths whilst working towards a life vision. All of this necessitates working through trauma whilst requiring constant reflexivity when entering the bath of steel.
The impetus for the service is grounded upon
praxis drawing from both theory and practice to
think about how best to support everyone. As
someone who is mixed ethnicity and grew up
in various environments where I faced several
predicaments, I eventually undertook a reflection
on my experiences.
I became aware for example that the people around
me had assisted me with my emotional growth and
from this reflection I began to see how other young
people can also be assisted to embark on a similar
trajectory: although no two journeys are ever the
same. In thinking about how best to support
young people I can see that working through early
trauma and building a positive sense of the future
are essential.
As someone who is involved in setting up the
service, my role is in building the container where
the staff team can innovate whilst working with the
young people to enhance their creativity. It requires
working through their defences, needing significant
patience in both building, and then sustaining trust.
It also entails thinking about the long-term impact
of inter-generational trauma, in particular, how
this shapes the present-day worlds of individuals:
providing the basis to reflect on how to change the
young people’s internal scripts.ver menos