A Professional's Guide to Working With Vulnerable and Traumatised Children: The Healing Circle

This book presents “The Circle of Safety and Reconnection”, a compassionate reflection model for working with vulnerable and traumatised children and young people in a nurturing way, providing hope for post-traumatic healing and growth.

The circle is a holistic and comprehensive framework for professionals working to create safety for children against violence and abuse. It takes into consideration a child’s individual, intergenerational, and collective trauma also assessing their risk and protection factors and using different tools to regulate the nervous system and promote healing. A step-by-step guide, populated with practice examples and exercises to walk the reader through using and adapting the model in practice, the book discusses the nature, signs, and ways of trauma, the reasons for it, and the different ways of healing these wounds outside the therapeutic context. Additionally, as this field is high risk for secondary traumatisation, stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue, the author has dedicated a chapter focusing solely on the building of resilience in professionals.

This text is written for all professionals working in the field, including therapists and psychologists, social workers, educators, foster parents, nurses, day-care workers, and students.

Rikke Ludvigsen is a social worker, trainer, supervisor, family consultant, and therapist trained in safety planning, EMDR, SFBT, and stabilisation of chronically traumatised children. She has worked for over 20 years with children at risk, their parents, and their networks, and has trained over 1,000 professionals over the last decade.