Support for Adoptive Families – Just Right State Programme

Online • 12 Sessions total • Funded (free to parents and guardians)

Are you finding that everyday experiences with your child can be unpleasant or overwhelming? Does your child find transitions, a change of routine, new textures or tastes, or new situations upsetting and difficult to adjust to?

Many of the children who we see at Beacon Family Services experience sensory difficulties. If you are out of tune with how things feel, managing your emotions can become more difficult. The Just Right State Programme, devised by Eadoin Bhreathnach, can help.

The Just Right State Programme can form part of our overall therapeutic support for your adoptive or kinship family in a way that is tailored to your needs.

It can combine two programmes - The Children's Programme and The Parent's Programme - to help you and your child progress in addressing emotional states and behaviour.

In the fairytale version of the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Goldilocks goes into what seems to be an abandoned cottage and discovers three chairs, three bowls of porridge, and three beds. Two options don't suit her, but in each case, there is one option that is 'just right'.

Getting things ‘just right’ helps us manage our environment and world. As children and adults, we need to understand the way our bodies and brains respond to the sensations, smells, taste, sounds, places and people in our lives.  Learning about what feels 'just right' in terms of movement and sensation can help our ability to manage the often competing physical and emotional demands of daily life.

Sensory sensitivities can be overwhelming, and feeling ‘just right’ allows children to feel safe and connected. As an adoptive parent or adult receiving SGO support, you can help your child feel safe and understood when you make space to learn about what makes children feel ‘just right’ and support their sensory needs.

Online • 6 Sessions

In-person • 6 Sessions

The optional Children's Programme needs to be commissioned by a school or Adoption Agency for a group of children, and must be delivered in-person.

Delivered over 6 sessions, it looks at the use of sensory activities and foods, to help children learn how to self-regulate their emotional states and behaviour.

The programme uses cartoon characters called 'The Scared Gang' to represent the different survival patterns of behaviour. The different characters help children understand how each 'scared' character may react to different situations and shows children what each of the characters does to achieve their own 'Just-Right' state.

The goal of the programme is to enable children become more emotionally aware of themselves and others, to give them simple tools to enable them to self regulate and achieve the just right state, whether it is to engage in academic learning, interacting with their peers, or to be able to get a good night’s sleep.

To be eligible for the Just Right State Programme, you must be:

• Living in the UK
• An adoptive family OR a family receiving SGO support

Families cannot apply directly - however, your Adoption Agency social worker (or school, in the case of the Children's Programme) can commission the Just Right State Programme for you!

You can send this page to your school or social worker, and they are welcome to contact us via the contact form link below:

PRACTITIONERS: Click on the 'Request support' button below to refer a family on their behalf.

• It's not the behaviour, it's the relationships...
• At the end of your tether? Learn about our process.
• Sensory issues and getting it "just right" - the Goldilocks dilemma
• Holding onto hope as adoptive parents
• Staying on track as adoptive parents

Find out more about our therapeutic support for adoptive families: