A ROCKING therapist whose team developed an innovative approach to helping young people with severe problems has received a prestigious award for her work.

Clare Holden and her colleagues have had to work hard to put their ideals and suggestions into practice and the youngsters in their care are already showing the benefits.

Clare, 39, who works at Branas Isaf in Llandderfel, near Bala, received a silver award in this year’s Wales Care Awards, organised by Care Forum Wales to recognize outstanding work in the care sector.

Clare, a rock music fan who often attends festivals in this country and overseas, was shortlisted for the Peter Clarke Award for Promoting Excellence in Services for Children and Young People sponsored by Care Inn Ltd.

The presentation took place at City Hall, Cardiff, and the main sponsors of the evening were Onyx Healthcare.

Branas Isaf, which is part of the CareTech family, accommodates youngsters aged 12-18 from throughout the country with a range of complex social, educational and behavioural needs.

Clare gained a degree and master’s degree in psychology and post-graduate studies in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

After being employed for a number of years in the NHS and prison service she started working as a therapist at Branas Isaf four years ago.

After returning from a CareTech awards event about two years ago, she and her colleagues gave serious thought to how the service provided to the young people and families at Branas Isaf could be improved and were aware of Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), a form of CBT adapted to help people who experience emotions very intensely.

“It’s mainly used to treat problems associated with borderline personality disorder, but it has also effectively been used to treat a number of other different types of difficulties,” she said.

She and her colleagues, realising how it would benefit the young people at Branas, gained approval from their head of service to undergo training, and funding was obtained.

The training the team undertook proved much more intensive than expected, involving formal exams, case studies and lengthy reading lists, but on completion of the course the team was eager to put it into practice, with the result that Branas is the first specialist residential children’s service in the UK to deliver a full comprehensive DBT programme.

Clare was nominated for the award by clinical manager Dr Carl O’Neil, who said she had been one of the main driving forces in delivering the service.

She was keen to stress that it would not have happened without the close co-operation of the integrated therapy, education and care teams at Branas Isaf.

Although it is still in its early stages it is beginning to produce positive results.

“There are no formal results yet but we can most certainly see positive changes,” she said.

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