In this episode, we delve into the often-overlooked nuances of kinship care through the lens of lived experience. While kinship care—being raised by family members or close friends rather than in the general foster care system—is frequently highlighted in policy as a preferred alternative, the voices of the children within these dynamics are rarely centered.

Our host is joined by Blu Mikel, who shares her personal journey of being raised under a kinship guardianship arrangement by her aunt. Together, they deconstruct the "happy-go-lucky" myth of kinship care to reveal the complex layers of identity, "othering," and the silent trauma of displacement.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The Identity Gap: The struggle of living in a family setting where you are "the niece, not the daughter," and how micro-instances—like having a different last name—can impact a child’s sense of belonging.
• The "Unspoken Rule" of Silence: The emotional toll of living in a household where the biological parents and the reasons for removal are "off-limits" topics, leading to internalized shame and lowered self-esteem.
• Systemic Neglect and the 18+ Cliff: The reality of "falling through the gaps" when local authority support vanishes at 18, and why the presumption that kinship care equals lifelong stability is a dangerous policy flaw.
• Adultification and Agency: The duality of being expected to act with adult-like gratitude while having no power or choice regarding contact with birth parents or living arrangements.
• Trauma-Informed Solutions: Why we need a "manual" for kinship dynamics, better financial support for carers, and a community that acknowledges kinship care as a valid—and often traumatic—care experience.

Resources Mentioned:

• Kinship (formerly Grandparents Plus): A leading charity supporting kinship carers.
• NNEC (National Network for the Education of Care Leavers): Supporting care-experienced and estranged students in higher education.
• Care Leavers Association: For definitions and support surrounding care experience.

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Trauma exposure is often associated with blue-light services or clinical roles, but the reality of emotional labour is far wider. In this episode of Trauma Informed Conversations, host Jessica Parker sits down with mental health and suicide prevention consultant Christine Clark to discuss the "quiet weight" carried by those in everyday professions.

From catering kitchens to recycling centres and call centres, the conversation explores how "ordinary" roles often involve absorbing months or years of a person's turmoil. Christine and Jessica challenge the expectation that burnout is "normal" and highlight the physical and psychological toll of staying "steady" for others without receiving containment in return.

This episode is an invitation to rethink where trauma shows up and a reminder that being affected by your work doesn't make you weak—it makes you human. It offers a space to acknowledge the stories we hold and the necessity of human connectivity in finding a way through.

Guests

Christine Clark is a mental health and suicide prevention consultant, trainer, and facilitator with over two decades of experience in the field. As the founder of Koru Consulting Ltd, she leverages her unique professional background—having originally trained and worked as a chef for many years—to explore how trauma and emotional pressure manifest in diverse, "non-traditional" sectors like catering, waste management, and call centres. A Master ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) Trainer, Christine specialises in moving organisations beyond "part of the job" mentalities to foster psychologically safe environments grounded in human connectivity and the "permission to talk".

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Adoption is frequently presented as an endpoint: a “happy ending,” a rescue, a solution. For many adoptees, the story does not end with placement. It continues across the life course, shaped by identity, belonging, nervous system responses, loss, silence, and social expectation.

In this episode of Trauma Informed Conversations (part of the Care-Experienced People mini-series), host Carrie Wilson speaks with Annalisa Toccara-Jones, a PhD researcher, adoptee, and advocate whose work examines adoption as a lifelong experience shaped by narrative power, particularly through media and public storytelling.

The conversation draws on the Adoptee Consciousness Model, developed by adoptee scholars Branco, Kim, Newton, Cooper-Lewter, and O’Loughlin (2025). The model conceptualises adoptee awareness as a non-linear process, moving through recurring phases that include status quo, rupture, dissonance, expansiveness, and agency.

Annalisa discusses how these touchstones can be activated at different points across the life course, often in response to media portrayals, institutional encounters, relationships, or moments when dominant “happy ending” narratives no longer hold. The episode explores the pressure adoptees can feel to be “grateful,” the role of saviourism and moral panic in adoption storytelling, and how adoptees are frequently represented without complexity.

Annalisa also reflects on researching from within the adoptee community, including the emotional labour this entails and the need for boundaries when producing knowledge grounded in lived experience.

This episode invites listeners to move beyond simplified adoption stories and to recognise adoption as a lifelong condition shaped by narrative, power, and social expectation, requiring trauma-informed understanding and space for adoptees to speak without obligation to resolve their experience.

Guest

Annalisa Toccara-Jones is a PhD researcher, adoptee, and advocate whose work explores the lifelong legacies of adoption and the ways adoption is portrayed and understood through media and public narratives. Working through a trauma-informed lens, Annalisa’s research centres adoptee voices and examines how dominant “happy ending” framings can erase complexity, shape identity, and silence lived experience.

Episode Key Themes

• Adoption as a “happy ending” narrative versus adoptees’ lived realities
• Silence, shame, and the impact of being discouraged from speaking about adoption
• Media portrayals: saviourism, moral panic, and “either villain or victim” storytelling
• The expectation of gratitude, and what it obscures about safety and trauma
• Identity, belonging, class, and the specific realities of racialised/transracial experiences
• The emotional labour of researching within your own community and the need for boundaries
• How adoptees reclaim voice through social media and community connection

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