Troubled Kids Podcast

BLOG PODS #49 - HSB Practice Lessons #2 - Lean in, Empathise & Be Kind INTRODUCTION In our last post we began looking at some practice lessons for working with harmful sexual behaviour (or HSB) in children and teenagers - this came off the back of a book chapter I co-authored with my fellow HSB specialist, Sharron Wareham. The points we drew out in the first post were: - Keep in mind that age is n...

BLOG PODS #48 - HSB Practice Lessons #1 - Bucking the System and Avoiding Knee-Jerks INTRODUCTION I’ve published a few things in my career so far; not a lot, but a few (see more here ). But I never get tired of the buzz I feel when something new comes out! This month, a chapter I co-wrote with Sharron Wareham was published in Cultural Responsivity (Book 1): Treatment of Sexual Violence . I know -...

BLOG PODS #47 - Theory Bites 6b - Lawrence Kohlberg: Stages of Moral Development INTRODUCTION In our last post, we began looking at Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. we saw where it (and he) fits into the theorising of his time and the basic structure of his theory. For professionals working with children, especially those recovering from developmental trauma and/or who offend, understanding...

BLOG PODS #46 - Theory Bites 6a - Lawrence Kohlberg: Stages of Moral Development INTRODUCTION Why do kids do what they do? What drives their sense of right and wrong? Can you teach this stuff or is it imbibed by just being in the world? What role does education have in the moral development of children? Before, during and after the turn of the 20th Century these were some of the big questions exer...

BLOG PODS #44 - Make 2026 a Year of Books - Some Inspiration to get you Started INTRODUCTION: Regular readers of the blog will know that I’m a voracious reader. It is one of my life’s great pleasures, as well as being the only guarantee of continued learning - something I’m completely committed to. So, just like last year, I thought I’d kick off 2026 (happy New Year, by the way! 🥂) with a review...

BLOG PODS #43 - Trauma & Children with Learning Disabilities - #2 How to Help INTRODUCTION Working with troubled kids has all kinds of complexities attached to it - none more so than when the child has a learning disability. Over the years I’ve come across this a lot but it still amazes me how complex it can be, especially when layered up with other factors - like trauma. In the last post we looke...

BLOG PODS #42 - Trauma & Children with Learning Disabilities - #1: Fundamentals INTRODUCTION Through my work with colleagues at TRM Academy , trauma is a major part of my working world. Lately, though, the intersection of trauma with learning disabilities has come to the fore. So the next two blog posts are going to examine this conflation. Now, I’m not an expert in learning disabilities (LDs), bu...

BLOG PODS #41 - A Fairer Society - GUEST POST by Chris Perry A book review by the author. INTRODUCTION This is the first guest post since I re-launched the blog on Substack. I hope it’ll be the first of many. Chris Perry is a former Director of Social Services for South Glamorgan County Council, a former Non-executive Director of the Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust, a former Director...

BLOG PODS #40 - Jonny Update & Some Links Introduction I wanted to pop on quickly to break the radio silence and say,’ Hi.’ My Mum’s serious health situation lasted many months and she passed away on Saturday 27th September - bless her! I’m prioritising spending time with my sibs and my Dad just now, as well as my own recovery from a traumatic few months, so not yet writing regularly. I’m mindful...

BLOG PODS #39 - The Ammanford School Stabbings #3 - Facts After the Musings and some Suggestions to Help INTRODUCTION On 24th April 2024 at about 11am a 13 year old stabbed two teachers and a fellow pupil at Dyffryn Amman School in Ammanford in Carmarthenshire. Mercifully, none of the injuries were life-altering but, one teacher who intervened suffered neck injuries which easily could have been li...

BLOG PODS #38 - The Ammanford School Stabbings #2 - Musings After the Fact INTRODUCTION On 24th April 2024 at about 11am a 13 year old stabbed two teachers and a fellow pupil at Dyffryn Amman School in Ammanford in Carmarthenshire. Mercifully, none of the injuries were life-altering but one teacher who intervened suffered neck injuries which easily could have been life- threatening , if not fatal....

BLOG PODS #37 - The Ammanford School Stabbings #1 - Learning from the review INTRODUCTION Despite being still in a period of suspension from my usual blogging schedule (ongoing family issues) I couldn’t resist sending something out following yesterday’s published review into the Ammanford Stabbings. I have a more thoughtful opinion piece coming out in the autumn, but thought some of the info I put...

BLOG PODS #35 - When Children Blame Themselves - How to Help #1 Introduction In the last post , we looked at the common phenomenon of self-blame - when children take on responsibility for the way others treat them. We saw how abusive parenting and other such experiences can fundamentally skew the way a child perceives themself, through the development of a negative internal working model of who th...

BLOG PODS #36 - When Children Blame Themselves #3 - How To Help #2 INTRODUCTION In the last post and the one before that, we looked at the common phenomenon of self-blame - when children take on responsibility for the way others treat them. In the first post we examined the issue itself, asking why kids blame themselves when, to us, it’s obvious that what happened wasn’t their fault. In the last p...

BLOG PODS #34 - When Children Blame Themselves #1: Understanding Self-Blame in Childhood Trauma Introduction Have you ever wondered why some people blame themselves for things other people did to them; things that are just not their fault? Yeh, me too! I’ve long since lost count of the number of children I’ve worked with whose lives continue to be blighted, not only by the awful things done to the...

BLOG PODS #33 - Object Permanence #2 - Some Strategies to Help Children & Teenagers INTRODUCTION In the last post, we began looking at Object Permanence (OP) - the understanding that objects (including people) continue to exist even when they are not visible. We said that it’s is an early, fundamental milestone in cognitive development that infants largely acquire in the months before they can spe...

BLOG PODS #32 - Object Permanence #1: What It Is, Why It Matters & How It Can Go Wrong INTRODUCTION A 13 year old anxious toddler? I recently observed a young man in a residential setting who seemed genuinely unable to leave his carers alone. If they got up to go into the kitchen (or anywhere else for that matter) he followed. When they went to the bathroom, he would stand outside and talk to them...

BLOG PODS #30 - The Case for Abolishing Youth Custody: Harmful, Expensive and Criminogenic. INTRODUCTION The very first paper to drop into my inbox in 2025 was this one , from Kathy Hampson about why locking up children is a bad idea and needs radical change. I loved it! Why It’s Time to Abolish Detention and Training Orders in Youth Justice When children and young people come into contact with th...

BLOG PODS #30 - Children at the Margins #2 - What Practitioners Can Do INTRODUCTION To save you some time, last week’s post about this latest report on marginalised children, summarised the content and recommendations. This week I want to focus on what I think you and I, as practitioners with troubled kids, can do to lend our shoulders to the plough in effecting change. This, of course, could easi...

BLOG PODS #29 - Avoidable Tragedy (republished on the 1st anniversary of the tragedy): Lessons From Axel Rudakubana Context Just before midday, on 29th July 2024 , three little girls were killed while attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga event in Southport, North West England. Two adults were very seriously injured and eight other children, five of them critically. Introduction The sente...

BLOG PODS #28 - Children on the Margins #1 - A New Report Summarised & Improved Introduction My first full day back from the Christmas and New Year break began when this landed in my inbox - a new report from the Welsh Government called, ‘Children on the Margins.’ Now having had time to read it, I thought you guys might appreciate a summarised version as it raises some interesting and important th...

BLOG PODS #27 - Make 2025 a Year of Books - Some Inspiration to get you Started INTRODUCTION: To say I love reading is a massive understatement. I devour books. But now we’re in the age of Audible, my consumption has gone through the roof. Gone are the days when reading was something I squeezed into a few short weeks’ holiday each year. I still do that but tend to stick to low key, fun stuff rathe...

BLOG PODS #26 - STEPHEN PORGES POLYVAGAL THERY INTRODUCTION Polyvagal Theory is a departure from the others we’ve covered in this series, in that it’s not a theory of human development, specifically. I wanted to include it because I know, like me, many of you work with or care for kids who’ve suffered all sorts of traumatic experiences, such that their lives are now very difficult - not least by b...

BLOG PODS #25 - SIGMUND FREUD: The Psychosexual Stages of Development INTRODUCTION Sigmund Freud, a pioneering figure in psychology, introduced his theory of psychosexual development to explain how personality evolves through early childhood. He proposed that human behaviour is driven by unconscious desires and conflicts that are in play during different stages of childhood. Although some aspects...

BLOG PODS #24 - Theory Bites 3 - Erik Erikson: Psychosocial Stages of Development INTRODUCTION Erik Erikson, was a German born American developmental psychologist, who proposed a theory that human development unfolds in a series of eight psychosocial stages, each characterised by a specific conflict that individuals must resolve to move successfully to the next stage. * Psycho - this is about the...