Therapeutic support

As well as enjoying the naturally therapeutic environment at Paradise House, our residents receive additional support from Novalis Trust’s clinical therapy team.

Our team of qualified therapists offer a wide range of different forms of therapy including occupational therapy, psychotherapy and speech and language therapy.  We also have excellent links with our local community learning disability team who provide specialist health care services to our residents to enable and support them to participate in daily activities and increase their levels of independence.

Types of therapy available

We offer a variety of different forms of therapy – each of our residents has different needs when it comes to therapeutic support, so we offer targeted interventions aimed at ensuring that they can access therapy in a form that is most beneficial to them. Our clinical therapy team also offer individual and group counselling, health and advice and psychological education sessions where are range of subjects are explored such as peer and family relationships, living in groups, how to keep safe and dealing with loss.

Speech and
language therapy

This aims to support residents with their communication, language and interaction skills. Our speech therapists offer support in many areas including social skills, emotional literacy, vocabulary enrichment and self-awareness.

Occupational Therapy (OT)

OT provides practical support to residents to enable them to overcome barriers to learning and to help them with daily life tasks. It can also include support with self-care, functional skills, independence and life skills, sensory needs and motor skills.

Trauma focused Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)

CBT involves addressing problems in a very practical way. It aims to change any thinking or behaviour patterns a person may have which might cause or worsen a problem. This can have an impact on their feelings so that they can overcome the particular difficulty.

Creative therapy
Creative therapy offers residents the chance to explore and communicate through the use of music, dance and drama. It aims to have positive effect on emotional wellbeing and self-esteem and to improve their ability to communicate and concentrate.

Counselling

Counselling is a form of “talking therapy” which gives people the opportunity to think and talk through a problem or issue. It provides them with the chance to express their feelings and to explore options for overcoming the difficulty in question.

Psychotherapy

This helps people find new ways to think about personal issues and difficulties by exploring how their feelings and thoughts are connected to their relationships and behaviour.

Attachment focused therapy (dyadic developmental psychotherapy)

Attachment based therapy focuses on enabling people to establish secure attachments with their carers by developing or rebuilding trust. It is often used in conjunction with other forms of therapy.

Trauma Art
Narrative Therapy (TANT)™

TANT is a structured creative cognitive exposure technique used to resolve traumatic events. It uses non-interpretative drawing step techniques aimed at reducing intrusive symptoms like nightmares, flashbacks, body memories and other PTSD related behaviours from both simple and complex traumas.

Systemic family work

Systemic family work is offered as a way of supporting our residents families to discuss and work through difficulties in their relationships with each other. Sessions provide family members with an opportunity to talk to each other with the aim of helping them to understand each other better, change negative behaviours and resolve conflicts.

Clinical psychology

Clinical psychology uses direct observation, interviews and other techniques to identify and deal with a variety of mental and physical health problems including anxiety, depression, learning difficulties and relationship issues.

Our therapy animals

One of Novalis Trust’s therapy dogs – a gorgeous and good-natured black Labrador called Dante – takes time out from his duties at Cotswold Chine School to visit Paradise House twice a week. When he’s not going out for walks with residents, he likes spending time in the houses and generally treating everyone he meets as his new best friend.

We also have a pair of larger four-legged therapists in the form of our very own miniature Shetland ponies called Jigsaw and Puzzle.  Admittedly, they don’t actually have any formal therapy qualifications (they don’t even know how to spell ‘therapy’!). However, we defy anyone to spend more than five minutes in their company and not feel more content and better about life in general. Their calm and gentle temperaments make them very popular members of the Paradise House community – they love being groomed and accompanying our residents on therapeutic walks around the grounds.