VLM Therapy

01/04/2026

Instagram remains a go-to platform for many young people, offering a constant stream of content, communication and connection.

However, features such as livestreaming, messaging and algorithm-driven feeds can also present risks, including exposure to inappropriate content, social pressure and excessive screen time.

Our latest guide helps parents and educators understand:
• The key risks associated with Instagram
• How features like messaging and public conversations work
• Practical steps to support safer use

The guide also offers advice on setting boundaries, using built-in protections and keeping communication open.

Download the guide here: https://vist.ly/4wviq

31/03/2026

This free workshop will give you helpful information about managing challenging behavior and how to deal with it sensitively.

30/03/2026

How often do you see a child’s behaviour and sense something deeper underneath it,something they can’t quite name?

Jake and His Shame Armour was written by therapists Lisa Etherson and Vicki McKeown to give children (and the adults around them) a shared language for shame. Not to erase it. Not to explain it away. But to help them understand it.

The accompanying guidebook goes deeper and is rooted in Lisa’s Shame Containment Theory, giving practitioners, teachers and parents the clinical context behind the story.

A book and a tool. For your shelf, your classroom, and your therapy room.

🔗 Book- https://amzn.eu/d/01CmJSVG
🔗 Guidebook- https://amzn.eu/d/09zKIyN8

30/03/2026

At the weekend I went to Northern Stage and watched I, Daniel Blake.

I couldn’t see a dry eye in the house. And honestly? If there was anyone who wasn’t moved, I’d question if they had a heart.

This play isn’t just a story. It’s a mirror. It shows what happens when a system stops seeing people as human beings, when bureaucracy strips away dignity, when asking for help becomes a punishment, when the people who need the most care are ground down by the very structures that are supposed to hold them.

That’s not just politics. That’s trauma.

Systemic trauma is real. It lives in the body. It shows up in shame, in exhaustion, in the feeling that you are too much and not enough all at once. It happens when the world tells you that your worth is conditional, on your productivity, your compliance, your ability to jump through hoops while you’re already on your knees.

Daniel Blake just wanted to be treated like a person. Like so many people I sit with in the therapy room.

If this film stirs something in you, that anger, that grief, please don’t push it down. That feeling is information. It matters.

💬 Have you seen I, Daniel Blake? What did it bring up for you?

Dignity HumanFirst

28/03/2026

We can’t ask children to:
– regulate big emotions
– calm their bodies
– put their phones down
– talk kindly to themselves

…if we’re shouting, doom-scrolling, snapping, or glued to a screen saying “just a minute” (for the 47th time 🙃).

Adults are often the worst for scrolling. And children notice everything.

This isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being human with our children, showing them how we calm down, take breaks from tech, apologise, reset, and try again.

If we want them to learn it, we need to practise it too.

25/03/2026

We recommend you read this really helpful guide to the consultation written by Adoption UK https://www.adoptionuk.org/pages/faqs/category/adoption-support-consultation We also recommend that you do not rush to respond to the consultation; it doesn’t close until 5th May. Responses can be submitted ...

24/03/2026

If you haven’t already, why not pick up our accompanying guidebook for adults to read alongside the book? It’s designed to help grown-ups understand shame too.

In the guidebook, we share ways you can explain shame to a child in a gentle, age-appropriate way, and why it’s so important to have a shared understanding. When adults and children have the same language around emotions, it becomes much easier to talk, listen, and support each other.

It’s not just a children’s book, it’s a conversation starter for the whole family and a great resource for social workers, therapists and teachers.

🔗 https://amzn.eu/d/0iWgCDTp

24/03/2026

Words carry weight. Especially in safeguarding.

I came across this piece from NSPCC Learning this week on why we should stop using the word 'alleged' when talking about child abuse and neglect — and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

When a child finds the courage to share what has happened to them, the language we use in response matters enormously. Describing abuse as 'alleged' — however unintentionally — can make a child feel they aren't believed. It can close doors that took enormous bravery to open.

In my work with children and families, including kinship families where roles, relationships and responsibilities are often complex and layered, I see every day how much language shapes everything. Not just what happens in the therapy room, but how concerns are recorded, how they land with other professionals, and how quickly a child gets the help they need.

Ambiguous language creates ambiguous responses. And in safeguarding, that has real consequences.

The shift the NSPCC recommends is simple: instead of 'alleged,' say 'the child reported,' 'the child described,' 'the child shared.' Neutral, factual, and most importantly, it keeps the child's voice at the centre.

Well worth a read 👇
https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/news/why-language-matters/avoid-using-alleged-talking-about-child-abuse-neglect

A Why language matters blog exploring how the term ‘alleged’ can be unhelpful when used in safeguarding and child protection practice.

15/03/2026

Mother’s Day is one of those days that becomes very visible in the world around us.

Cards line the shelves in shops. Social media fills with tributes and photos. Restaurants advertise special meals. Schools send home handmade crafts. Everywhere we turn there are reminders that this is a day meant to celebrate mothers.

And for many people, it is exactly that.

But doing the work I do, and simply being alongside people in their stories, I’m always mindful that Mother’s Day can hold so much more than celebration.

For many, it’s a day that brings up a complicated mix of feelings.

Sometimes it’s grief for a mother who is no longer here. The kind of loss that doesn’t change over time, and can feel particularly heavy and present when the world around us is focused on remembering and celebrating mothers.

Sometimes it’s the quiet, often unseen grief of having a mother who is still living, but who has not been able to be the safe, nurturing, or emotionally available parent we needed. That kind of loss can feel confusing and difficult to name, especially on a day that assumes all mother–child relationships are warm and uncomplicated.

For some, Mother’s Day carries the deep ache of a child who is no longer living in their care. A loss that reshapes life in ways words often struggle to capture.

For others, it’s the tender place of longing and wanting to become a mother, while navigating fertility challenges, pregnancy loss, or a path to parenthood that hasn’t unfolded in the way they hoped.

And for many adopted people, the day can hold more than one truth at the same time. It might mean celebrating the mother who raised them and offered safety and love, while also holding space for their birth mother and the story that began with her.

Mother’s Day can hold joy and gratitude and it can hold grief, anger, confusion, or longing.

Sometimes all at once.

If this day feels complicated for you, there is nothing wrong with that. Our relationships, our histories, and our losses are rarely simple. It makes sense that a day like this might stir things that are heavy or unresolved.

However Mother’s Day lands for you this year, your experience is valid.

13/03/2026

An EHCP is not a wish list.
It is a legal document.

And the language inside it decides what your child actually receives.

Words like “may benefit” and “access to” sound supportive, but they are not enforceable. Precise wording is what protects provision. It is what turns hope into obligation.

That is why the application stage matters so much. This is your opportunity to set the foundation properly, with the right language from the start.

On our EHCP Workshop Day we teach you the law, show you how wording changes outcomes, and sit with you while you write your request. You leave with action taken, not just notes.

There are only a few tickets left.

If you’ve been putting this off, this is your moment to take control.

🎟 Book here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1760056950719

We’ll be right there with you.

11/03/2026

We cannot forget that trauma has a lifelong impact.

Trauma doesn’t have an expiry date (sadly!)

Children don’t just get to 18 and their brain resets and rewires.

Support needs to be lifelong and at times of need.