THERAPEUTICAL COMMUNITIES

• Three Therapeutic Communities in ordinary family houses in London (Maida Vale, Islington, Haringey)
• Psychoanalytically oriented approach
• Extremely experienced therapeutic teams
• No cost to referring local authority
• A preferred option for individuals with some insight into their problems

The Philadelphia Association has over thirty years’ experience of working with community-based therapeutic communities. We have three therapeutic communities, in Maida Vale (9 rooms), Islington (7 rooms) and Haringey (7 rooms).

Our houses are places where people with a range of emotional difficulties and diagnoses can live together with others in a thoughtful way. The ethos of the communities revolves around working towards acknowledging and taking responsibility for the way we contribute to the difficulties we experience with others and the world.

Residents cook and clean for themselves. They have their own bedrooms, and access to common living rooms, kitchens, dining rooms and gardens.

The houses have at least three community meetings a week, which house therapists attend.

These meetings provide a place where issues concerning the residents can be discussed within an analytic framework. Each person living in the houses is ordinarily expected to also enter into individual psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

Costs

At present, the cost of staying in our houses is entirely funded by housing benefit and SNHMG.

Referrals

People come to the houses with a variety of diagnoses – a potential resident’s diagnosis is less important to us than their capacity to have insight into the difficulties that bring them to us. (We do not ask for reports on prospective applicants.) However, it is our experience that individuals with a current addiction to drugs or alcohol, or a history of violence are not usually suitable. People who move into the houses tend to have a wish to change their lives and to try to make sense of what has led to their troubles.

Professionals wishing to suggest our houses to a client may contact one of the house therapists to discuss the suitability of the houses. We have no age restriction, although the average ages of residents would be early twenties to late forties. There is no set time limit to someone’s stay; an average length of stay would be about two to four years, with considerable variation. The houses are for men and women from all ethnic and cultural backgrounds and sexual orientations: we try to keep a balance of gender in each house.

For more information or to discuss the houses further please contact

Joe Friedman (020 77225077), Hilary Cooper (020 8208 3349), Mike Fielder (020 7722 2589)

> THE PHILADELPHIA ASSOCIATION: WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO

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