The Home in Focus program is a whole of family approach where people using family violence remain living in the family home.  A key aspect of the project is to elevate the child’s voice and emphasise the importance of ensuring children and young people’s perspectives are central to decision-making. 

The program aims to promote safety, connection and wellbeing that in turn supports children to thrive in their families and communities and reach their full potential.  Practitioners use play as one option to create safe spaces for children to express their feelings and experiences. The insights gained from children and young people are used to contribute to fostering awareness for parents about how family violence can impact their children.

This presentation draws on the collective expertise of the Home in Focus team, applying attachment-based principles in program development. The presentation will showcase the types of families the program works with and demonstrate how creative, child-centered approaches—such as play and the Three Houses methodology—enable children to articulate their lived experiences. These techniques empower children and young people to express their ‘hopes, dreams, and worries’, offering critical insights that guide therapeutic interventions.

The main takeaway for the audience is that in elevating children’s voices within all family violence-based interventions, allows for their perspective to contribute to what supports are put into place for the family. Children and young people have valuable insights about their life and what they experience on a day-to-day basis.

Anchor is a home visitation programme to support Singaporean children aged 0 –3 years who have experienced early childhood maltreatment and disrupted attachments. The programme is delivered by Home Visitors who work primarily with these caregivers and their children to support the child’s well-being, strengthen the caregiver-child dyad, and promote caregiver mental wellness. These families often face adverse situations ranging from domestic violence, poverty and mental health concerns. Home Visitors in turn experience distress through their work with these families that can lead to secondary traumatic stress (STS). STS arises when professionals are indirectly exposed to the trauma experienced by the families they serve and can manifest in several forms. Research indicates that nearly 30% of individuals working in trauma-related fields may experience STS, which can impair their ability to function effectively in both personal and professional domains. 

Two case studies provide an overview of Anchor’s Home Visitors’ work with caregivers experiencing psychological abuse and mental health concerns, and how these interactions manifest in different forms of STS. These cases will showcase the impact and effects of STS on Anchor Home Visitors, such as the toll on their mental health, possible effects on their physical health, as well as their struggles between empathetic engagement and self-preservation. 

Anchor incorporates the use of reflective supervision as an important support mechanism for Home Visitors to reduce the impact of STS. The safe and supportive environment provided allows them to process their feelings, gain insights into their emotional responses and develop coping strategies to counter STS. An overview of this collaborative and introspective process between supervisors and Home Visitors will be explored. The value of organizational support in prioritising reflective practices and improving risk reduction protocols will also be presented in the work to mitigate STS and improve outcomes for the families under Anchor.

Trauma wisdom and therapeutic approaches that bring us safely into our body are expanding our ability to become a connected whole after childhood trauma. There are, however, impediments to healing that require more attention, such as entrenched mechanisms that silence children and adult survivors, especially those who experienced childhood sexual abuse. 

This presentation explores the layers of silencing inherent in the world around us, our foundational relationships, and our inner, private spaces. It is based on a three-part article, ‘Silenced, Not Silent’ published by Blue Knot Foundation, July 2023, and a related model developed for the Boston International Trauma Conference, May 2024. This distillation of lived experience, trauma wisdom and underlying social dynamics brings clarity to the complex in ‘Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder’. 

Being silenced, through subtle or overt, unintended or systematic means, is traumatising, in itself. Breaking the silence is not a simple, one-off choice. The child/inner child often needs to take on the world whilst having no words for what happened; challenge caregivers/multiple generations invested in pretence or cover-up; and become their own parent/therapist while others strive to perpetuate the silence. 

The truth, however, can not hide for long within our bodies or behind our emotional weather patterns when our subconscious knows we are safe. To balance the cognitive load of the content, this presentation will offer a seated, gentle experience of yoga.* This will give signposts to subcortical connections/pathways that nurture us physically, mentally and emotionally – ways that yoga and other somatic therapies work with various systems to help us transform trauma, at our own pace, with protective guidance from the sub-conscious. We can all become more authentic, whole and clearer about what happened to us, and, if we wish, more vocal about it.

*A separate submission for a workshop will extend this experience