Talking #TeamCWPT blog

With Helen Cleaver, Family Therapist, Type 1 Diabetes and Disordered Eating Service (T1DE)

Helen is a systemic family therapist in our Type 1 Diabetes and Disordered Eating Service. As a new role in the service, we caught up with Helen for Eating Disorders Awareness Week to find out more about how she supports patients accessing the service and the importance of looking at the whole picture.

An explanation of systemic family therapy

Systemic family therapy looks at a person as part of a bigger group. It focuses on how families, relationships and the world around someone can affect how they feel and the choices they make. This type of therapy often includes working with whole families or couples, not just one person, to understand problems and find ways to make things better together. For Helen, her job role really reflects the importance of supporting carers and families, as well as patients. "Part of what keeps me in this role is how it helps you hold onto the impact mental illness has on loved ones, as well as the individual, as you see daily how what our patients are dealing with affects their family units. By holding empathy for all people involved in care, we're in a better place to support and enable sustainable change."

From occupational therapist to systemic family therapy

Helen has always worked within mental health services and originally trained and qualified as an occupational therapist. After working as an occupational therapist for 8 years, her curiosity for further therapeutic approaches was sparked, so she went on to complete her master's to become a systemic family therapist in 2000. "I loved being an occupational therapist. It was a great role and gave me a good foundation, and I often draw on many of those skills. I became interested in other therapeutic approaches and how people's problems are held and maintained. It was actually a lovely psychiatrist I was working with at the time who prompted me to want to do my training, just by asking me what I thought about a situation and how that differed from him." 

"Systemic therapy gives me the chance to look at how we can think about change in the context of others, and how, when we make changes, we can rarely do that in isolation. This is really important when we think about how a patient's recovery journey might be impacted by the situations and environment around them."

The importance of family therapy for adults

Helen has worked across mental health and learning disability services in her time as a systemic family therapist, working with both children and adults. From previously working in the inpatient ward at the Aspen Centre and within the children and adolescent mental health services at Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust (CWPT), Helen has found that different cohorts of patients have different challenges. "People tend to associate family therapy with children and think about adult services differently, and so there are less systemic family therapy roles in adult services, but in the context of relationships, we're still the same. We're still a sister, brother, daughter, parent and so on, as an adult. We still have to navigate family relationships when we're older, if not more so, so systemic family therapy can be really beneficial and supportive for adults too. Because working with adults is less 'mainstream' in systemic family therapy, it requires you to be more inventive and I enjoy doing that, which is what led me back to CWPT and T1DE."

An under-recognised service - working with diabetes and disordered eating

Helen has more recently spent time working within social care services and still works part-time with Adoption Central England supporting looked after children. After missing working closely with a team, Helen rejoined CWPT as part of the T1DE service. "I missed working as part of a team and the creativity that working with others brings. I already knew the eating disorder teams were lovely and was keen to join a service that was exploring something new. T1DE offers me that and much more. I'm not an expert in diabetes, but I'm learning and am able to offer the team my different skillset. We're evolving and that's an exciting opportunity."

As a systemic family therapist, Helen values being able to look at all aspects of an individual's life, and how a cohesive approach to care makes a huge difference. "As T1DE works with patients to support both their physical and mental health needs brought about by their diabetes, the service is the best solution in providing the right level of care to the patient group. Working in T1DE and the collaboration between physical and mental health is, as a systemic family therapist, great!"

"It really is an under-recognised service, but a service that is so vital. The patients we're working with have a high level of need; they're caught between two separate services, needing physical and mental health support. T1DE offers an opportunity to bring both together to look at the full picture. By supporting the individual holistically, looking at all aspects that may affect them, we're able to offer the biggest impact and support to their recovery."

"Our patients are vulnerable - diabetes is a big health risk and eating disorders are serious mental health conditions - so they need this specialist provision. T1DE allows our patients to feel fully held and seen."

When asked why she does it all, Helen said: "I'm really lucky, I love the job I do. It's stressful and can be quite emotional at times, but whilst I feel that I can have a positive impact and can influence change it's worthwhile."

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With thanks to Helen for sharing her story for Eating Disorders Awareness Week. 

If you want to find out more about T1DE and how they're supporting people across Coventry and Warwickshire, take a look at our  latest news. You can also read Charlotte's story , who works in T1DE as a diabetes specialist nurse.

If you or someone you know could benefit from the support our T1DE service offers, find out more about  accessing the service .