Residential Childcare Services
Training - Trauma & Attachment​
With over eight years of experience, I specialise in supporting staff to understand and respond to the needs of young people who have experienced significant trauma.
Unlike longer, theory-heavy training programmes, in just two days, I radically shift teams towards cohesive, trauma-informed narratives that underpin effective care planning. Service directors often express frustration over fragmented approaches, but this training is designed to solve that problem—quickly, effectively, and with lasting impact.
Trauma informed care is not new. The foundation of my training is the Three-Phase Trauma Model, first developed by Pierre Janet in 1889 and later expanded by Judith Herman. This model is simple but powerful. First, we create safety and stability. Secondly, only where appropriate, we support understanding and emotional processing. Thirdly, we help young people reconnect, rebuild, and grow. It’s a practical, step-by-step way of working with trauma that staff can easily implement in their daily care. Integral to this model is a strong emphasis on attachment theory, particularly the element of attunement, alongside rupture and repair, which help staff build secure, responsive relationships with young people.
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What makes this training unique is how I translate complex ideas into everyday practice. I use child-friendly analogies like the Meerkat, Elephant, and Owl to explain how the brain responds to danger, remembers past experiences, and thinks things through wisely when it feels safe. Staff find these analogies not only easy to remember but incredibly effective in helping young people understand their own responses. It creates a shared language that builds connection, insight, and trust.​
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When staff are equipped with this understanding, they become safer, wiser, and happier in their roles—more confident, more attuned, and more effective in providing care. And as a result, the young people they support become safer, wiser, and happier too. This training isn’t just about learning; it’s about lasting change, and its impact is currently being prepared for publication.
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Training - Autism and ADHD
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Understanding how to appropriately deliver neurodiversity informed care plans is essential. Again, my training is focussed on theory to practice links, using the same analogies that support learning in the trauma training. The underlying neuropsychology is explained allowing practical strategies for support to become clear and make sense.
Team Consultation
Following completion of the trauma and attachment or the neurodiversity courses, team consultation is available to tailor the concepts for the individual child - essential for effective theory to practice.
At the heart of the consultation process is a commitment to supporting the relationship between the child and the team. The focus for intervention is not located within the child, but within the dynamics around them—and it is within those relationships that the greatest potential for change lies.
Psychological consultation provides a space to think together about how trauma and attachment experiences have shaped the child’s current presentation, and how the team can respond in a way that fosters safety, connection, and growth.
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This process, called psychological formulation, is a collaborative discussion with the whole team. I provide a clear written summary that outlines what has caused the difficulties, what is maintaining them, and what strategies have been agreed upon to support improved emotional and relational functioning.
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Consultations usually take around an hour and a half. Ideally the whole team attends. The written formulation is designed to be accessible, understandable, and directly applicable in practice—clearly demonstrating the psychological input into the service and offering a practical tool for everyday care.
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Child Psychotherapy Sessions
One of the recommendations arising from the consultation process may be that the young person would benefit form individual therapeutic work, but this is not always the case. If the psychological formulation indicates that this would be helpful, this will be discussed with the team with a clear rationale for what the individual therapeutic intervention offers, that the whole team approach cannot. ​​​
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Other Organisations - Bespoke Training
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A wide range of training courses, on a range of mental health topics are available.
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For example -
basic counselling skills
self harm
suicide prevention
managing anxiety
managing depression
working with psychosis
understanding personality disorders
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Please get in touch to discuss your organisations training and consultation requirements.
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