Family Futures Announce a One Day Conference on Family Relationship Influences on Children's Mental Health

London, July 28, 2014 (Newswire.com) - On the 21st November Family Futures Annual Making Connections Conference will focus on Family Relationship Influences on Children’s Mental Health. Keynote speakers include Professor Gordon Harold PhD, Director, Rudd Centre for Adoption Research and Practice, Jay Vaughan, Director, Dr Elaine McCullough, Clinical Psychologist, Family Futures and Amanda Owen, Clinical Psychologist, Family Futures.

Professor Gordon Harold will be presenting the following: Disentangling Nature from Nurture: Research implications for Adoption Services.

Family Futures is a London based adoption agency who provide comprehensive and integrated therapy child-focused and parent friendly programmes for children who have experienced trauma or attachment difficulties and are living with adoptive or birth parents, foster carers or special guardians. The aim of Family Futures is to make family life sustainable for children who have had traumatic early experiences; Family Futures understand how these early experiences can affect children's development and make them challenging to parent and educate.

Jess Smith

The presentation will look at in-depth mediating variables that underpin positive versus negative outcomes for children in the context of adoption and complementary family domains (e.g. children conceived through IVF).  In particular, Professor Gordon Harold will be shedding new light on the relative significance of genetics versus environments in examining the role of children’s early family experiences and their later emotional and behavioural development.   His findings challenge some of our existing assumptions and have direct implications for policy and practice in the field.

Jay Vaughan and Dr Elaine McCullough will present, for the first time findings that provide evidence for positive change in Developmentally Traumatised children following NPP therapeutic intervention in their presentation entitled Evidence that Family Futures’ Neuro Physiological Psychotherapeutic (NPP) Approach to Developmental Trauma has Positive Outcomes for Traumatised Children.

Amanda Owen will be sharing her findings from cognitive assessments carried out on the Family Futures’ population of Developmentally Traumatised children, which looked at IQ, Executive Functioning and other areas of cognitive functioning.  This is the first time a systematic overview has been reported in the UK.

This conference is for professionals working with children who have experienced developmental trauma, for example, Paediatricians, child psychiatrists, clinical and educational psychologists, OT’s, therapists, teachers, social workers, members of the legal profession, researchers, adoptive parents and foster carers. It will provide insights into research evidence about the mediating factors between trauma in infancy and positive outcomes for traumatised children, research evidence that a neurophysiological approach to treating traumatised children achieves positive outcomes and evidence of the incidents of cognitive processing difficulties in children who have experienced early trauma.

The cost for this conference is £200, with an associate rate of £185. There is an early bird fee of £160 in place if booked by 16th September. Conference packs, refreshments and lunch will be provided.