n4a-nov-dec-2025

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November-December 2025

NEWS FOR ACTION

A Monthly Newsletter to Spread the Seeds and Connect the Dots

Welcome to our final issue of 2025!

With winter drawing in, a time that can increase pressure, stress and vulnerability, this double issue brings together work that strengthens trauma-informed practice and keeps ACEs at the forefront.

We are delighted to close the year by sharing with you the recording of our latest webinar, "Ruptured Families and The Impact of Father Absence: An Ace Perspective". You can find the link below, and feel welcome to share it with others to expand this important conversation. We would like to say a big heartfelt thank you to our special guests, Joanna Oliver, Ashton Cyrus, and Sonia Shaljean, and our facilitator, Mpume Mpofu, for holding the space and helping create change.

Check out the book section for a deeply insightful reflection from LAH’s member Mpumelelo Mpofu, "Compassion Leakage and Energy Depletion" offers urgently needed guidance for anyone navigating compassion fatigue in an age of emotional overload.

We would like to give a big cheer for the Trauma Informed London project, an important initiative commissioned by the London Violence Reduction Unit to support organisations on their journey to become trauma responsive and, ultimately, to help create more caring relationships and communities. More info below!

We also highlight Benjamin Perks’ conversation on trauma, attachment and prevention, share an upcoming ACAMH event exploring socio-contextual factors in child and adolescent PTSD, and include a practical tool from the Child Sexual Abuse Centre (CSA Centre) - a guidance resource to strengthen strategic, trauma-informed responses to child sexual abuse.

We feature the Adversity & Work Study, now seeking participants to help build vital understanding of how early adversity shapes adult working lives.

Our racial-justice spotlight highlights Coffee Afrik CIC, centring belonging, culture and lived experience within communities disproportionately affected by adversity. You’ll find many more transformative items below to inspire your transition into the new year.

Finally, we are excited to close 2025 with our Facebook page now live! You can follow us there to stay connected. Previous webinars can also be found on our YouTube channel.

We’re also pleased to share our refreshed newsletter design, created to bring greater clarity, warmth, and cohesion to our work. Drop us a hello at [email protected] to let us know what you think!

Sending gentle end-of-year wishes, with warmth for those celebrating Christmas and mindful acknowledgement for those marking the season differently. We are one community. ❤️

TIME FOR NEWS FOR ACTION!

LONDON ACES HUB EVENTS

Ruptured Families and The Impact of Father Absence: An ACE Perspective

We’re delighted to share the recording of our recent London ACEs Hub webinar on Father Absence, a powerful session that brought together lived experience, professional insight, and honest reflection on how this form of adversity shapes identity and relationships across the lifespan. The event was a real success, drawing participants from across the UK and internationally, with overwhelmingly positive feedback about the depth, courage and relevance of the conversation. Participants described the session as “thought-provoking,” “well held,” and “deeply relatable,” and many valued the space to reflect on both personal and professional experiences, highlighting the courage of those who shared and the balance between story and insight.

Watch

EVENTS

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The Role of Socio-Contextual Factors in Child and Adolescent PTSD

Tuesday, 9 December, 5 - 6:30pm GMT, Online - £5

Join the Association of Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH) for a webinar on the role of socio-contextual factors in child and adolescent PTSD, delivered by Professor Sarah Halligan from the University of Bath. The session explores how family support, environment and trauma exposure shape PTSD in young people. Open to both members and non-members.

Trauma & Storytelling: Explore Healing Through Art & Science

Wednesday, 10 December, 6 - 8pm GMT, Online - Free

Hosted by vivo international e.V., this event introduces barrikad, a theatre piece co-created by survivors and told in their own words. It explores healing in a world that often stigmatises those affected by violence, alongside an introduction to the NETfacts therapeutic approach. With insights from trauma specialists and a screening of barrikad in Swedish with English subtitles, it offers a powerful blend of science, art and conversation.

Visit Website

The Body Keeps the Score

Thursday, 11 - Friday, 12 December 2025, 3 - 10pm GMT, Online - Free

A free two-day online event with Bessel van der Kolk and Licia Sky, offering an embodied exploration of how trauma is stored and healed through the senses. Participants get free live access plus 14-day replay viewing, with an optional CPD certificate available at an additional cost. An accessible way to deepen understanding of The Body Keeps the Score and trauma-responsive practice.

First Responders & the National Referral Mechanism - a Focus on Child Exploitation

Wednesday, 17 December: 12 - 1pm GMT - Online - Free

This webinar offers an overview for National Referral Mechanism (NRM) First Responders on recognising and responding to Child Criminal Exploitation and County Lines. Colleagues from the Single Competent Authority and the National County Lines Coordination Centre outline key indicators, the difference between child and adult NRM pathways, and what Decision Makers need for timely, accurate outcomes. Aimed at police, social care, charities, NGOs and safeguarding partners, the session supports confident identification and high-quality referrals that strengthen protection for exploited children.

NEWS AND INITIATIVES

Trauma-Informed London

Trauma-Informed London (TiL), a project led by the London VRU in collaboration with Dartington Service Design Lab and Friendhood, is building a shared city-wide vision for trauma-informed practice. This transformative initiative sets out what London needs to become genuinely trauma-aware: stronger cross-sector collaboration, psychological safety for staff and communities, a culture of curiosity, and re-designing systems to prevent retraumatisation. Drawing on surveys, case studies and young people’s insights, TiL offers a practical roadmap for long-term, meaningful change across London’s services. Check out the resources and insights and join the movement!

Read

Issue 33 of the ACAMH Newsletter - Adverse Childhood Experiences Special Interests Group (ACEs SIG)

November 2025

This eNewsletter of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Special Interests Group (ACEs SIG) captures the essence of current ACEs and trauma research, featuring Childhood Trauma and the Route to Resilience, which highlights how relationships, belonging and agency support recovery. It also includes the upcoming webinar with Professor Sarah Halligan (University of Bath) on socio-contextual factors in child and adolescent PTSD, as featured in our Events section, and new research on sibling sexual abuse. With special thanks to Arnon Bentovim and Sarah Halligan for curating.

Read

Research Hero of the Month – November 2025

10 October 2025

Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has named the Attune Project as its Research Hero of the Month for November 2025, recognising the work of Ranil Tan and Louise Combes. The project uses participatory arts methods to engage young people affected by ACEs, centring co-production, creativity and authentic youth voice in research design and delivery. A big well done to Attune and all the fab young people contributing to the project!

Read

Reflective Practice In Action

Tavistock Consulting shares how reflective-practice groups supported a liaison psychiatry team facing trauma, pressure and internal strain. Through facilitated space to think together, staff reported stronger connection, better use of the team as a resource, and clearer understanding of their role within the wider system. A practical example of organisational care that strengthens workforce wellbeing and service quality.

Read

ACTION AND TOOLS

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The Adversity & Work Survey

Trauma affects every area of our lives - including work. Adina Dinu is a developmental trauma survivor and founder of Trauma At Work, and is open about having an ACE score of 8. Adina's mission is to make the case for trauma-informed workplaces and help survivors live full and meaningful working lives. Adina is currently running a short, anonymous survey that explores how a history of adversity and work intersect. You can add your voice and demand change by taking the survey. It takes less than making a cup of tea, and you can share as little or as much as you want. Feel free to share the survey with colleagues and peers.

Take Part

Understanding Key Early Transitions for Vulnerable Children

The Paradigm Project, in partnership with Juvenis and Milk Honey Bees, is gathering community insight on how vulnerable and at-risk children experience four key educational transitions: Early Years to Reception, Reception to Year One, KS1 to KS2, and Primary to Secondary. The survey explores what support is working, where gaps remain, and how transitions can be strengthened through trauma-informed, upstream approaches. You can take part in the survey to help shape this important work.

Take Part

Gift Of Reconnection - FREE Trauma Informed Training

Thrive LDN outlines its free “Gift of Reconnection” trauma-informed practice training, developed with Dr Nicola Lester. The bronze–silver–gold programme offers flexible, accessible learning with practical tools, including implementation guides, CYP practitioner resources, and a dedicated family-liaison module. Widely used across London’s public services, the training strengthens trauma-informed practice through small, human-centred shifts that support children, young people, and communities.

Find Out More

Working with Families

Cost £25

The Working with Families guide, edited by Carol Jolliffe, supports practitioners to build family resilience after stress or crisis. It covers setting up family meetings, facilitating parent-child communication, managing conflict (both within families and between families and agencies), and developing both informal and formal support networks. Emphasising a strengths-based approach, it’s designed to improve healthy family functioning.

Purchase

REPORTS

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Kazzum Arts- Impact Report 2024-2025

The Kazzum Arts Impact Report 2024–2025 highlights the charity’s trauma-informed creative work with children and young people facing adversity. The report showcases how arts-based approaches support regulation, confidence, communication and connection for those affected by displacement, violence, neurodiversity and social isolation. It details Kazzum’s school, hospital and community programmes, reflecting strong outcomes in emotional wellbeing and engagement. A valuable insight into the role of creativity in healing and resilience for young people.

Read

New Research Suggests that Parents’ Mental Health is in Crisis During the First 1001 Days of Parenthood

10 October 2025

A new For Baby’s Sake Trust survey highlights significant mental-health struggles for parents in the first 1001 days, with half reporting increased difficulties. Mothers were asked about their mental health far more often than fathers, yet both groups described low levels of support. The findings underline the need for routine, inclusive mental-health checks for both parents and better early support during pregnancy and early childhood.

Read

Trauma-Informed Practice: Policy Summary

Updated, July 2025

The Mental Health Foundation’s Trauma-Informed Practice summary argues that trauma isn’t just an individual clinical issue but a systemic policy concern. It outlines how trauma affects mental and physical wellbeing, why it must underpin public services, and what trauma-informed practice means. The briefing sets out a UK-wide vision and policy recommendations, from workforce development to trauma-informed public services, aiming to shift away from diagnostic labels towards empowerment and prevention.

Read

RACIAL JUSTICE

Nafsiyat: 40 Years of Trauma-Informed Intercultural Therapy

Founded in 1983, Nafsiyat Intercultural Therapy Centre is a pioneering charity offering trauma-informed intercultural psychotherapy in over 20 languages for diverse communities. Their approach recognises how culture, identity, migration and racism shape mental health, removing barriers to support and ensuring accessible, culturally attuned care rooted in lived experience.

Find Out More

Radical Systems Change Research

April 2025

This Coffee Afrik CIC report examines how systemic traps, racialised policing, exclusionary education policies, economic deprivation and limited institutional support drive violence in the lives of young Black and Asian men in Tower Hamlets. With almost all participants reporting experiences of violence, it shows how schools, PRUs and local inequalities reinforce cycles of harm. Using a decolonial lens, it centres structural conditions rather than individual behaviour and calls for deep institutional and policy change.

Read

Understanding the Development of Childhood Trauma and Trauma-Informed Practice in Britain

July 2025

This Race Equality Foundation report examines how trauma-informed practice has developed in Britain and highlights persistent gaps around racial equity. It argues that existing TIP models often overlook structural racism and the specific needs of Black, Asian and minoritised communities. The paper calls for a re-imagined, anti-racist and inclusive trauma-informed approach that addresses structural inequality and better serves those most affected.

Read

BOOKS AND ARTICLES

Compassion Leakage and Energy Depletion

Mpumelelo Mpofu, a valued member of LAH, offers a powerful exploration of how constant connectivity and emotional overload deplete our inner reserves. Drawing on more than three decades as a trauma-informed practitioner, community activist, and evangelical Christian, Mpumelelo illuminates the quiet crisis of compassion fatigue. This reflective work supports anyone in caring roles to recognise depletion, restore balance, and sustain a grounded, authentic capacity for care.

Buy

The Flying Child - A Cautionary Fairy Tale for Adults

A must read book by Sophie Olson and Patricia Walsh combines lived-experience and trauma-informed therapy to explore recovery after childhood sexual abuse. Essential reading for survivors, therapists, educators and social workers, the book challenges traditional psychiatric frames and opens up new, hopeful narratives.

Buy

What’s the Latest News on Adverse Childhood Experiences?

13 August 2025

A new overview of Adverse Childhood Experiences highlights a rising prevalence among young people, with verbal abuse, cyberbullying and family instability emerging as key concerns. The article underscores how even one ACE can increase risks around school absence, mental and physical health difficulties, and long-term disadvantage. It also notes growing evidence on intergenerational and epigenetic impacts, reinforcing the urgency of prevention and early support.

Read

Implementing Trauma-Informed Practice Across Services to Support People Experiencing Multiple Disadvantage

1 October 2025

This BMC Health Services Research study, led by Michelle Farr and colleagues, evaluates Changing Futures Bristol, a programme supporting people facing multiple disadvantage, including homelessness, addiction, mental ill-health and criminal-justice contact. The research found encouraging shifts toward trauma-informed organisational culture, but highlighted major barriers such as short-term funding, staff turnover, managerial pressures and structural inequalities. It calls for sustained, cross-sector system-change to genuinely embed trauma-informed practice.

Read

Child Mental Health Practitioners' Perspectives on Providing Support for Families Where There is Intimate Partner Violence: Navigating Complex Family Relationships and Fear at Home

June 2025

Published earlier this year, this article by Claire Powell and colleagues in Child Abuse & Neglect examines practitioners’ experiences of supporting families where domestic abuse and parental mental-health difficulties overlap. It highlights the emotional toll on staff, inconsistent multi-agency responses, and structural obstacles to providing trauma-informed support.

Read

VIDEOS, WEBINARS AND PODCASTS

Benjamin Perks – Trauma Proof: Healing, Attachment, and the Science of Prevention

5 November 2025

In this episode of Wag Tales, podcaster Megan speaks with Benjamin Perks, global child-rights advocate and author of Trauma Proof. Together they explore what a true public-health approach to trauma prevention looks like, the science of ACEs, and the moral and economic case for early investment. Benjamin reflects on his childhood in care and the teacher who changed his trajectory, illustrating how one trusted adult can transform a child’s future.

Listen

#ACTonIICSA - The Elephant in the Room

20 October 2025

Marking three years since the Independent Inquiry into Childhood Sexual Abuse published its final report, advocates highlight that none of the 20 recommendations have been implemented despite seven years of inquiry work and 7,000 survivor testimonies. In that time, an estimated 1.5 million children are thought to have been newly abused. The message is clear: children deserve better, and survivors deserve justice. Watch and share this campaign video!

Watch

Mind the Kids: Home fae Home: Hot Chocolate Helping Trauma

15 October 2025

In this discussion hosted by the Association of Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH), the Hot Chocolate Trust joins designers, psychologists, and youth workers to explore how trauma-informed spaces for young people are developed. The conversation highlights transforming unused housing into environments centred on safety, belonging, and youth-led design, offering practical insight into multidisciplinary approaches that support healing and connection.

Watch

LIVED EXPERIENCE

Surviving Your Worst Days…

15 October 2025

In this powerful reflection, Jo Frazer-Wise challenges the gap between survival slogans and the lived reality of trauma. The piece explores how phrases like “you’ve survived 100% of your worst days” can feel dismissive when surviving doesn’t feel like living, and when the past still intrudes on the present. Instead of neat soundbites, it calls for honesty, space and real witnessing, an invitation to be heard without minimising pain, and to hold on gently through days that feel unsurvivable.

Read

ROOTS AND RESILIENCE

Grounding can help bring a little steadiness into the preset moment when emotions or stress feel overwhelming.

Before you try anything, it’s important to recognise that safety isn’t automatic, especially after trauma. You are in charge here. You can choose how much or how little to engage, and you can stop at any time. The aim isn’t to drop into the body if that doesn’t feel right, but to find a small sense of steadiness wherever you choose to place your attention. Choice is the foundation of safety.

Try this simple, read-along grounding practice:
🩵 As you read this sentence, notice one thing around you that feels neutral or okay.
🩵 While staying with these words, let your shoulders soften by about 1%.
🩵 If it feels okay, slow the breath and lengthen the exhale.
🩵 Finally, say silently to yourself: “I can choose one small thing to pay attention to right now.”

Soft moments, chosen gently, can create a small pocket of steadiness.

A DOT OF INSPIRATION

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Disclaimer: News for Action is a collection of initiatives and information shared by members and collaborators of the London ACEs Hub (LAH).

The LAH is an independent and non-partisan network and the opinions here presented might not represent the LAH. All items included in this newsletter aim to promote constructive discussion as well as personal and collective development.

We use ChatGPT as a supporting tool in creating our newsletter, and our team reviews all items before publication. If you notice anything inaccurate, we’d love to hear from you, as we may occasionally miss things.

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