DDP Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy

DDP is a therapy family therapy focussed on building parent/carer skills in attunement and helping children increase the security of their attachment to their parent/carer thus increasing trust and safety. The intervention can be for ‘parents only’ focussed on helping parents/carers develop understanding of the child’s difficulties in the context of their traumatic past.  Alternatively, it may be for ‘parent and child’ together involving the therapist leading reciprocal interactive exchanges that help the child make sense of their experiences and develop a coherent narrative, thus increasing self-worth, confidence and self-esteem. 

A DDP intervention usually consists of about 20 x 2 hour sessions with initial sessions focussed on assessment, consultation and psycho-education with parents. Following this, the sessions and intervention will be tailored flexibly around the needs of the family involving a mix of parent only and child and parent sessions.