DREAM together, Cambridge (2026)

27/04/2026

Start with yourself, always 🤍

Your 40s hit different.

There’s no longer the same urgency to rush. Instead, there’s a deeper pull to slow down, turn inward, and sit with it all, the thoughts, the feelings, the parts we once tried to run from or distract ourselves from.

I truly believe that without giving ourselves the space to feel and move through the heavier emotions, the ones we’d rather avoid, we can’t truly grow beyond what we avoid.

This weekend was for me, a little rest, a little nurture, and some gentle planning ahead for my business and future.

Step by step, we build and shape.

Remember, it starts with you.

21/04/2026

World Creativity and Innovation Day 🎉

Today is World Creativity and Innovation Day, set up by the United Nations to highlight how creativity helps us respond to life’s serious stuff and support wellbeing, growth, and connection.

At Dream Together, we take a creative approach to life’s serious stuff. Using evidence based creative methods, including dramatherapy, we support people to work through what matters.

This is not just about being creative. It is about using creativity with purpose to support insight, transformation, and meaningful change.

Creative approaches can help people move beyond overthinking and connect more fully with their inner experience. They can bring what sits beneath the surface into awareness, making it easier to understand and work through.

This can be especially helpful in recovering from trauma, where words are not always enough. Creative methods offer different ways to express, explore, and make sense of difficult experiences in a safe and supported way.

They can also support relationships, both personally and at work, by helping people notice patterns, improve communication, and try out new ways of responding.

A creative approach to life’s serious stuff supports healing, growth, and new possibilities.

*These images do not include direct client work, but do include material from training shared with consent.

British Association of Dramatherapists

19/04/2026

A beautiful day with a beautiful friend 🤍

Investing a full day in ourselves as a restful Sunday ahead of a full week. Sauna, hot tub, nourishing wholesome food, barefoot walking and plenty of heartfelt conversation…

Making space for inspiration, reflection, and gentle planning for both personal and professional life. Taking stock. Finding our anchorage. Resetting the compass. Where have I been? Where am I now? Where am I going?

So important to invest in yourself & your relationships 🌿

PAUS.

17/04/2026

SQUIRREL’S SEARCH FOR LOVE from Dr Lisa Cherry

A BOOK REVIEW

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A beautiful little book, I honestly didn’t want it to be over. Even at the end, Squirrel is still searching, and it leaves you wondering what he’s really looking for on the horizon.

The theme of searching really stood out to me. It’s something that comes up a lot in the therapy room, especially with children who have experienced loss.

The illustrations are lovely. I like how there’s always something else nearby, a butterfly, a shell, a seal, almost like little companions on his journey.

It made me wonder if Squirrel is finding pieces of his grandma in those things, and whether they help him along the way.

I also loved how the feel of the book becomes lighter as Squirrel’s journey goes on.

It gently shifts, and honestly I’m left hoping there might be more to come... 😊

Dr Lisa Cherry

13/04/2026

Rebuilding the Village 🌳

Putting Relationships Back at the Heart of Adoption Support.

After 10 years supporting adopted children and families, and over 18 years working alongside children, young people and families with care experience, this is what I know:

At our core, people want to be loved, cared for, and held. That is what we are here for, to connect, to belong, to grow, and to thrive.

And yet, life happens. Trauma happens. Systems struggle. Generations carry pain. Babies do not always get the best start. Parents do not always receive the support they need.

When relationships rupture early, the impact is far reaching, shaping how a person relates to themselves, to others, and to the world.

Adoption begins with loss. It is relational trauma. And healing must also happen in relationship.

As I write this, walking in nature, I am reminded that nature holds what we sometimes cannot. It shows us seasons, repair, restoration, and growth. It reminds us what nurture truly looks like, steady, patient, connected.

This is what our children and families need:

Not just services, but spaces.

Not just interventions, but relationships.

Not just plans, but people.

For too long, we have sat behind desks, within systems, and surrounded by paperwork, often disconnected from the very essence of what heals.

It is time to return to something more human: community, shared spaces, storytelling, and connection.

The environments where healing can happen naturally.

We speak often about helping children to “thrive.” But thriving does not happen in isolation. It happens in safe relationships, in community, and in connection with the world around us.

This is a call to action 📣

As we move forward with reform, let us not only fund support, but let us rethink it. Let us create opportunities for families to come together, to build and sustain relationships that are consistent, nurturing, and real and held by realtionships and nature. 🌳

Because when we restore relationships, we restore possibility.

“It takes a village to raise a child, and a community to help them heal.”

With hope and commitment,

Ciara McClelland

Creative Arts Psychotherapist, Independent Social Worker, and Trauma-Informed Consultant BA (Hons) Theatre and Performance | MA Dramatherapy | MA Social Work | BADth | HCPC | BASW | SWE

🧩 This letter contributes to the Adoption Support Fund consultation, calling for consistent, tailored support. It reflects years of practice, not one story, but many. The experiences, patterns, and gaps are real.

These voices deserve to be heard.

Adoption UK

Josh MacAlister MP

12/04/2026

Sunday reset 🤍 🌱 🤲

Our bodies and minds can hold so much. Life’s serious stuff can touch us all in different ways.

If we do not make time to tune in to ourselves on a deeper, instinctive level as practitioners, parents and leaders, how can we truly hold space for others?

Inside out leadership, what does this mean?

For me, it is the quiet practice of coming home to yourself. Of listening. Of softening. Of noticing what is moving within before responding to the world around you.

On a practical level, it can be simple, Pause. Breathe. Create space in your day to feel into what is moving inside of you.

For me, it is moving and dancing, letting my body speak where words cannot.

This morning after dancing with freedom dance and connecting with others, there is a peace, a softening, it feels like a new page is yet to be written, a new chapter starting...

There is a lightness. A sense of trust, a gentle peace within, trusting myself, my leadership and my practice... allows me to create from a place that feels grounded and true to me.

I am looking forward to what unfolds next 🤲

Leadership begins within. When we learn to hold ourselves with honesty and care, we create space for others to do the same.

Inside out leadership starts with you 😊

Thank you to 🙏

10/04/2026

🎨 Testimonial

"Ciara,

Just a few words to say thank you for the great work you have done with Marty. I know he has enjoyed your sessions together and has 100% benefited from them.

Over the time you have spent with Marty, we have seen an improvement in his behaviour and he seems much more able to control his anger.

Also, I would like to thank you for the advice you gave me, giving me pointers without judging me. You always made me feel I was doing everything right.

Thank you so much for all your help and advice.
Marty, I know, is going to miss his sessions with you.

Wishing you all the best and thank you again.

Joesy and Marty

🖍 Testimonial from a kinship carer coming to the end of a 2-year journey with a young boy aged 11 with a complex trauma history and additional learning, physical, and medical needs.

09/04/2026

Roots, Relationships & Reflection 🌱

Over the Easter break, I took some much needed time with family and friends across Cambridge and Ireland. It was a space to rest, reconnect and reflect.

While Easter is not a holiday everyone observes, its themes invite deeper thought for me. Hope, renewal, forgiveness and light emerging from shadow.

Growing up in a Roman Catholic family, I was shaped by ideas of sin, forgiveness and redemption. Over time, both personally and professionally, I’ve become more curious about these narratives.

How much of what we believe about ourselves is inherited through culture, family and conditioning?

And how do these early frameworks shape our internal world, our relationships and how we show up in the spaces we hold?

In my work, through a trauma-informed and therapeutic lens, I often return to one core idea. There are no bad parts of us, only parts that have not yet been understood or integrated.

Time with family has a way of bringing this into focus. The warmth and connection, alongside the challenges, old patterns and protective responses.

What stood out most for me was this;

Connection and belonging matter deeply.

Relationships are complex and sometimes hard.

Repair is possible when we lead with curiosity and compassion.

When we slow down, stay present in discomfort and seek to understand each other’s inner experiences, something shifts.

Ruptures can be repaired.

Trust can be rebuilt.

More conscious, secure relationships can form.

This is both personal and professional work.

A gentle invitation 🌿

What have your roots taught you?

What is yours to keep or to release?

How are your experiences shaping how you lead and care for others?

01/04/2026

Finding the Glimpses of Light ✨️

It’s often the small moments that stay with us.

Yesterday in Northampton, after a deeply meaningful day listening stories of leaders, children and families their journeys, their challenges, and their hopes for the future, I noticed a simple window that seemed to hold so much light.

For me this window held the energy of the day, the people, glimmers of hope, energy, colour, growth, recovery, possiblity...

We heard a passionate, honest, and hopeful contribution from Colin Foster reminding us what is possible when we truly lead from the inside out. His heart for the work shone through.

It was a privilege to connect with so many heart-centred, skilled practitioners, all committed to making a difference for children, young people, and families affected by adverse childhood experiences.

These are the spaces where change begins.

Planting seeds, one day at a time. 🌱

Because alone we can do little but together, we can do so much more. 😊

Colin Foster

Matthew Tapp

28/03/2026

Learning to Hold Differently 🤲🌏

In therapeutic work, we do not simply listen to words. We hold the weight of stories, emotions, and patterns that have been carried across generations, embedded in families, communities, and cultures.

Over time, these settle in the body and nervous system, shaping beliefs such as “I have to carry it all” or “I am not doing enough.”

Awareness of these patterns, stories, roles, and inherited ways of being is the first step in moving through them.

I recently spent a few days on retreat in south Wales with 5 Rhythms, a movement practice that invites the body to lead.

During the practice, the teaching allowed us to drop into shadowy elements of inertia, tension, and confusion.

We were invited to feel the heaviness and stuckness that come with these shadowy elements, dropping into the inner experience and weight it created, and gradually inviting the body to create space to release and move into new possibilities, taking inspiration from nature around us.

The days that followed were equally important, allowing all of this to settle in the body and be fully absorbed.

The Dream together mug, which I sipped warm tea from gifted by a family I support, serves as a metaphor for shared holding.

Just as the retreat remined me that none of us carry life’s weight alone.

The collective, relational, and trusted connections are always there, linking the personal work to the wider web of collective care.

I am grateful for the work, the trust, and the reminder that we are never truly alone in carrying what matters.

Together, we really can create new shapes, new possibilities for collective healing. 🤲

10/03/2026

Full Circle at the Spotlight Awards 🌿

Honoured to have sponsored the event styling at the Cambridge County Council Spotlight Awards this evening.

From the Coroner’s Office and Business Support teams to innovative youth at risk initiatives, it was inspiring to see so many people recognised for their compassion, dedication, and impact.

Having worked as a frontline social worker in Cambridge for over 10 years, and in recent years returning as a consultant and therapeutic provider, reconnecting with colleagues and leaders felt surreal.

I felt warmly welcomed, with a real sense of belonging and hope for the future. A moment of nostalgia, pride, and gratitude.

My heart is full 😊

Now offering trauma-informed workshops, training, consultancy, keynote speaking, and therapeutic support for organisations and communities.

dream-together.co.uk

Stephen Moir

Cambridgeshire County Council

with thanks to Minuteman Press - Deep Ellum for their support.

04/03/2026

School Letter of Support for Jay.

To whom it may concern,

We are writing to share our support for Jay. He is a bright, thoughtful young person with significant potential. When he feels safe and understood, his strengths are clear. We see this in lessons, in conversations and particularly in PE and Drama.

We are committed to supporting Jay both academically and emotionally. Within school we provide pastoral care, safe spaces and support to help him regulate his emotions.

However, supporting a young person with complex early experiences cannot sit with one setting alone.

We often find ourselves moving between behavioural approaches and therapeutic approaches, without sufficient confidence in trauma informed practice.

At times this leaves us feeling uncertain and, honestly, carrying a sense of shame or blame, as though we should somehow know more or do more.

We want to get this right for Jay. We care deeply. But care alone is not enough without coordinated support.

There are moments when it feels as though we are working in isolation, without full visibility of the wider network around him. Information does not always flow.

Strategies are not always aligned. Time for shared reflection is limited. When systems feel fragmented, important pieces can be missed, and this can unintentionally create further distress for the child we are all trying to support.

Jay spends a significant part of his life in school. If we truly believe that it takes a village, then that village must be connected, informed and resourced to work together.

A more joined up approach, with shared responsibility and clear communication between school, therapeutic services and adoption support, would strengthen consistency and stability for him.

We remain committed to Jay. He deserves patience, understanding and sustained, coordinated care.

It takes a village not only in principle, but in practice. We ask for stronger collaboration so that the village around Jay can function as one.

Yours sincerely,
School Support Team

🧩 This forms part of a wider submission to the Adoption Support Fund consultation, calling for consistent, tailored and sustained support. The names are changed, but the experiences, patterns and gaps reflected are real, shaped by over 18 years of supporting children, young people and families connected to care. These voices deserve to be heard.

DREAM together

27/04/2026

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