Secure Start

25/09/2025

An attachment-informed perspective about why healing birth family connection is vital in social care endeavours.

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20/09/2025

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has delivered much-needed support for children and young adults who have a neurodevelopmental condition or other diagnosed disability. Psychology service provision is one of these supports. However, in recent times the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) has begun to shift away from funding psychological support via the NDIS, seeing Psychology as a treatment service for mental health challenges faced by NDIS participants and more appropriately funded via the Better Access to Mental Health Care scheme....

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has delivered much-needed support for children and young adults who have a neurodevelopmental condition  or other diagnosed disability. Psycholo…

12/08/2025

How do we effectively support children who've experienced trauma when conventional behaviour management approaches fail them? This powerful training session delivers a transformative framework for understanding what's really happening beneath challenging behaviours.

At the heart of this approach are three critical questions: What's truly driving a child's behaviour? How can we respond therapeutically to those underlying needs? And how will we measure our success? Through the innovative AAA model—examining Attachment representations, Arousal levels, and Accessibility to needs provision—we explore the internal world of traumatised children.

Children who've experienced relational trauma develop distorted beliefs about themselves ("I'm unlovable"), others ("Adults are unreliable"), and their world ("It's unsafe"). Their nervous systems often operate in overdrive, making them anxiety-prone and reactive. Most significantly, they've learned that getting needs met requires extraordinary effort—explaining the demanding behaviours that frustrate so many caregivers.

Traditional behaviour management strategies like ignoring unwanted behaviours, reward systems, and punishments simply don't work with these children. They weren't raised in environments where reinforcement was consistent, making these approaches ineffective at best and harmful at worst.

The AURA approach offers a powerful alternative: being Accessible to reassure children we're available, responding with Understanding through our words and actions, being proactively Responsive to needs before children must demand them, and maintaining Attunement—that crucial emotional connection that communicates worth and care.

For foster carers, kinship carers, residential workers, teachers, and other professionals supporting children recovering from tough starts, this training provides practical, compassionate strategies that address the real reasons behind behaviours of concern. By shifting our focus from managing behaviours to healing relationships, we create the conditions for genuine growth and recovery.

https://colbypearce4.wordpress.com/2025/08/12/aura-over-authority-rethinking-our-response-to-challenging-behaviours-2/

When it comes to managing challenging behaviours in children who have experienced trauma, conventional approaches often fall short. Colby Pearce, a renowned expert in child trauma and development, …

31/07/2025

Another Colbyism

29/07/2025

Heard people hear people

27/07/2025