In our offices the other day, a young woman reflected upon her life. ‘I was born into drugs’ she said, explaining the logic, as it appeared to her, of why she feels compelled to use. It’s true that her parents used drugs throughout her life, leading to her growing up in foster care and children’s […]
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That Martini thing… When I was about 12, I went to a friend’s house party and got drunk for the first time. I very quickly drank what seemed like a whole bottle of Martini (it was the 80s), and spent the next six hours throwing up into the kitchen sink until my parents fetched me […]
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Whilst meeting with foster carers and their long term foster child a while ago, we came face to face with a distressing possibility about the care system. These foster carers spoke about having made a decision to end their foster child’s placement. They explained that the child had complex psychological needs and they had never […]
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The other day, I had cause to read an assessment letter that I had penned nearly 20 years ago as a young clinical psychologist. Although it was clinically competent in a basic sense, I was concerned about what I read. I had authored the report as if I were ‘the expert’. There was language of […]
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A few years ago, a colleague of ours mentioned a book she had read about re-wilding. It had struck her that the principles of re-wilding biological ecosystems had a parallel in our human systems. We talked it over and it turned out that there are some really interesting principles of re-wilding natural eco-systems that are […]
Read 'Re-wilding the ecology of children and families' >It was mental health awareness week a little while ago, and this year the theme was kindness. People shared lots of messages about acts of kindness and celebrated its impacts. A few people also commented that kindness on its own isn’t enough given the nature and extent of the issues which bring about responses of […]
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In the midst of the 75th anniversary of VE Day recently, we happened to be thinking about the high prevalence of mental health problems amongst children looked after. This distress is commonly attributed to the impacts of early relational trauma and adversity upon these children. However, maybe there are also other sources of distress which […]
Read 'War! What is it good for?' >
