Specialist Support for Families Built Through Care
Understanding the complexities of early adversity — and helping children and families heal.
What we offer
Children who have experienced foster care, adoption or life in residential settings carry unique histories that require specialist understanding. Early adversity — including neglect, abuse, separation and loss — shapes the developing brain in ways that can affect attachment, behaviour, learning and emotional regulation long into childhood and beyond. At Abacus Psychology Service, we provide specialist psychological support for children in care, care leavers, adoptive families, foster carers and the professionals who support them.
Why Specialist Support for Looked-After Children Matters
Children in care and adoptive families often present with difficulties that are misunderstood by mainstream services. Behaviour that stems from trauma and disrupted attachment can be misread as deliberate or manipulative — leading to placement breakdowns, exclusions and escalating crisis. Specialist support that is rooted in an understanding of early adversity makes a profound difference — helping children feel safe, helping families feel equipped and helping systems respond more helpfully.
Our Care & Adoption Support Services
Psychological Assessment
Specialist psychological assessment of children's developmental, emotional and attachment needs — including Looked After Children reviews, care proceedings and placement planning.
Therapeutic Support for Children
Individual therapy for children and young people using approaches including DDP, EMDR, narrative therapy and play therapy — always delivered with sensitivity to their history and relational needs.
Therapeutic Parenting Support
We provide guidance, training and therapeutic support for adoptive parents and foster carers — helping them understand their child's behaviour through an attachment and trauma lens.
Assessments for Care Proceedings
We provide specialist psychological assessments for children involved in care proceedings — including parenting capacity assessments, risk assessments and therapeutic needs assessments.
Life Story Work
We support children in making sense of their history through developmentally appropriate life story work — helping them build a coherent narrative about who they are and where they come from.
Professional Consultation
We offer consultation and training to social workers, foster agencies, residential providers and other professionals supporting children in care.
