Tuart Place: Best-practice support Tuart Place is wholly committed to providing a service of excellence that responds to the unique circumstances of people who experienced out-of-home care during childhood. The central pillars of Tuart Place are safety, participant (care leaver) leadership and engagement, and a genuinely trauma-sensitive approach focussed on the needs and wishes of the individual. There can be nothing more powerful, and potentially healing, than connecting with others with shared experiences. A great strength of Tuart Place is that it provides opportunities for this to happen – either informally, at the drop-in centre and social events, or through the weekly support group. People say they like the informal approach of Tuart Place where they can ‘dip in and out’ of services as needs arise.
Given that trust is often so difficult for survivors, it is not surprising that many people first approach us with a ‘safe’ enquiry – such as locating personal records or joining in social activities – as a way of checking out if this is a safe place to go deeper – perhaps through counselling or discussing a claim for childhood abuse. Tuart Place has decades of experience in working with people to find the claims process that best suits their needs, and our staff is well equipped to talk about the various options. We always recommend getting legal advice, and can make warm referrals to trusted legal services. We also get legal feedback on all our National Redress applications and work closely with knowmore Legal Service to achieve the best possible outcome for people who decide to take part in the Scheme.
“It’s all about individual choice”
Individual counselling at Tuart Place
Sarah Regan Counsellor Redress Consultant
Face-to-face individual counselling and therapeutic group support are key features of the Tuart Place model. The service we offer is unique. Our staff are experts in the therapeutic support of adults who experienced childhood trauma and abuse – particularly in institutional and religious settings. The flexibility of our counselling model also sets us apart from other agencies. The pace and length of counselling are catered to individual needs and people often ‘dip in and out’ of counselling as needed. Tuart Place was using this trauma-informed approach long before the child abuse Royal Commission found it was ‘best practice’ for counselling survivors of institutional abuse. The Royal Commission’s findings affirmed and validated our approach, and helped to raise community awareness about trauma-sensitive counselling practice. Contact Reception at Tuart Place to find out more about our specialist counselling services.
Dickon Oxenburgh Counsellor Phone Outreach
Gordon Paton Psychotherapist (Mondays) 22
Susy Vaughan Senior Therapist Support Group Faciliator
Catherine Carr Counsellor Redress Consultant
“The Royal Commission affirmed our model of trauma-sensitive practice and helped raise awareness of it in the community”
