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The Secure Start® Podcast
Colby Pearce
30 episodes
2 days ago
Send us a text What does it really take to heal after trauma—and how do we help children do the same without causing more harm? I sit down with Dr Haley Lugassy, a senior educational psychologist whose lived journey from teenage trauma and isolation in Spain to rebuilding life and career in England reframes what recovery looks like. Her story is anchored by the power of one good adult, the steady fuel of hope, and the life‑changing mix of compassion and boundaries. Haley speaks openly about ...
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Send us a text What does it really take to heal after trauma—and how do we help children do the same without causing more harm? I sit down with Dr Haley Lugassy, a senior educational psychologist whose lived journey from teenage trauma and isolation in Spain to rebuilding life and career in England reframes what recovery looks like. Her story is anchored by the power of one good adult, the steady fuel of hope, and the life‑changing mix of compassion and boundaries. Haley speaks openly about ...
Show more...
How To
Education,
Business,
Careers,
Health & Fitness,
Mental Health
Episodes (20/30)
The Secure Start® Podcast
#29 From Trauma To Hope, with Dr Hayley Lugassy
Send us a text What does it really take to heal after trauma—and how do we help children do the same without causing more harm? I sit down with Dr Haley Lugassy, a senior educational psychologist whose lived journey from teenage trauma and isolation in Spain to rebuilding life and career in England reframes what recovery looks like. Her story is anchored by the power of one good adult, the steady fuel of hope, and the life‑changing mix of compassion and boundaries. Haley speaks openly about ...
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2 weeks ago
1 hour 5 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
#28 What If Child Protection Started Before Harm Happened, with Professor Julie Taylor
Send us a text Imagine a world where we don’t just pull kids out of the river but walk upstream to stop them falling in. That’s the shift we make with Professor Julie Taylor, a leading nurse scientist whose work bridges health, social care, and the lived realities of families under pressure. Together we unpack child maltreatment as a public health challenge, not only a forensic problem, and explore what actually moves the needle on safety and wellbeing. We dig into the socioecological model ...
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3 weeks ago
57 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
#27 Why Clear Primary Tasks And Brave Authority Transform Children’s Homes, with Tom Ellison
Send us a text The work gets easier when the purpose gets clearer. I sit down with social care consultant and leadership trainer Tom Ellison to unpack how a simple, jargon-free primary task can reshape children’s residential care. Tom traces his path from frontline practice to boardrooms and back into coaching, explaining why so many teams know what “good” looks like yet struggle to do it consistently. His answer is both bold and practical: define the primary task, align everyone to it, and u...
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1 month ago
1 hour 18 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
#26 How a Reflective, Respectful Approach Helped Families Choose Healthier Relationships, with Adriana Dias
Send us a text Some projects change direction without losing their purpose—and that’s where real growth happens. I sit down with Portuguese clinical psychologist Adriana Dias to explore Ravira Volta, a pilot that helped girls in residential care and their birth families build healthier relationships by widening choice, deepening respect, and keeping reflection at the centre of the work. Rather than forcing a linear “turnaround,” Adriana’s team embraced non‑linear change: testing new strategie...
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1 month ago
1 hour 5 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
#25 How supporting adults creates the safety children need to learn, belong, and heal, with Megan Corcoran
Send us a text What if the most powerful lever for child healing sits with the adults who show up every day? I sat down with trauma-informed educator and Wagtail Institute founder Megan Corcoran to unpack how belonging transforms classrooms—and why staff wellbeing isn’t a “nice to have,” it’s the backbone of consistent care. Drawing on years in alternative education and leadership, Megan lays out a clear path: support adults, stabilise culture, and simple, universal practices will start doing...
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1 month ago
1 hour 3 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
#24 Holding the Helpers, with Richard Cross
Send us a text What if the most transformative thing we can do for children is to care for the carers first? That’s the provocative starting point for a wide-ranging conversation with psychotherapist and clinical leader Richard Cross, whose work brings attachment theory out of the textbook and into daily practice across residential homes, foster services, schools and clinical teams. We explore how containment, supervision, and shared language turn trauma-informed care from a training buzzwor...
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1 month ago
1 hour 15 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
#23 Thirty-Five Placements and Counting: Why Some Kids Need a Different Option, with Bruce Henderson
Send us a text What if we've been looking at residential care all wrong? Professor Bruce Henderson, author of "Challenging the Conventional Wisdom About Residential Care for Children and Youth," presents a compelling case for rethinking our approach to caring for vulnerable children. Drawing on over 35 years of experience with Black Mountain Home for Children and his extensive research analysis, Professor Henderson challenges the notion that residential care should be a "last resort" option....
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2 months ago
1 hour 6 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
#22 Reimagining Children's Homes: From Last Resort to Purposeful Healing, with Kevin Gallagher
Send us a text What does it really mean to provide therapeutic residential care to traumatised young people? Dr Kevin Gallagher draws from three decades of experience to challenge our assumptions about children's homes and how we use them. Kevin's journey from banking to social work, driven by his own experiences of exclusion and inequality, mirrors the evolution of UK residential care itself. His candid reflections reveal how sophisticated practice develops through mentorship, theoretical u...
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2 months ago
1 hour 7 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
#20 Challenging Last Resort Thinking: Why Some Children Thrive in Residential Care, with Dr Laura Steckley
Send us a text What if everything we think we know about residential childcare is wrong? What if, for some children, it's not the dreaded last resort but actually the best option for healing and growth? Dr. Laura Steckley, who leads the MSc in Advanced Residential Child Care at the University of Strathclyde, brings three decades of practice, research, and teaching experience to challenge our assumptions. Having worked in both the United States and Scotland, she offers a refreshing perspectiv...
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2 months ago
1 hour 15 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
#21 The Science of Prevention: How We Can End Child Maltreatment, with Benjamin Perks
Send us a text What if child maltreatment wasn't an inevitable social problem, but something we could dramatically reduce within a generation? Benjamin Perks, Head of Campaigns and Advocacy at UNICEF, believes this is not only possible but within our grasp. In this compelling conversation, Ben shares his remarkable journey from the residential care system in the UK—where he experienced gang involvement and street life—to becoming a global leader in child protection at the United Nations. The...
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2 months ago
59 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
#19 From Winnicott's Piano to Adolescent Minds: Peter Wilson's Journey
Send us a text A series of serendipities and the opportunity to play Winnicott's piano marked Peter Wilson's remarkable journey into child psychotherapy. In this captivating conversation, Peter reveals how a degree in industrial economics led unexpectedly to founding Young Minds, one of the UK's most influential children's mental health charities. Peter's four years training at the Anna Freud Centre in London during the late 1960s represented a turning point in his life. Working directly with...
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3 months ago
1 hour 15 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
#18 Relentless Kindness: The Foundation of Therapeutic Care, with Adela Holmes
Send us a text What if everything we thought we knew about helping traumatised children was backwards? In this profound conversation, Adela Holmes reveals the revolutionary approach that transformed lives at Hurstbridge Farm Therapeutic Residential Care Pilot in Victoria. At the heart of effective therapeutic care lies what Holmes calls "relentless kindness" – an unwavering commitment to relationship-based approaches that prioritise connection over control. Drawing from neurobiology and deca...
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3 months ago
1 hour 18 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
#17 The Hidden Strengths of Residential Care: Challenging the Status Quo with Dr Jenna Bollinger
Send us a text Dr. Jenna Bollinger takes us on a revealing journey into the heart of what makes residential care truly effective for vulnerable children and young people. Drawing from her doctoral research on stability in out-of-home care, she challenges conventional wisdom and offers a fresh perspective on how we measure success in these settings. The podcast opens with a powerful revelation: stability isn't simply about remaining in one placement for a long time. As Dr Bollinger explains, ...
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3 months ago
1 hour

The Secure Start® Podcast
#16 Building Hope: Lighthouse Foundation's Legacy of Love
Send us a text What happens when one person loves a child unconditionally? According to Susan Barton AM, founder of Lighthouse Foundation, "they'll usually make it through." This profound belief forms the backbone of an extraordinary organisation that has transformed the landscape of youth homelessness in Australia over the past 33 years. Susan's journey began with a shocking encounter in Sri Lanka, where she witnessed a severely malnourished baby covered in abscesses and flies. That moment ...
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4 months ago
1 hour 16 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
#15 Unlocking Potential Through Love and Acceptance, with Patricia Sheridan
Send us a text Patricia Sheridan's remarkable journey from critical observer to pioneering founder reveals how one person's vision can transform an entire field. When she established Moore House School in 1988, Mrs Sheridan was swimming against the tide of conventional childcare practices in Scotland, where controlling children took precedence over nurturing their potential. What began as a small residential school has blossomed into the Moore House Group – encompassing residential education...
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4 months ago
1 hour 8 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
#14 Learning to Live with Yourself and Others: Insights from Therapeutic Residential Care, with Richard Rollinson
Send us a text Richard Rowlandson draws from over five decades of experience at the Mulberry Bush School to share profound insights about therapeutic residential care for traumatised children. His journey from New York City to the English countryside led to a lifelong commitment to creating environments where troubled children can learn to live with themselves and others. At the heart of Richard's approach is the concept of belonging. He eloquently unpacks how children who don't feel "held i...
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4 months ago
1 hour 14 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
#13 Breaking the Cycle: How Investing in Children's Services Changes Lives, with Andrew Isaac
Send us a text Andrew Isaac brings decades of leadership experience in children's social care to this eye-opening discussion about the state of foster care in the UK. As Chair of BSN Social Care and the Children's Services Development Group, Andrew offers rare insights into both the frontline challenges and policy considerations shaping outcomes for vulnerable young people. The conversation tackles the alarming 30% increase in children entering care across England since 2010, examining how t...
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4 months ago
1 hour 4 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
#12 From Orphanage to Therapeutic Community: Portugal's Residential Care Revolution
Send us a text Colby Pearce connects with the core technical team of Livramento, a residential care home in Portugal with a remarkable 200-year history of supporting girls and young women from ages 6 to 25. • Tracing Livramento's journey from a closed orphanage during Napoleonic times to today's therapeutic community • Exploring how a revolutionary director in the 1970s transformed the institution by focusing on education and personal development • Developing a comprehensive therapeutic mode...
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5 months ago
1 hour 55 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
#11 Breaking Cycles: Healing Across Generations with Dr. Lisa Cherry
Send us a text What happens when someone with lived experience of the care system becomes a leading voice in trauma-informed practice? Dr. Lisa Cherry's journey from writing complaints to the director of social services as a child in care to becoming an internationally recognised consultant offers profound insights into breaking intergenerational cycles of trauma. Drawing from her 35 years of experience working in education and children's services, Dr. Cherry shares the deeply personal story...
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5 months ago
51 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
Exploring Attachment, Self-Worth, and Shame, with Colby Pearce
Send us a text What makes attachment so crucial for foster children, and how can carers build connection with young people who seem determined to push them away? In this illuminating conversation, clinical psychologist Colby reveals the profound impact of attachment on every aspect of child development. Attachment isn't just about emotional bonding—it shapes how children explore their world, develop reading skills, and even their motor development. For children in foster care, who typically ...
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5 months ago
52 minutes

The Secure Start® Podcast
Send us a text What does it really take to heal after trauma—and how do we help children do the same without causing more harm? I sit down with Dr Haley Lugassy, a senior educational psychologist whose lived journey from teenage trauma and isolation in Spain to rebuilding life and career in England reframes what recovery looks like. Her story is anchored by the power of one good adult, the steady fuel of hope, and the life‑changing mix of compassion and boundaries. Haley speaks openly about ...