Therapeutic services for children, young people and families (Take Two)
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.
How Take Two works
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.
Take Two therapeutic services
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.
Family violence support services
Trauma services
Restoring Childhood
Restoring Childhood is part of Berry Street's Take Two therapeutic service. We focus on supporting children and young people to recover from family violence.
Northern region
Western region
Family violence support services
Trauma services
Supporting families with adolescents using family violence
The Wattle Project is part of Berry Street’s Take Two therapeutic service. We focus on supporting families with adolescents using violence at home.
Northern region
Our therapeutic approach
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.
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.
Training, clinical services and consultancy
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.
Take Two specialist therapeutic training
Berry Street's Take Two program is a Victoria-wide therapeutic service helping address the mental health impacts on children of the trauma they have experienced from abuse, neglect or adverse experiences. We also provide training and consultancy services for professionals and organisations around Australia who need specialist therapeutic expertise.
Trauma services
Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) secondary consultations
NMT is a trauma-informed, developmentally-sensitive way of understanding a child or young person’s therapeutic needs. Take Two is accredited to use NMT, and we also offer NMT-informed secondary consultations to other non-accredited practitioners across Australia.
South Eastern region
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.
Research and evaluation
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.
More information
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.
About the Take Two partnership
Berry Street’s Take Two Program is a partnership with:
- La Trobe University: Social Work and Social Policy, Department of Community and Allied Health
- Mindful Centre for Training and Research in Developmental Health
- Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA).
We also partner with other community service organisations across Victoria, including with Aboriginal organisations.
Get in touch
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.
