DDP Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy



Early on in my training I came across Dan Hughes' PACE model. I loved the PACE model and noticed changes in many children when school staff, parents or carers at home used this model. Although set up for children who have experienced trauma, I see it work with most other children too.

" Central within DDP is PACE, a way of thinking which deepens the emotional connections in our relationship with others.

Playfulness brings enjoyment to the relationship. Acceptance creates psychological safety. When we curiously explore within a relationship we express a desire to know the other more deeply. Empathy communicates our curiosity and acceptance, as we recognize and respond to the other’s emotional experience."

"Dan Hughes, a Clinical Psychologist, created Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) as a treatment for families with adopted or fostered children who had experienced neglect and abuse in their birth families and suffered from significant developmental trauma.

DDP is based on and brings together attachment theory, what we understand about developmental trauma, the neurobiology of trauma, attachment and caregiving, intersubjectivity theory and child development.

Troubled children may have had many changes in the people who look after them and find it hard to trust adults. They may believe that parents aren’t safe and can’t always be turned to for comfort and help. They may develop insecure attachments and try to stop their new parents from becoming emotionally close to them.

The therapy helps the children learn to trust. It is family-based and involves the child with his or her caregivers." (https://ddpnetwork.org/about-ddp/).

I have completed the training for DDP and am looking at doing the practical part of the training over the next year and a half.