The VPT The Vital Parenting Tasks model of parent or parent-child therapy
The VPT is a therapy framework for parents, or parents and their child/ren. The VPT is easy to understand and offers a flexible foundation for assessment, stand-alone treatment, and/or integration into multi-disciplinary treatment packages. It started with an origindal idea by Laine Jäderberg and Mandy Sarankin and then researched and developed by Dr Laine Jaderberg for her Doctoral thesis. It focuses on the parent-child relationship through the lens of parenting ‘tasks' which are usually practiced by the parent and child during the course of treatment.
The VPT asserts that there are 20 vital parenting tasks (for example attunement, capacity to play, consistency, non-narcissistic delight, reflexivity, empathy) with a foundation task for the parent to have processed their own experience of being parented. The aim is to support the enrichment of the parent-child relationship, demystify parenting, highlight parental strengths, and bolster any parenting tasks where the parent needs more practice.
We currently use the VPT in our specialist work with local authorities in adoption support work, with foster parents, and in high conflict family cases, especially in cases of parental alienation or concerns of potential alienation. We regularly work as specialists and/or expert witnesses in cases being heard in the Family Court.
Although the original research did not look to identify effectiveness in any particular group, findings suggested that the VPT may be highly beneficial for psychosomatic presentations and early trauma. There is a larger study ongoing which explores the VPT's use in these particular patient groups.
Therapeutic methods include cross-modal creative tasks, for example using different methods of working at once (such as talking therapy combined with creative work, movement, sensory exercises) in order for the parent to deepen their relationship with their child and support parenting tasks they find more challenging. Sometimes we will work with two therapist so that the child can have a separate space of their own to explore their feelings and concerns while the parents focus on themselves, their parenting, and also their position wiht us as co-threapists for their child/ren / family. We always use observation too and this is done via home (and sometimes school) visits ,but we also encourage parents to learn observation skills and we sometimes set short tasks for them to observe their child or social interactions between their child and other people, or even to observe themselves and their child.
Professionals click here for information on VPT training