Blog
How Trauma Held in the Body Shapes Our Thoughts, Behaviours, and Vulnerabilities
Trauma isn’t just something that happened to us — it’s something that lives in us. It lives in our bodies, in the patterns we learned to survive, and in the emotions we pushed down because they were too much to hold at the time. When old wounds stay unhealed, they don’t disappear. They simply go…
Intergenerational Trauma Isn’t About Blame — It’s About Nervous Systems Doing Their Best
Why children self-soothe, why parents struggle, and how the 7Rs Pathways offer the route to repair We often talk about cycles in families as though they are rooted in deliberate choices or moral failings. But most intergenerational trauma has nothing to do with intentional harm. What truly passes…
When Survivors Heal, Systems Shift
Over the past few weeks, my posts about trauma have sparked some deep conversation and connection. Yet when I spoke about the challenges around funding, gatekeeping, and entrenched thinking within safeguarding systems, the response was very different — absolute silence. I’ve been reflecting on why…
When Prevention Work Isn’t Understood: A Call for Clarity in UK Safeguarding Funding
I want to share something important about the challenges we face in delivering grooming-prevention training across the UK. This is not about criticising any individual funder — it’s about highlighting a recurring pattern that affects prevention work nationally. We applied for funding for a…
Social Emotional Literacy: The Essential Life Skill That Shapes Our Future
Social Emotional Literacy (SEL) is not “soft.” It’s not optional. It’s not a luxury for some. SEL is the foundation of human connection, healthy relationships, emotional stability, community wellbeing and societal transformation. It is the essential life skill — shaping how we understand ourselves,…
The Journey Before The Journey
If you’d asked me where A Positive Start began when I first started this work, I would’ve confidently said: “It began because of the domestic violence.” At the time, that felt true. It felt obvious. The dramatic moment. The crisis. The breaking point. The event that almost ended my life. But what I…
The TRUST Framework: Creating Truly Safe, Trauma-Informed Spaces
This framework is free to use in community, education, care and support settings. Please credit Deborah J Crozier & A Positive Start CIC when sharing or delivering. © 2021–2025 Deborah J Crozier, A Positive Start CIC. All Rights Reserved. Many spaces say they are trauma-informed because they…
Empathy Will Save Humanity
Why Feeling Deeply Is Not a Weakness, but Our Greatest Intelligence “The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.” — Hannah Arendt We are living through a time where empathy is being dismissed, numbed, and in places actively…
Why Mindfulness Can Be Triggering for Trauma Survivors
This is a personal theory supported by trauma research… Mindfulness, meditation and stillness practices are widely recommended for emotional well-being, anxiety, stress and mental health. They are used in therapy rooms, schools, GP practices, yoga studios and community programmes. And for many…
The Nervous System Isn’t Asking Your Permission
It is almost impossible to fully convey the impact of nervous system activation to someone who has never experienced it. What may look, from the outside, like being “over-sensitive,” “attention-seeking,” or “childish” is, on the inside, a state of terror. The person is not reacting to the present…