DDP was created by a Clinical Psychologist called Dan Hughes as a treatment for families with adopted or fostered children who had experienced neglect and abuse in their birth families and as a result had suffered from significant developmental trauma. DDP brings together different theoretical models which are key to the approach – attachment theory, developmental trauma, the neurobiology of trauma, attachment and caring, intersubjectivity theory and child development.
The approach focuses on the fact that children with trauma in their backgrounds or who have had many changes in the people who look after them, can find it hard to trust adults and build relationships. They may not feel emotionally safe in their relationships with parents/care givers and struggle to form secure attachments. The main aim of DDP is to support children to learn to trust within their relationships and it involves the child with care givers in sessions (the dyadic element).
