#trauma

Discovering the Road to Peace

Posted on January 12, 2024January 12, 2024 by Florence

While out on a walk, letting my mind drift, things started to connect in my brain. What is happening in the world at the moment, my professional knowledge and my personal experiences came together to form what seems like a coherent answer to an apparently unanswerable question. I have posted this on LinkedIn, and want to share it here as well, where it doesn’t get buried as quickly.

When it feels like the world is crumbling the question that comes up again and again is: what would it take to achieve real, lasting peace? It can seem like a theoretical question, a mental exercise, but, having given it some thought, I believe there is a real answer and solution. It is a simple one, but not an easy one: Achieving peace requires ensuring that everyone receives help to recognise and resolve their trauma, in combination with truly universal social protection and access to basic services (this addition because as will be mentioned severe and long-term poverty is a significant stressor that can lead to a trauma experience).

What About the Careleavers We Don’t Hear from?

Posted on October 9, 2023October 8, 2023 by Florence

A while ago, I saw a post on damaged WWII aeroplanes. Somehow, that got connected for me to careleavers and how we need to do better for them. A strange connection, but one that increasingly makes a lot of sense. I’ll tell you why.

Training Programme on Understanding the Trauma of Children from Institutions

Posted on October 2, 2023October 2, 2023 by Florence

There is suddenly a flurry of blogs I’m putting out. That is because there are so many interesting new developments taking place that I am excited to share with you. In this case, the training programme that I have developed. Making sure that people involved in moving children from institutions to families really understand what to take into account during assessments and how to support families and children does not end with pushing a book into their hands. Most people – particularly those new to these topics – will need training and opportunities to ask questions, discuss issues, and connect the new information to their work experience to implement and integrate it into their daily work practice.

Advocacy Material from Understanding the Trauma of Children from Institutions

Posted on July 27, 2023September 12, 2023 by Florence

‘Understanding the Trauma of Children from Institutions. A training manual for case workers’ is not only useful for people involved in moving children from institutions to families to increase their knowledge and awareness about the effects of institutionalisation and how they can support families to help children catch up. Because it gives detailed information about how care in institutions differs from care in families and in what ways this causes harm, it also provides important ‘ammunition’ for advocacy for alternative care reform towards family-based care and family strengthening.

Introductory Video of the Model of Understanding Trauma

Posted on April 7, 2023September 12, 2023 by Florence

In the books ‘Understanding the Trauma of Institutionalised Children. To support the child you adopt’ and ‘Understanding the Trauma of Children from Institutions. A training manual for case workers’ I have given a pretty detailed overview of what is problematic about children growing up in institutions and how well-supported families can help children from institutions overcome the challenges that have developed.

Training Manual for Case Workers

Posted on January 28, 2023September 12, 2023 by Florence

The training manual is now available! It is the twin to Understanding the Trauma of Institutionalised Children. To support the child you adopt, which I published in September last year. That was a book written for adoptive parents caring or planning to care for a child coming from an institution. The book gave information about how institutionalisation affects brain development and the stress response system, what the effects of that are and how parents can support the child to overcome challenging behaviour and developmental delays as much as possible. This information is not only applicable to children who are adopted from institutions. It applies to all children who are moved from institutions to families. That is why, even before the ‘adoption version’ came out, I had started work on adapting the same basic content to a different audience.

Understanding the Trauma of Institutionalised Children

Posted on September 26, 2022September 26, 2022 by Florence

The moment has finally come! I started working on the first draft of this book late 2019. A combination of it just being a whole lot of work, having other work to take care of, and some pandemic related delays caused it to take almost three years in the end. But it is here now.

A Taste of The New Book

Posted on July 13, 2022June 9, 2022 by Florence

My new book “Understanding the Trauma of Institutionalised Children. To support the child you adopt.” is about to come out/has just come out. Here, I want to give you a little taste of what it is about, with an excerpt:

Dealing with Traumatised Teenagers

Posted on December 16, 2020December 11, 2020 by Florence

As mentioned in the previous blog (HERE) last month, I attended the online conference: Trauma Informed Practice Using Biopsychosocial Models to Promote Recovery organised by ICTC and IRCT. In this blog, I want to mention the presentation given by Jane Herd, who shared her experiences working with ‘troubled’ teenagers. I feel what she said was very important because particularly when it comes to teenagers there is a tendency to blame all ‘misbehaviour’ to their age and ‘unwillingness’ to control themselves. Pointing out the ways in which traumatised teenagers are quite simply unable to self-regulate, will hopefully lead to more understanding.

Behaviour as Communication

Posted on October 21, 2019October 20, 2019 by Florence

At the Trauma Informed Practice Conference, in Birmingham in September, Caryn Onions presented the achievements and approach of The Mulberry Bush, a therapeutic residential school for children who are severely traumatised, in Oxford. I was very impressed by what they are accomplishing at the Mulberry Bush, and I was particularly struck by their approach to the children’s challenging behaviour.