Setting the PACE
Playfulness · Acceptance · Curiosity · Empathy
At Cloverdale House, we recognise that many children and young people who come into our care have experienced trauma, loss, disrupted attachments, adverse childhood experiences, and significant emotional challenges. These experiences often influence how they communicate, relate to others, regulate their emotions, and respond to the world around them.
To support healing and recovery, we embed the PACE approach Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, and Empathy throughout every aspect of our therapeutic care model. Working alongside our Trauma-Informed Risk Behaviour Therapy (TIRBT) framework, PACE enables our team to build trusting relationships, reduce anxiety, promote emotional safety, and help children develop resilience, confidence, and positive life outcomes.
PACE is not simply a communication technique; it is the culture of our home and underpins every interaction between our staff and the children and young people we support.
Playfulness
Playfulness helps children feel emotionally safe, reduces anxiety, and strengthens trusting relationships. Many children who have experienced trauma have learned to expect criticism, rejection, or conflict. A playful approach helps replace fear with connection.
At Cloverdale House, playfulness does not mean making light of a child’s experiences or avoiding difficult conversations. Instead, it means using warmth, humour, creativity, and shared enjoyment to build relationships and help children feel secure.
Our staff will:
- Use age-appropriate humour to reduce stress and diffuse difficult situations.
- Encourage imaginative play, creative arts, music, cooking, sports, gaming, and outdoor activities.
- Celebrate achievements and milestones in enjoyable and meaningful ways.
- Create opportunities for positive shared experiences between staff and young people.
- Use playful engagement to encourage participation in education, life skills, and therapeutic activities.
- Adapt activities to suit each child’s developmental stage, interests, communication style, and abilities.
Through playfulness, children begin to experience adults as safe, predictable, and enjoyable people to be around, helping to rebuild trust and positive attachment relationships.
Acceptance
Acceptance means communicating to children that they are valued, respected, and worthy of care regardless of their past experiences or behaviours.
We understand that behaviour is often a form of communication rather than deliberate defiance. We separate the child from the behaviour, recognising that challenging behaviours frequently reflect unmet emotional needs, trauma responses, anxiety, fear, or difficulties with emotional regulation.
Our staff will:
- Accept children without judgement or criticism.
- Promote unconditional positive regard in every interaction.
- Respect each child’s identity, culture, religion, sexuality, beliefs, and personal experiences.
- Avoid labelling or shaming children.
- Recognise individual strengths alongside areas of need.
- Support children to learn from mistakes without fear of rejection.
- Reinforce that every child deserves love, care, safety, and opportunities to succeed.
This accepting approach helps children develop positive self-esteem, emotional security, and confidence in forming healthy relationships.
Curiosity
Curiosity is at the heart of trauma-informed care.
Rather than asking “What’s wrong with you?”, we ask “What has happened to you?” and “What are you trying to communicate?”
Children’s behaviours often make sense when viewed through the lens of their experiences. Our staff remain curious about the underlying emotions, needs, and triggers that influence behaviour.
Our team will:
- Listen actively without making assumptions.
- Ask gentle, open-ended questions.
- Explore feelings and experiences with sensitivity.
- Reflect on what behaviour may be communicating.
- Help children recognise links between emotions, thoughts, and behaviours.
- Encourage children to express themselves in ways that feel safe.
- Work collaboratively with therapists, schools, families, and professionals to better understand each child.
Curiosity enables children to feel heard rather than judged and supports them to develop greater self-awareness, emotional literacy, and healthier coping strategies.
Empathy
Empathy is the foundation of all meaningful therapeutic relationships.
Many children entering residential care have experienced adults who misunderstood, dismissed, or minimised their emotions. At Cloverdale House, we seek first to understand before responding.
Our staff strive to see situations from the child’s perspective while maintaining appropriate professional boundaries and helping children develop safe ways to manage emotions.
Our staff will:
- Validate children’s emotions without necessarily agreeing with unsafe behaviours.
- Respond calmly during times of distress.
- Offer reassurance, comfort, and emotional containment.
- Help children identify and name their feelings.
- Model emotional regulation and respectful communication.
- Support children to repair relationships following conflict.
- Encourage compassion towards themselves and others.
Empathy helps children feel emotionally safe, reduces shame, strengthens attachment relationships, and promotes healing from trauma.
PACE in Practice at Cloverdale House
PACE is embedded throughout daily life within our home. It influences how we communicate, respond to behaviours, plan care, support education, deliver key work sessions, manage risks, and celebrate achievements.
Every interaction is viewed as an opportunity to strengthen relationships, build resilience, and promote emotional recovery.
Working Alongside Trauma-Informed Risk Behaviour Therapy (TIRBT)
PACE complements our Trauma-Informed Risk Behaviour Therapy approach by helping staff understand that behaviours are often adaptive survival responses developed through adverse experiences.
By combining PACE with TIRBT, our staff:
- Recognise the impact of trauma on behaviour and development;
- Reduce the risk of re-traumatisation through compassionate and consistent care;
- Identify unmet emotional needs rather than focusing solely on behaviours;
- Build trusting, secure relationships that support recovery;
- Teach healthier coping strategies and emotional regulation skills;
- Promote resilience, independence, and positive decision-making; and
- Empower children to develop confidence, self-worth, and hope for the future.
Healing Happens Through Relationships
At Cloverdale House, we believe that healing happens through relationships. Every child deserves to feel safe, understood, accepted, and valued.
By embedding the principles of Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, and Empathy into every aspect of our care, alongside our Trauma-Informed Risk Behaviour Therapy (TIRBT) model, we create a nurturing, therapeutic environment where children and young people can recover from adversity, build trusting relationships, develop emotional resilience, and achieve their full potential.
Our commitment is to ensure that every child who lives at Cloverdale House experiences a home where they are listened to, respected, encouraged, and empowered to thrive today and into adulthood.