Notes in a collective tune – The neuroscience of trauma and development in the everyday

Knowledge about trauma and neuroscience is far more commonplace than a decade ago. There is a strong collective song that has emerged from research and practice offering us ways to understand how hurt children, adolescents and adults lean on relationships of safety and nurture to heal.

Every 2 years for the past 6 years, between 2500 and 3000 delegates have met in Melbourne at the Australian Childhood Foundation International Childhood Trauma Conference. It has become an opportunity for many of us to meet and discuss and learn from key international authors, practitioners, researchers and, of course, from each other.

In this special Edition of Children Australia, we bring together a small sample of the wonderful papers that were presented at the Australian Childhood Foundation International Childhood Trauma Conference held in 2018 in Melbourne. The variety underscores how this knowledge base is now increasingly integrated into the everyday fabric of our effort across many disciplines and areas of practice.

Michelle Moss and Anthony Lee provide the impetus for therapeutic services that recognise the traditional and enduring healing practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The work of the Turn ‘em around Healing team highlights the imperative to locate therapeutic impact in ways that acknowledge the spiritual damage that trauma imparts, and honours ways to restore health through an approach which starts with the role of Ngangkari healers and then incorporates Western modalities. It is a beautiful paper signalling a much needed paradigm shift.

The next article by Danielle Kendall-Hall explores the centrality of child participation in decision-making. It is followed by two papers which provide an insightful analysis into therapeutic forms of care. Chris Harkness explores how foster carers describe their approaches to being therapeutic in their exchanges with children and Claudia O’Hara examines the principles through which whole system reform can create therapeutic environments for children in out of home care.

The final two papers consider the ways in which practice can be shaped by an understanding of trauma at the organisational level. Cindy Ng-Tay Hui Mei, Joyce Teo and Ng Yi Ying plot the course of the introduction of reflective practice into a Family Service Centre in Singapore. Fiona Oates examines the complex unspoken themes which prevent child protection workers from seeking assistance for the impact of traumatic stress arising from their role.

This is the elegance of a knowledge base that allows interpretation of experience across the diversity of areas of practice.