Returning Home: A Pilot Therapy Project Run for Children in Their Final Year at Ahava Residential -Day -Care as an Opportunity to Enhance and Empower Their Families

Purpose

The purpose of this pilot project was to promote positive parenting practices, strengthen connections and enhance support to the day-care-boarding-services families whose children are in their final year and are expected to return home.

Background

A large percentage of the children in AHAVA Village are first or second generation of migrants to Israel from countries around the world. These are low functioning families with complex needs who in addition to facing daily challenges are also intrigued by cultural, lingual and identity issues. Needless to say, all these factors endanger parent-child relationship and parental authority.

Method

The Intensive Dyadic Model (IDM) is an intervention therapeutic model by which a parent and child meet at Ahava Village for experiential art sessions focusing on the "here and now` guided by an art therapist. Following this joint encounter, the therapist continues with a parent- individual meeting to support parent in rethinking, exploring and taking in insights from previous session.

Findings and implications

IDM enhances parents and children`s better understanding of each other`s needs and wishes, it provides tools for open transparent discussion, and advocates for the ever-existing option to repair relationships in the event of breakdown.