Category Archives: Uncategorized

Responding therapeutically to complex and challenging behaviours: A Triple-A Approach

Yesterday, I finished preparing this training package for delivery by my trained trainers in Ireland. It includes three PowerPoint presentations, comprehensive trainer notes (scripts and delivery notes) for each session, comprehensive participant handbooks (x3), and various other resources for use … Continue reading

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Why does my child antagonize others and then complain of being bullied?

Antagonizing others and then complaining of being bullied, though it is easily viewed as irrational and self-defeating, stems from very real (and justified) feelings of being poorly treated in life. Children and young people who have experienced relational trauma are … Continue reading

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Connected Classrooms – A school-based programme for addressing the impacts of early adversity on the developing child

Schools play a vital role in helping children and young people to recover from a tough start to life, and thrive. My Connected Classrooms programme has been successfully delivered in South Australia, with more than 99% of participant ratings reflecting … Continue reading

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Intentional parenting benefits you and your kids

With lots of things that command our attention these days, it is natural to approach aspects of our life and roles in the easiest manner possible. In Psychology, automaticity is concept used to describe times in which we perform a … Continue reading

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Child Psychotherapy: An update about my approach

I am frequently asked about my approach to psychotherapy with children and young people. In this blog I reproduce an explanation for parents and caregivers that appears on the Secure Start website. Psychology is a broad term that covers the … Continue reading

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An allegory about attachment theory

‪A Tale of Three Mice: An Attachment Story continues to attract attention among other writers looking for a short allegory introducing Attachment Theory. This week from a publisher of a book about child development. I updated the story in the … Continue reading

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A time of reflection and redirection

It has been more than a month since my last post. This has been a period of significant reflection about career direction and what is both professionally and personally important to me. This period of reflection has been prompted by … Continue reading

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Our own response to the pandemic reflects the experience of maltreated children

Uncertainty, including in relation to our health and the health of our loved ones, our access to basic needs, and what the future holds, is anxiety-evoking. It can leave us preoccupied with accessing basic needs and lead us to behave in ways that increase our chances of being able to achieve needs provision, and feel safe. Uncertainty, coupled with the media coverage of the pandemic, can leave us experiencing ourselves as inadequate, others as threatening and dangerous, and the world as unsafe. The current uncertainty, and its psychological impacts on us, provides an insight into what life is like for children and young people who are recovering from a tough start to life.
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Preserving Placements during a Pandemic

Very few people will get through this global pandemic without being affected in some way. Some will cope better than others. Our prior life experiences can be a help, or a hindrance. Those who have experienced adversity in the past, … Continue reading

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Providing a psychology service to children and young people in an online medium

A short video I have made about my initial experience delivering a psychology service to children and young people via an online medium in this time of social distancing.

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