Episode Overview

In this episode of Trauma Informed Conversations, host Jessica Parker is joined by integrative therapist Louise Brooks. As a physically disabled therapist, Louise brings both professional expertise and lived experience to a vital but often overlooked topic: Medical Trauma.

Moving beyond clinical definitions, Jess and Louise explore the cumulative impact of "medical gaslighting" - the exhausting experience of not being believed or having symptoms dismissed by professionals. They discuss how these interactions can create a cycle of shame and anxiety, transforming necessary healthcare into a source of psychological distress. The conversation shifts the focus toward disability-affirmative practice, emphasising how validation and small systemic shifts can restore a sense of safety for patients.

Key Takeaways

• The Weight of Medical Gaslighting: Medical trauma often stems from being told symptoms are "all in your head". This lack of belief can lead to physical trauma responses like nausea, breathlessness, and heart palpitations before future appointments.
• The Burden of Explanation: Many disabled people spend entire therapy or medical sessions explaining their condition. Louise highlights the importance of professionals doing independent research to reduce this "retraumatising" labour for the client.
• Practical Systemic Shifts: Small changes, such as offering double appointments as standard, can provide the extra time needed for cognitive processing or physical transfers, making care truly accessible.
• Disability-Affirmative Therapy: Finding a therapist who is "disability affirmative" means working with someone who understands the social and systemic barriers disabled people face, rather than viewing the disability as something to be "fixed".
• "Not Disabled Yet": A poignant reminder that accessibility is a community responsibility. Whether through physical access or inclusive language, creating safe environments benefits everyone - because many people are simply "not disabled yet".

Resources Mentioned

• Trauma Informed Consultancy Services (TICS): Visit www.ticservicesltd.com to access live training events, further information on trauma-informed practice, and to contact the team for support.
• Disability-Affirmative Resources:
  • Louise's Challenging Ableism CPD Session (11th April 2026)
  • Emotional Respite (Charity)
  • Spokz People - Modules to support people wanting to learn more and an online community for disabled people to join.

Guest

Louise Brooks is an integrative therapist in private practice, specialising in working with physically disabled and neurodivergent clients. Working exclusively online for inclusivity and access, Louise incorporates person-centered therapy, attachment theory, and compassion-focused approaches into her trauma-informed work. As a disabled practitioner, she is a passionate advocate for disability-affirmative care and challenging the ableist structures within the medical and therapeutic fields.

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What happens to care-experienced people as they grow older? In this deeply moving and trauma-informed conversation, we sit down with researcher and storyteller Dr. Rosie Canning to explore the long-term health and wellbeing outcomes for adults who grew up in the care system.

For too long, the narrative around "care leavers" has focused almost exclusively on the transition to adulthood at 18 or 21. This episode breaks that silence, highlighting the continued exclusion of older care-experienced people from policy and research debates. We discuss why this lack of representation urgently needs to change and how Dr. Canning’s research is finally centering these overlooked voices.

From Grassroots Activism to Oxford Research

Rosie shares her incredible personal and creative journey, offering a unique perspective on resilience and reclamation. We discuss:

• The Power of Community: Rosie’s involvement in Occupy London, where she supported the reclaiming of a closed library for community use.
• Lifelong Education: Her experience returning to education later in life to complete her PhD, and how being a "mature student" informed her lens as a researcher and facilitator.
• The Oxford Study: Insight into the significant research exploring health and wellbeing for care-experienced people aged 50+, co-led by Rosie alongside Dr. Jonathan “Jonno” Taylor, Dr. Michele Peters, and Dr. Anna Scott at the University of Oxford.

Understanding the "Invisible Privilege" of Family

Within the conversation, we reflect on the often-unseen privilege of family—of growing older alongside others, having shared histories, and knowing one’s own medical and health narratives. We consider how childhood trauma shapes adult experiences over decades, including:

• The Risk of Retraumatisation: The specific fears and realities of re-entering formal care systems (such as elder care or nursing homes) in later life.
• Belonging vs. Isolation: Moving away from "deficit-based" assumptions to create spaces of recognition, ownership, and belonging for the care-experienced community.
• Policy Evolution: Why current social care policies affecting children in care must evolve to account for the entire "life course" rather than just the immediate aftermath of leaving care.

This research offers a powerful roadmap for what needs to change now to ensure foster care alumni and care-experienced adults are supported at every stage of their lives.

Explore the Research: Read the winter 2026 edition of Care Leavers Connected to dive deeper into the findings discussed in this episode: https://issuu.com/careleaversconnected/docs/care_leavers_connected_winter_edition_2026

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In this episode of Trauma Informed Conversations, host Jessica Parker is joined by TICS Associate Gemma, an expert with over 30 years of experience in the NHS eating disorder field. Recorded in person on a rare sunny day in Yorkshire, the pair explores the vital, yet often overlooked, role that connection and community play in the lives of those experiencing eating distress and eating disorders.

Episode Overview
Moving beyond the common misconceptions that eating disorders are solely about food, weight, or appearance, Jessica and Gemma examine the neurobiology of these conditions. They discuss how disordered eating often functions as a survival-based coping strategy for an overwhelmed nervous system. The conversation shifts the focus from "what is wrong with this behaviour" to "what is this behaviour helping the nervous system cope with," emphasising the importance of moving from blame to curiosity.

Key Takeaways

• Connection is Complex: While connection is generally protective and regulates the nervous system, trauma can make connection feel unsafe, exposing, or even frightening.
• The "Multifactorial" Nature: Eating disorders rarely have a single cause; they sit at the intersection of biological sensitivity, psychological coping, relational experiences, and cultural pressures.
• Breaking the Cycle of Shame: Eating disorders often thrive in secrecy and isolation. Because social rejection activates similar neural pathways to physical pain, reducing shame through safe, non-judgmental connection is vital for recovery.
• The Power of Curiosity: For parents, educators, and colleagues, the shift from judgment to curiosity is key. We should ask ourselves: "I wonder what is feeling unsafe right now?" instead of focusing on compliance.
• Practical Inclusivity: Creating an atmosphere of psychological safety in workplaces and schools includes being flexible with meal times, avoiding comments on appearance, and recognizing that not everyone views social eating as a "safe" or "enjoyable" activity.

Resources Mentioned

• BEAT: The UK's national eating disorder charity. They provide extensive support resources for individuals, parents, and professionals, as well as a "Help Finder" tool to locate local services.
• Trauma Informed Consultancy Services (TICS): Visit ticsltd.com to access live training events, further information on trauma-informed practice, and to contact the team for support.

Guest

Gemma is a dedicated mental health specialist with over 30 years of experience in the field of eating disorders, having begun her career working within the NHS. As a TICS Associate, she now applies this extensive clinical background to her work in training and consultancy. Gemma’s commitment to this field is deeply personal, stemming from her own experiences supporting family members who struggled with eating disorders, which initially drove her to train as a mental health nurse to better understand how to help. Today, she focuses on challenging myths and misconceptions, advocating for an approach that views eating disorders as complex, multi-factorial adaptations rather than mere human weaknesses. Her work emphasises that because recovery is rarely linear, building community and fostering safety are critical "prevention science" tools that allow healing to emerge.

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In this episode, we delve into the often-overlooked nuances of kinship care through the lens of lived experience. While kinship care—being raised by family members or close friends rather than in the general foster care system—is frequently highlighted in policy as a preferred alternative, the voices of the children within these dynamics are rarely centered.

Our host is joined by Blu Mikel, who shares her personal journey of being raised under a kinship guardianship arrangement by her aunt. Together, they deconstruct the "happy-go-lucky" myth of kinship care to reveal the complex layers of identity, "othering," and the silent trauma of displacement.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The Identity Gap: The struggle of living in a family setting where you are "the niece, not the daughter," and how micro-instances—like having a different last name—can impact a child’s sense of belonging.
• The "Unspoken Rule" of Silence: The emotional toll of living in a household where the biological parents and the reasons for removal are "off-limits" topics, leading to internalized shame and lowered self-esteem.
• Systemic Neglect and the 18+ Cliff: The reality of "falling through the gaps" when local authority support vanishes at 18, and why the presumption that kinship care equals lifelong stability is a dangerous policy flaw.
• Adultification and Agency: The duality of being expected to act with adult-like gratitude while having no power or choice regarding contact with birth parents or living arrangements.
• Trauma-Informed Solutions: Why we need a "manual" for kinship dynamics, better financial support for carers, and a community that acknowledges kinship care as a valid—and often traumatic—care experience.

Resources Mentioned:

• Kinship (formerly Grandparents Plus): A leading charity supporting kinship carers.
• NNEC (National Network for the Education of Care Leavers): Supporting care-experienced and estranged students in higher education.
• Care Leavers Association: For definitions and support surrounding care experience.

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Trauma exposure is often associated with blue-light services or clinical roles, but the reality of emotional labour is far wider. In this episode of Trauma Informed Conversations, host Jessica Parker sits down with mental health and suicide prevention consultant Christine Clark to discuss the "quiet weight" carried by those in everyday professions.

From catering kitchens to recycling centres and call centres, the conversation explores how "ordinary" roles often involve absorbing months or years of a person's turmoil. Christine and Jessica challenge the expectation that burnout is "normal" and highlight the physical and psychological toll of staying "steady" for others without receiving containment in return.

This episode is an invitation to rethink where trauma shows up and a reminder that being affected by your work doesn't make you weak—it makes you human. It offers a space to acknowledge the stories we hold and the necessity of human connectivity in finding a way through.

Guests

Christine Clark is a mental health and suicide prevention consultant, trainer, and facilitator with over two decades of experience in the field. As the founder of Koru Consulting Ltd, she leverages her unique professional background—having originally trained and worked as a chef for many years—to explore how trauma and emotional pressure manifest in diverse, "non-traditional" sectors like catering, waste management, and call centres. A Master ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) Trainer, Christine specialises in moving organisations beyond "part of the job" mentalities to foster psychologically safe environments grounded in human connectivity and the "permission to talk".

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Adoption is frequently presented as an endpoint: a “happy ending,” a rescue, a solution. For many adoptees, the story does not end with placement. It continues across the life course, shaped by identity, belonging, nervous system responses, loss, silence, and social expectation.

In this episode of Trauma Informed Conversations (part of the Care-Experienced People mini-series), host Carrie Wilson speaks with Annalisa Toccara-Jones, a PhD researcher, adoptee, and advocate whose work examines adoption as a lifelong experience shaped by narrative power, particularly through media and public storytelling.

The conversation draws on the Adoptee Consciousness Model, developed by adoptee scholars Branco, Kim, Newton, Cooper-Lewter, and O’Loughlin (2025). The model conceptualises adoptee awareness as a non-linear process, moving through recurring phases that include status quo, rupture, dissonance, expansiveness, and agency.

Annalisa discusses how these touchstones can be activated at different points across the life course, often in response to media portrayals, institutional encounters, relationships, or moments when dominant “happy ending” narratives no longer hold. The episode explores the pressure adoptees can feel to be “grateful,” the role of saviourism and moral panic in adoption storytelling, and how adoptees are frequently represented without complexity.

Annalisa also reflects on researching from within the adoptee community, including the emotional labour this entails and the need for boundaries when producing knowledge grounded in lived experience.

This episode invites listeners to move beyond simplified adoption stories and to recognise adoption as a lifelong condition shaped by narrative, power, and social expectation, requiring trauma-informed understanding and space for adoptees to speak without obligation to resolve their experience.

Guest

Annalisa Toccara-Jones is a PhD researcher, adoptee, and advocate whose work explores the lifelong legacies of adoption and the ways adoption is portrayed and understood through media and public narratives. Working through a trauma-informed lens, Annalisa’s research centres adoptee voices and examines how dominant “happy ending” framings can erase complexity, shape identity, and silence lived experience.

Episode Key Themes

• Adoption as a “happy ending” narrative versus adoptees’ lived realities
• Silence, shame, and the impact of being discouraged from speaking about adoption
• Media portrayals: saviourism, moral panic, and “either villain or victim” storytelling
• The expectation of gratitude, and what it obscures about safety and trauma
• Identity, belonging, class, and the specific realities of racialised/transracial experiences
• The emotional labour of researching within your own community and the need for boundaries
• How adoptees reclaim voice through social media and community connection

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Sibling kinship care is far more common than most people realise, yet it remains one of the least understood forms of care. In this powerful episode of Trauma Informed Conversations, part of the Care-Experienced People mini-series, host Carrie Wilson sits down with Dr Lorna Stabler from Cardiff University to explore what really happens when a young person becomes the primary carer for their own brother or sister.

Drawing on lived experience and ground-breaking research, Lorna shares the hidden realities of sibling kinship care: stepping into parenting roles while still traumatised, navigating systems that don’t recognise sibling carers, and carrying emotional and financial pressures that professionals often overlook. Together, Carrie and Lorna unpack the myths, misunderstandings and invisible labour that shape these family stories, while highlighting the deep love, commitment and resilience that hold them together.

Listeners will gain insight into why sibling kinship care sits at the intersection of multiple forms of invisibility, how language and policy fail to reflect real family life, and what needs to change to build trauma-informed systems that actually support carers rather than overwhelm them. From shared-care models to financial recognition, from the importance of narrative work to the complexity of sibling bonds, this episode offers a compassionate and honest exploration of a rarely heard care experience.

Whether you work in social care, policy, education, or simply want to understand kinship care more deeply, this conversation invites you to rethink assumptions and recognise sibling carers as experts in connection, not exceptions to the rule.

Key topics include:

• The emotional and practical realities of becoming a sibling kinship carer
• Why existing systems expect carers to “do 100% or nothing”
• Trauma-informed approaches to supporting kinship families
• The power of narrative and lived experience in reshaping practice
• Financial barriers, identity, and the hidden costs of care
• How language like “placement” and “contact” distorts real family relationships

About our Guest

Dr Lorna Stabler is a researcher at the CASCADE Research Centre at Cardiff University, focusing on care experience, kinship care and family support. She grew up in and out of foster care and kinship care and later became a kinship foster carer for her younger brother. That lived experience runs through her work, including her PhD on sibling kinship care, which asks not whether kinship care is “good or bad” but how it really feels to live it.

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In this episode of Trauma Informed Conversations, Jessica Parker, Director at Trauma Informed Consultancy Services (TICS), speaks with Carrie Wilson, TICS Collaboration and Innovation Lead, following Carrie’s powerful appearance on BBC Breakfast discussing care-experienced people, accommodation, and the systemic issues that urgently need to change. Their conversation builds on the brilliant coverage of Terry Galloway’s work to create spaces where care-experienced young people can develop the key life skills our systems too often fail to provide.

Together, Jessica and Carrie reflect in more depth on the themes raised during the broadcast, exploring the emotional, practical and structural realities that sit behind public narratives. This discussion also connects closely to Carrie’s PhD research, which examines the lived experiences of care-experienced young people and the systemic conditions that shape their journeys.

Carrie offers an honest exploration of family privilege—the invisible safety nets and everyday advantages many young people inherit without ever naming them—and how the absence of those supports profoundly shapes the experiences and outcomes of care-experienced people. Drawing on Sieta’s research, they discuss how evidence exposes persistent structural inequalities and illustrates how current systems can retraumatise rather than support young people.

They examine the reality of forced independence, where care-experienced young people are expected to take on adult responsibilities prematurely, often while navigating extremely restrictive budgets that limit choice, dignity and developmental opportunity.

The conversation also includes a discussion about the importance of trauma-informed understanding and responses, with reference to the work of organisations such as Madlug. Jessica and Carrie reflect on how Madlug recognises the trauma created by the undignified and dehumanising use of bin bags to move children and young people and their belongings while in the care system, and how dignity-centred approaches are essential for systemic change.

Finally, they explore their shared passion for research, education and lived-experience-led practice, and how these commitments have shaped the development of the Researcher & Educator Suite—a growing collection of trauma-informed, evidence-driven learning tools designed to support practitioners, educators and leaders.

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