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The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of a Learning Programme designed around the animation film-making process, contextualising abstract concepts to address the cognitive limitations of children with foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD).

Animation production is tactile, multimodal and multisensory which allows for wide application alongside traditional learning tools, targeting multiple learning pathways with its visual, auditory and kinaesthetic approach. Individuals with FASD require information to be explained in a concrete way to enable them to process and understand. Most information can be drawn, providing a visual to assist the individual, but we must also consider abstract concepts which require further explanation or a series of drawings to display the concepts development. Animation, however, allows us the opportunity to make abstract concepts concrete, contextualising the concept in a visualisation of the child’s story, narrated with their voice and designed to represent their world, in a film produced entirely by them, therefore allowing opportunity for a therapeutic approach to learning through storytelling. This learning tool is designed to be implemented in a specifically designed therapeutic learning environment to enhance the benefits of participation from both educational and therapeutic perspectives.

A review of relevant literature highlights a significant connection between animation, the learning needs of those with FASD and the need for a therapeutic learning environment. This is a proof of concept study, demonstrating the value and potential of animation film making in this new area of practical application. The study closely considers the learning environment from a therapeutic perspective and aims not only to develop a learning tool but to also define the optimum therapeutic learning environment. The study is therefore untested at this stage.

Phase 2 of this ongoing research study seeks to explore additional benefits of participation and engagement with the process in an educational and therapeutic context. Considerations of the therapeutic learning environment will be further explored to determine the optimum setting to support the ongoing learning of this pedagogically bereft (Carpenter, 2011) population. Phase 2 also aims to clarify therapeutic benefits as additional outcomes of participation in this programme.

The proposed learning tool and therapeutic learning environment outlined in this paper is an original contribution to knowledge and if found to be successful, could offer significant opportunities for a therapeutic approach to education for this population and others.

The purpose of this paper is to explore staff and service users’ perceptions of therapeutic principles within a unique male high secure learning disability therapeutic community (LDTC).

A qualitative approach was adopted using deductive content analysis and inductive thematic analysis. In total, 12 participants took part in a semi-structured interview to explore their perceptions of Haigh’s (2013) quintessence principles and any further additional therapeutic features in the environment not captured by the theory.

All five quintessence principles were identified in the LDTC environment. Some limits to the principle of “agency” were highlighted, with specific reference to difficulties implementing a flattened hierarchy in a forensic setting. Additional therapeutic features were identified including; security and risk, responsivity, and more physical freedom which appear to aid implementation of the quintessence principles.

The study was performed within a single case study design. Therefore, results remain specific to this LDTC. However, the finding of these principles in such a unique setting may indicate Haigh’s (2013) quintessence principles are evident in other TC environments.

This is the first research paper that has attempted to test whether Haigh’s (2013) quintessence principles are evident within a given therapeutic community. The research provides empirical evidence for the quintessence principles in a novel TC setting and suggests recommendations for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to present a previously unpublished letter from children’s therapeutic community pioneer David Wills to his younger colleague in the field, Robert Laslett, which attempts to define and summarise a lifetime’s understanding of the essence of a therapeutic environment. This raises concepts and issues of relevance to current theory and practice in therapeutic environments.

The authors contextualise the 1977 letter from David Wills before presenting it verbatim, with clarifying annotations relating to people and events. They then analyse and discuss the fundamental arguments presented in the letter, with relevance to current thinking and practice.

The approach presented by David Wills to his younger colleague is deeply challenging to current concepts and understandings of therapeutic environments and the role in the therapeutic task of subjectivity and “attitude of mind”. The view is taken that this presents “a great question for wide debate, right now”.

Very little historical/analytical research has taken place into the experiences, thinking and practice of those who have built the diverse fields of therapeutic communities and environments, not least because history disturbs and challenges the present. This paper opens a small window on the vast resources which are available, and indicates something of the rich potential for debate and practical challenge Experts by Experience pose to living and, hopefully, learning practitioners to day.

Questions are raised: the debate they engender should eventuate into clearer, better grounded, more radical, and more effective practice.

This letter challenges assumptions about the role and nature of the “therapeutic attitude” and the place of subjectivity, with profound implications for the therapeutic enterprise itself, and the organisation of therapeutic environments, as well as policy, assessment and regulation regimes.

The use of previously unpublished archive material opens living questions to examination from a different perspective, widening the debate to include voices of expertise and experience which are generally, consciously or unconsciously, excluded from it. Presenting the letter in its whole, and not excerpted as supporting evidence, allows the voice of expertise by experience to contribute directly to discussion and debate; unbalancing and enriching it.

The purpose of this paper is to present a study assessing residents’ satisfaction with the integration of natural environment in public housing designs in Enugu urban, Nigeria.

The study followed qualitative and quantitative strategies. Personal observations and one-on-one interviews were conducted where necessary. A survey of 898 households residing in two main prevalent residential building typologies, systematically selected based on quota of their existence in seven public housing estates, was conducted, with a questionnaire as the key data collection instrument. A five-point Likert scale was used in measuring residents’ level of satisfaction of three key housing environment sub-components. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Residents expressed dissatisfaction with overall housing estate environment in terms of naturalness in the estate landscaping and availability of green areas, and also with immediate dwelling unit environments in terms open spaces and naturalness in external finishes. Many of the residents, however, claimed to be indifferent about the extent of response of layout designs to natural factors, and street layout concepts to climatic influences. This reveals a high level of apathy of residents to their estates designs.

Collecting relevant data from the government agency that are the providers of the public housing studied was a herculean task, as there was no existing organized data bank. Consequently, the researcher depended more on extensive field work. In addition to the above, getting the questionnaire respondents to agree to participate in the study was another major challenge, as they were not used to participating in such studies before the current study.

Findings from the study imply that residents’ are adaptable to whatever housing environment they are provided with; therefore, therapeutic housing environment, if provided, would enhance healthy living for public housing residents in Nigeria.

This work is a pioneering effort at evaluating public housing environment in the study area in relation to residents’ perception.

There is increasing interest in applying strength-based approaches to offender rehabilitation. The purpose of this paper is to use the Good Lives Model (GLM) as an example to illustrate the fit that exists between strength-based approaches to offender rehabilitation and therapeutic communities.

The authors briefly describe the GLM before discussing the key themes that link the two perspectives; the authors argue they naturally fit together in a number of areas.

Both perspectives emphasise the importance of creating a safe and trusting therapeutic environment in which capacities (e.g. skills) can be developed that assist individuals to go on to live lives which are personally meaningful, and in which all their needs are met, enabling them to live offence free. Both also place importance on the role of personal responsibility.

The authors conclude the GLM could usefully contribute to improving outcomes for those transitioning into the community after leaving a Therapeutic Community, through developing clear life goals that are personally meaningful, and identifying practical steps for achieving these goals.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the necessary primary emotional development experiences for healthy personality formation.

The paper is a critical synthesis of psychoanalytic theory.

Five experiences are judged necessary for health “primary emotional development”: attachment, containment, communication, inclusion and agency. These can be deliberately recreated in therapeutic environments to form a structure for “secondary emotional development”.

The ways in which these qualities of a psychosocial environment can be produced are described.

Failure to recognise the importance of these qualities of an environment can cause unhealthy, or frankly toxic, psychosocial environments in various settings.

This is the author's original work, and has relevance for all psychosocial environments.

Training in therapeutic community and related approaches has not been widely available, and there is debate about the form this should take. This has had a negative impact on the field. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The authors consider the history of training in democratic therapeutic community methods in the UK in particular, and trace some of the reasons for its lack of development.

With the expansion of TC methodology into new areas, such as therapeutic and enabling environments, the ability to provide training in DTC approaches and techniques is increasingly important. The developing evidence base, and the increasing detail in which the method has been described, make dedicated TC training increasingly important.

Training in therapeutic community methods, and enabling and therapeutic environment approaches, provides a grounding in technique and theory that would otherwise be impossible to acquire for most workers, and can lead to a general increase in the level of competence and confidence in the way these environments operate.

This study aims to describe Italian and UK therapeutic community developments during 1960–2021.

Historical review and personal experience.

After significant divergence in the nature of “therapeutic communities”, mostly based on the different sociopolitical contexts in the two countries, areas of formal rapprochement have been emerging in the past 20 years.

The details of how therapeutic communities developed in Italy, particularly in the wake of Law 180, deserves investigation and comparison to the UK and other countries.

The recent collaborative work in quality, training and research could support the future use of therapeutic communities and enabling environments.

The underlying principle of “relational practice”, which underlies the therapeutic community approach, could have wider implication in public services beyond mental health.

Much has been written about the progressive intentions of Italian mental health with Law 180, but not with a specific focus on therapeutic communities – which were an important initial impetus for Basaglia and his equipé.

The purpose of this paper is to inform readers and researchers about the use of a “lived experience” of therapeutic community work as an effective intervention for severely emotionally troubled children.

An explanation of the main developmental influences and how the Mulberry Bush School is continuing to incorporate new theories and approaches.

How the Mulberry Bush as a specialist therapeutic residential provision can bring about excellent outcomes for severely emotionally troubled children.

The paper explores the work and legacy of the school's founder Barbara Dockar-Drysdale and of her collaboration with Donald Winnicott to create a lived experience of community as an agent of therapeutic change. The paper also provides descriptions and a case study of the current multi-disciplinary work of the school, including how neuroscientific research is influencing the evolution of the therapeutic task with traumatised children.

The paper shows how a highly evolved model of integrated provision can support excellent outcomes for traumatised children and young people.

To broaden and deepen knowledge about the use of therapeutic community principles in the treatment of severely emotionally trouble children and young people.

The purpose of this paper is to review issues of relevance to practitioners using group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) with women in secure settings.

The extant literature on CBT as applied to women in secure settings is reviewed to highlight best practice. Aspects of best practice are illustrated with examples from a women's medium secure service.

Obstacles include the characteristics of the patient group, treatment non compliance and an environment that accepts the primacy of security over treatment. Environmental and need factors amenable to intervention are highlighted in addition to CBT specific considerations that include the timing and intensiveness of treatment, content and delivery of therapy, treatment readiness and use of the group process. The use of a manualised CBT group treatment aid attempts to ensure treatment integrity is associated, and which is associated with treatment outcome. A focus on the social and environmental factors that attribute to the therapeutic milieu is vital to treatment generalisation, as is harnessing the therapeutic potential of the built environment. Finally, treatment evaluation imposes a structure that can facilitate progress in treatment.

There is comparatively little work on CBT group treatments for women in secure settings. Attempts to synthesise best practice initiatives in this area are helpful in guiding treatment developments.