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Therapeutic services for children, young people and families (Take Two)

Young girl lying down colouring in

Berry Street's Take Two program is a Victoria-wide therapeutic service helping to address the mental health impacts on children of the trauma they have experienced from abuse, neglect or adverse experiences.

At Take Two we see who the child is, not just the behaviour.

Take Two supports families and caregivers nurturing babies, children and young people aged 0 to 17 years old.

We use clinical frameworks, neurobiological research and evidence-informed approaches to understand a child’s experience through their eyes. We know the children we work with are not to blame for the trauma they are suffering.

The damage done from within relationships can only be healed within relationships. That's why we work to repair or create new networks of caring relationships in a child’s life.

Real change can happen for a child when the adults in their life understand what they need.

We have the skills and expertise to see the child, their feelings and needs rather than just their behaviours. We can help a child understand their emotions, build on their strengths and encourage their hopes for the future.

All babies, children and young people have the right to feel safe, loved and valued.

We are the leading trauma-specific therapeutic service for vulnerable babies, children and young people in Victoria. Take Two provides Victorian Government funded mental health services to children and families in a range of settings, including:

  • therapeutic foster care
  • therapeutic Aboriginal home-based care
  • therapeutic residential care units
  • for young people who are placed in secure care services
  • for families to keep children living with them safely, or returning to live with them after being in out-of-home care.

Take Two is site-certified in Dr Bruce D. Perry’s Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT).

NMT draws on principles of trauma research, neurodevelopment and relational neurobiology. It provides us with an understanding of the young person’s developmental experiences on their current functioning and then indicates which interventions will be useful and in what sequence.

We use a range of evidence-based and evidence-informed interventions with the children and families we support.

Child Parent Psychotherapy

Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) is an evidence-based therapy for young children who have experienced family violence together with their caregiver/s. CPP considers how trauma and the caregivers’ relational history affect the caregiver-child relationship and the child’s development. It aims to support and strengthen the relationship to help restore and protect the child’s mental health.

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Processing (EMDR) is an evidence-based form of psychotherapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). EMDR aims to support service users to resume adaptive processing of traumatic memories, through carefully regulated exposure to the traumatic memory. It targets:

  • past experience
  • current triggers
  • future potential challenges.
The back of two girls in green tops embracing each other

Developmental specialists

We have a team of developmental specialists who provide secondary consultations and assessments in:

  • speech pathology
  • neuropsychology
  • occupational therapy.

Other evidence-informed interventions

We may choose to use other interventions, including:

  • play therapy
  • art therapy
  • family therapy
  • psychotherapy
  • trauma training for the child's care team.

Referrals

Referrals for most Victorian Government-funded Take Two services can only be made by Victorian Government Child Protection staff.

For child-focused support after family violence, find out more information about referring to Restoring Childhood.

The Take Two Consultancy Service provides fee-for-service therapeutic services. Please contact taketwoconsultancy@berrystreet.org.au
for a free consultation to discuss your child or client’s needs.

If you or a child you’re caring for has already been referred to Take Two and you want more information, please contact your case manager, care team or Take Two clinician directly.

Take Two provides training, assessments, clinical services and consultancy on a fee-for-service basis for organisations and professionals around Australia who require specialist therapeutic expertise.

Contact us to discuss other services, including:

  • tailored in-house professional development or online training.
  • individual clinical assessments and therapeutic services.
  • occupational therapy, speech pathology and neuropsychology clinical assessments and therapeutic services.
  • facilitated reflective practice.
  • other services requiring specialist child trauma expertise.
  • Take Two stories

    Thoughtful reconnection: rebuilding a parent-child relationship

    Makayla* is a bright, playful 12-year-old who has a great sense of humour and loves playing basketball. However, things weren’t always so great for her.

  • Take Two stories

    Take Two provides trauma training to Children’s Court

    Professionals working with some of the most vulnerable children in Victoria are now better equipped to understand the impacts of the trauma they may have experienced, thanks to training delivered by Berry Street Take Two.

  • Take Two stories

    Take Two publishes evidence of effectiveness in international journal

    Berry Street’s Take Two program recently published a paper in an international psychiatry journal demonstrating the effectiveness of our therapeutic work with children who have experienced significant developmental trauma.

Our research partner, La Trobe University, supports our research and evaluation and provides our research ethics oversight. Higher Degree Research students are welcome to contact us to discuss possible projects.

Read more about how we store and handle personal information in our Privacy Statement.

Mother and child reading together

Research and reports

Read more about Take Two’s resources, research and evaluation reports.

Read published research about Take Two.

Strategic Plan

Read Berry Street’s Take Two Strategic Plan 2020–2022 (PDF 127 KB).

Work with us

We recruit staff across Victoria from a range of disciplines, including social work, occupational therapy and psychology. Find out more about working with Take Two.

Berry Street’s Take Two Program is a partnership with:

We also partner with other community service organisations across Victoria, including with Aboriginal organisations.

Take Two partners - VACCA, Mindful, LaTrobe

Berry Street Take Two
Phone 03 9450 4700
Email taketwo@berrystreet.org.au

Take Two is an Australian Council of Healthcare Standards (ACHS) accredited health service.