Brought to you by Colby Pearce
Trauma informed practice is less about correcting behaviours of concern, and more about responding therapeutically to the reasons for them.
Colby Pearce
Clinical Psychologist
A child can walk into a house with a full fridge and a clean bed and still feel terrified. That’s the gap we’re trying to close, and it’s why this conversation matters. I’m joined by Mary-anne Hodd, founder of Journeys That Care, a CPD accredited training and consultancy that blends lived experience with psychology, teaching,…
Leaving care is often framed as a simple skills problem: can you cook, budget, do laundry, get to school on time. On The Secure Start Podcast, German social worker and researcher Tanja Abou argues that this framing misses the heart of transition from out-of-home care. The real question is relational and trauma-informed: will a young…
I am really pleased to release the 50th episode of The Secure Start Podcast, and to have Professor James Anglin, a name synonymous with quality residential child care, as my guest. Professor Anglin began his career as a child and youth care worker in a mental health centre in Vancouver, after which he developed a…
Children of veterans are rarely named as a distinct group in Australia, yet the risk factors are stark: PTSD in parents, high rates of family violence, addiction, shame, and a culture that discourages help seeking. On The Secure Start Podcast, Ruth Clare describes growing up as the daughter of a traumatised Vietnam veteran, then discovering…
When people are overwhelmed, they don’t need a lecture. They need someone who can help them think again. That’s the heart of our conversation with Dr Laura Steckley, a leading researcher in therapeutic residential childcare, as we tackle one of the most misunderstood ideas in trauma-informed practice: containment. We start by naming the problem. “Containment”…
Rethinking Outcomes In Care Children’s social care often treats “outcomes” as whatever can be counted: placement moves, school results, budgets, compliance targets. In this Secure Start Podcast conversation, Colby Pearce and Professor Lisa Holmes push back on that narrow frame and argue for trauma-informed care that starts with care-experienced voices. When we ask children and…
Recently, I had the opportunity to speak to Dr Alex Rowell on The Secure Start Podcast, on the topic of attachment informed supervision. Alex was a highly engaging and informed speaker on the topic of supervision, and I took a lot from him I hope you do too. How Supervisors Create A Secure Base For…
Why Child Protection Keeps Missing Prenatal Alcohol Brain Injury Recently, I had the privilege of speaking to William “Liam” Curran, a ‘pracademic’ with international standing in the area of prenatal alcohol-induced brain injury. It was a very important part of the jigsaw I am building with The Secure Start Podcast, where I am endeavouring to…
If A Child Breaks A Window What Are They Saying? Trauma-informed care starts with a shift in how we interpret behaviour. Instead of treating aggression, withdrawal, stealing, or rule-breaking as problems to stamp out, we can see them as communication and as an urgent attempt to secure a missing relational experience. In therapeutic communities like…
Therapeutic Life Story Work, with Professor Richard Rose Kids in care don’t just wonder where they lived. They wonder why it happened and far too often they land on the most painful answer: it must have been my fault. I’m joined by Professor Richard Rose, founder of Therapeutic Life Story Work International, to talk about…
The Consultant Who Changed A Community Barbara Docker-Drysdale, often called Mrs D or Pip, shaped modern therapeutic communities by focusing less on “fixing” children directly and more on building therapeutic skill in the adults around them. At the Cotswold Community she was brought in as a consultant psychotherapist to work primarily with staff teams, meeting…
Objects that teach therapeutic care Objects can be trivial, or they can be portals. In therapeutic care, they often become the latter: anchors that hold a story, a lesson, and a person. Across this conversation with much-loved veteran leader Richard Rollinson, we track how a toy fawn, a battered picture book, a chocolate egg, a…
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