My Why: Bigger than a job title or role

My Why: Built on your own story.

My Why: The foundation of resilience.

Value your values

Check your alignment

Whose values am I leading with?

Own Your Strengths.

Deal With Your Blind Spots

Build Your Capacity

The Ripple Effect of Trauma

System Dis-integration

Integration as the Antidote

Our Basic Needs

What Trauma has taken

The Foundation of Transformation

Safety in Relationships Safety in Environments

Not all trauma is equal

The importance of meaning-making

The Mountains and the Valleys, Allies and Enemies

How this Impacts Now

Who is who and what can they do?

Strengths and Vulnerabilities

CCC Collaboration: Communication, Connection, Consistency

Identify Disconnection and Dis-Integration

The Two-Layered Mission—Healing the Child, Healing the System

The Mission of Integration

Clarifying Your Role

Defining Your Mission Statement

Introduction To The Team That Supports You

A supported leader is a sustainable leader. You cannot lead others if you are running on empty. The first step in building strong teams is making sure you have a team around you. Trauma-transforming leadership is emotionally demanding, and you will not last if you are leading in isolation. This chapter will help you identify who is in your corner, clarify who you need, and ensure that your leadership is sustainable.

Identifying Your Support System

Who has your back? Mapping your personal and professional support network. ● The 5 Types of Supporters: Mentors, peers, advisors, emotional supporters, and challengers. ● The danger of isolation: Recognizing the early signs of burnout and dis-integration.

Contracting for Support

What do you need? Identifying the kind of support that keeps you effective ● Creating agreements with coaches, mentors and peers—clear expectations for feedback, accountability, and encouragement. ● How to ask for help without guilt or shame—reframing support as a leadership strength, not a weakness.

Strengthening Your Personal Boundaries

The “always-on” trap—how over-identification with work leads to burnout. ● Emotional boundaries in leadership—balancing empathy with self-protection. ● Knowing when to step back—recognizing when stress is compromising your leadership

Introduction To The Team You Lead

Culture is created in every interaction. The way you lead determines the way your team shows up for children Your team doesn’t just work for you—they work with you, and the way you lead them directly affects the quality of support children receive. This chapter will help you create a team culture of clarity, trust, and aligned purpose, using family systems concepts to ensure role clarity and healthy team dynamics.

Roles, Responsibilities, and System Clarity

The Dysfunction of Unclear Roles – How lack of clarity leads to stress, inefficiency, and conflict. ● Defining Team Roles – Who does what? Establishing clear roles and responsibilities. ● Over- and Under-Functioning – Avoiding the tendency to take on too much instead of delegating effectively. ● Reduce Administrative Load: Work Smarter, Not Harder

Building a Culture of Trust and Accountability

The 3 Core Ingredients of a Trusting Team – Psychological safety, shared vulnerability, and reliability. ● High Expectations with High Support – Leading with accountability and compassion. ● The Power of Open Communication – Encouraging feedback, difficult conversations, and conflict resolution.

Leading with Consistency and Emotional Regulation

Emotional Contagion in Leadership – How your emotional state influences your team. ● The Consistency Equation – Why predictability in leadership builds trust and stability. ● Leading Through Stress and Uncertainty – Staying grounded so your team feels safe. ● Practicing Emotional Regulation - building the skills when stress is lower enhances your capacity to implement in times of stress

Introduction To The Team Around Each Child and Young Person

A child’s healing is only as strong as the network of adults around them. A child doesn’t just need one great leader—they need a consistent, aligned team of caregivers, teachers, caseworkers, and professionals who work together instead of in silos. This chapter will help you map, assess, and strengthen the network of relationships surrounding each child, ensuring that everyone is working in alignment toward healing.

Who Is Who and What Can They Do?

The Care Team Network – Identifying all the adults involved in the child’s life. ● The Power of Clear Roles – Reducing overlap, confusion, and professional conflict. ● Who Is the Anchor? – Identifying the child’s most consistent, trusted adult and reinforcing that connection

Strengths and Vulnerabilities in the System

The “Too Many Voices” Problem – When multiple professionals overwhelm the child instead of helping them. ● Gaps and Weak Links – Where support systems fail and how to reinforce them. ● The Impact of Unresolved Conflict – How disunity among professionals can harm the child’s stability

The 3 C’s of Collaboration – Communication, Connection, and Consistency

Aligning the Adults – How to create consistent messaging and responses between caregivers, teachers, and professionals. ● Regular Check-Ins That Work – Simple, effective ways to keep communication open without endless meetings. ● Reducing Systemic Disconnection – Ensuring that trauma-informed care is integrated across environments.

Introduction To Setting Goals That Matter

Not All Goals Are Created Equal—Understand The Difference Between Busy Work and Transformational Work

The Three Levels of Leadership Goals

● Personal Goals: Aligning your leadership with your values and strengths. ● Team Goals: Ensuring your team is working toward shared, meaningful outcomes. ● Systemic Goals: Contributing to broader systemic change in trauma-informed practice.

From Reactive to Proactive—Setting Trauma-Transforming Goals

● Avoid the “Firefighting” Trap – How to shift from constant problem-solving to intentional goal-setting. ● The Power of Perspective – Why long-term solutions should always take priority over short-term fixes. ● Balancing Ambition with Realism – Setting goals that are bold, and achievable.

Clarifying Priorities—What Needs to Come First?

● Urgent vs. Important: How to prioritize when everything feels like a priority. ● Break it Down: Creating milestones that make long-term goals feel manageable. ● Eliminate Distractions: Saying no to what doesn’t align with your mission.

Introduction To Aligning Individual and Team Goals

If the team isn’t moving in the same direction, you’ll never get where you need to go.

How to Ensure Everyone is on the Same Page

● Count the Cost of Misalignment: Why team burnout and conflict often come from unclear goals. ● Create Shared Ownership: Ensuring every team member sees their role in the bigger picture. ● Connect Daily Tasks to the Bigger Mission: Turning mundane tasks into meaningful contributions.

Setting Expectations and Accountability Without Micromanaging

● Clear, Consistent Expectations: Avoiding confusion that leads to inefficiency. ● Empowering, Not Controlling: How to give autonomy while staying aligned. ● Creating a Culture of Follow-Through: Why accountability should feel supportive, not punitive.

Reducing Administrative Load to Focus on the Work That Matters

● Automate the Repetitive Tasks – Use available technology to free up time. ● Outsource or Delegate Admin Work – Allow your team to focus on their expertise by ensuring minimal ‘paperwork’. ● Simplify Workflows – Reduce unnecessary reports, meetings, and approval processes that slow down progress.

Introduction To Measuring Progress and Adjusting Course

Leadership is about learning, adapting, and staying the course—without losing sight of the bigger picture.

Tracking Progress Without Getting Stuck in the Details

● Measuring What Matters: Choosing metrics that reflect impact, not just activity. ● Celebrating Wins Along the Way: The importance of recognizing progress to maintain momentum. ● Course-Correcting Without Losing Morale: Adjusting strategy while keeping the team engaged.

Checking in with Your Own Leadership Growth

● Regular Self-Assessment: Ensuring your leadership is evolving alongside your goals. ● Evaluate your Effectiveness: Individually and with your team, ask what’s working, what’s not, what needs refining.

Keeping the Vision Alive When Challenges Arise

● Lead Through Resistance: Overcoming roadblocks when change is slow. ● Revisit Your Mission Statement: Using your purpose as an anchor in difficult moments. ● Lift Your Gaze: Get grounded in the long-term commitment to change (why impact is measured in years, not weeks).

Introduction To Developing an Integrated Plan for Trauma Transformation

True integration requires addressing both the child’s needs and the functionality of the system around them. Trauma-responsive care starts by ensuring the child experiences felt safety, belonging and connection, autonomy, fun, and empowerment. But these needs cannot be met in isolation—they require the entire system to work in harmony. This chapter focuses on how service providers can align their approach across settings, ensuring the child receives consistent, coordinated, and trauma-informed care.

Felt Safety – The Foundation of Healing

● Prioritise Felt Safety: Children cannot learn, grow, or connect without first feeling safe. ● Establish Relational Safety: A trusted adult must be present and attuned in moments of distress. ● Establish Environmental Safety: The physical environment matters—lighting, noise levels, and seating arrangements impact a child’s sense of security. ● Build Consistency: Consistency, predictability, and calm interactions are essential across all environments.

Love and Belonging – Healing Through Relationships

● Identify the VIPs: Children need at least one adult who is a consistent, reliable attachment figure. ● Strategise for Belonging: Social inclusion within peer groups is vital for emotional well-being. ● Connection before Correction: Get the ratio right.

Autonomy, Fun, and Empowerment – Restoring Control and Joy

● Provide choices: Reducing trauma’s impact on a child’s sense of control. ● Increase Opportunities for Fun: Play is essential for emotional regulation and social learning. ● Empower Children and Young People: Identify and support opportunities for leadership, advocacy, and building confidence.

Introduction To Defining ‘Success’ for the Child

Trauma transformation isn’t just about reducing problem behaviors—it’s about meeting needs so those behaviors no longer serve a purpose. Too often, success is defined in terms of compliance, academic achievement, or external behaviors. But for children impacted by trauma, real success looks like: ✔ Emotional regulation replacing dysregulated responses. ✔ Trust and connection replacing fear and withdrawal. ✔ Agency and empowerment replacing helplessness. This chapter explores how professionals can collaborate to define success holistically, ensuring the child’s progress is recognized, supported, and celebrated.

Setting Trauma-Responsive Success Markers

● Success is not linear—growth happens in cycles, and setbacks are part of healing. ● Emphasize progress in self-regulation and relational connection over compliance. ● Ensure goals are developmentally appropriate and reflect individual capacity.

Involving the Child in Their Own Success Plan

● Empower the child: Give them a voice in defining their own success. ● Celebrate small victories: build motivation and momentum. ● Capture and Affirm Progress: Use both qualitative and quantitative tracking to capture progress

Introduction To Cultivating Shared Goals Across Professionals

Fragmented systems create fragmented care. To transform trauma, professionals must unite towards shared objectives. Many professionals involved in a child’s life have the same goal—healing and growth—but without clear communication and alignment, they often work in conflicting ways. This chapter focuses on developing collaborative, shared goals across service providers to maximize effectiveness and reduce confusion for the child.

The Power of a Unified Approach

● Define Consistency: Inconsistent responses between professionals can reinforce a child’s distrust. ● Schedule Collaboration: Regular collaboration prevents gaps in care and miscommunication ● Develop Shared Goals: A shared framework ensures children receive the same support and responses across environments.

Tracking and Measuring Progress System-Wide

● Align tracking with the child’s own goals: where possible, ensure someone in the support team is tracking progress. ● Identify the measures: Clarify what is being measured, and how, across the support team. Ensure the use of tracking tools that emphasize growth, not just performance or the absence of problem behaviour. ● Share the progress: Feedback loops between professionals ensure alignment and adaptability. ● Celebrate milestones: Identify wins, as well as the contributing factors.

Introduction To Aligning Organisational and Personal Goals

Sustaining trauma-transforming leadership requires maximum alignment between a leader’s personal goals and the goals of their organisation. In schools, government and non-government organisations, and private business, leaders often struggle to balance their personal leadership goals with organizational expectations and policies. This chapter focuses on aligning personal leadership aspirations with organisational direction.

Making Trauma-Transforming Goals Part of Your Organization’s Mission

● Align where possible: Aligning with organisational policies creates sustainability, buy-in and a solid foundation for collaboration. ● Advocate where necessary: Advocating for trauma-transforming approaches at leadership levels ensures long-term impact. ● Stay the course: Your leadership influences broader cultural change.

Introduction to care for yourself

Sustainable leadership starts with sustainable well-being. If you don’t take care of yourself, you won’t be able to take care of others. Many leaders in trauma-transforming spaces prioritize everyone else’s needs over their own—until they hit a breaking point. This chapter will help you reframe self-care as a leadership necessity, not a luxury.

The Healthy Mind Platter—A Blueprint for Mental Well-Being

● The Healthy Mind Platter identifies seven essential daily mental activities. (these will be 7 micro lessons within lesson 1) ✔ Focus Time – Engaging in meaningful, goal-directed work. ✔ Play Time – Enjoying creative, unstructured activities. ✔ Physical Time – Moving your body to enhance well-being. ✔ Connecting Time – Nurturing relationships with others. ✔ Time In – Practicing self-reflection or mindfulness. ✔ Down Time – Resting without a specific focus. ✔ Sleep – Restoring the brain through quality sleep. ● Identify What Your Mind Needs: which categories are underrepresented in your routine and what to do about it.

Setting Boundaries Without Guilt

● Boundaries are not about selfishness—they are about sustainability. ● Saying no to certain tasks means saying yes to long-term impact. ● Balancing professional dedication with personal needs. ● How boundary-setting models self-regulation and self-respect for your team.

Creating Rituals That Recharge You

● Develop daily micro-habits: e.g., 5-minute deep breathing, morning sunlight exposure. ● Implement wind-down time: Evening wind-down rituals to signal the brain it’s time to rest. ● Identify your stress cycle: Build awareness of the ebbs and flows of stress, and respond to keep your mind and body healthy through movement, laughter, or connection.

Introduction To Cultivate Mindful Self-Awareness

You can’t lead others effectively if you aren’t aware of what’s happening inside you. Mindful self-awareness gives you access to an early warning system—it allows you to recognize stress before it turns into burnout, regulate emotions before they spill over, and stay present in the work instead of becoming numb.

Use the Wheel of Awareness to Strengthen Self-Reflection

● Dan Siegel’s Wheel of Awareness framework helps leaders develop (4 micro lessons): ✔ Bodily Awareness – Pay attention to body cues. ✔ Sensory Awareness – Pay attention to the environment you are in.. ✔ Thought Awareness – Noticing the activity of the mind. ✔ Relational Awareness – Awareness of the interpersonal connections with the people around you in your family, your workplace, your community and beyond.

Recognizing Stress and Regulating in Real Time

● Understand your stress triggers before they escalate. ● Use mindfulness techniques to create space between reaction and response. ● Practice Time-in: How intentional reflection can help you process difficult experiences.

Journaling as a Tool for Leadership Growth

● Start Self-Coaching: Writing in a journal is a form of self-coaching, with the power to to uncover insights and inspiration from our own memories, experience and intuition.. ● Start Self-Debriefing: Using reflective journaling to process emotions and decisions. ● Enhance your Sustainability: How 5-minute end-of-day journaling builds clarity and resilience.

Introduction To Maintaining Compassion Satisfaction

Fulfillment in this work isn’t about avoiding stress—it’s about holding onto meaning. Compassion satisfaction is the positive emotional reward of helping others. Without it, burnout and compassion fatigue set in quickly.

Measuring and Protecting Your Compassion Satisfaction

● Maximise Compassion Satisfaction: The joy and fulfillment from your work. ● Minimise Compassion Fatigue: The exhaustion from witnessing suffering. ● Avoid Burnout: The depletion of emotional and physical energy.

Staying Motivated Through Gratitude and Celebration

● Mark the Wins: Regularly document small wins that are in alignment with your purpose, mission, and goals. ● Practice Gratitude: Shift focus from exhaustion to impact. ● Stay Connected: Maintain regular connection with your best supporters, sharing with them the wins and achievements and allow them to celebrate you.

Introduction To Build a Long-Term Vision

Sustainability isn’t just about today—it’s about knowing where you’re going next. The best way to prevent burnout and disillusionment is to have a clear vision for your leadership and career.

Creating a Roadmap for Your Professional Growth

● Visualise your Future: Where do you want to be in five years? ● Level Up your Awareness: Expand your leadership self-awareness with the Johari Window. ● Identify your Resources: What skills, knowledge, and connections do you have that will help you towards this future? ● Mind the Gap: Identify skills and knowledge you don’t have…yet.

Envisioning Your Legacy

● Know your Reach: Understanding the ripple effect of your leadership. ● Know your Impact: Defining the impact you want to leave behind. ● Ensure Continuity: Developing a mentorship mindset to empower others with your knowledge, skills and experience.

Staying Connected to the Bigger Picture

● Stay Inspired: Engage in ongoing learning to keep the energy and inspiration going. ● Stay Connected: Attend conferences and trainings to keep your knowledge, skills and connections sharp and current. ● Stay Committed: Advocate for systemic change beyond your immediate role.