Daniel Crowley is the author of Being the Adult They Need: Who We Are for Children in Distress, forthcoming from Routledge. He is a Registered Manager in residential children’s care, writing about trauma-informed practice, relationships and what children need from the adults around them.
Being The Adult They Need
Who we are for children in distress
What if the most important question isn’t
“How do I manage this behaviour?”
Who am I being, right now, for this child?
But simply:
Is this for you?
If you work with children who've experienced trauma, and you've ever walked away from a hard moment wondering whether you handled it well, this book was written for you.
— Teachers and teaching assistants
— SENCOs and pastoral leads
— Leaders
— Children's home practitioners and managers
— Foster carers
— Social workers
—Anyone new to the work, or twenty years in
Being the adult they need isn't polished or heroic. It's presence. And presence is something we can all practice.
“This short, experience-based book speaks directly to anyone whose working life brings them into daily contact with young people… It foregrounds the centrality of the carer-child relationship. In particular, it will be a tonic to residential child care workers, teaching assistants, nurses whose essential task is to ‘be there’ to provide a personal, tuned-in, dependable relationship.” — June Thoburn, Emeritus Professor of Social Work at the University of East Anglia
“If you want to know what authenticity looks like read on! Wisdom gleaned through honest, vulnerable, reflective practice [...]. A must read for those who might one day want to call themselves trust builders.” - Louise Michelle Bombèr, Creator of Allado, Author, Teacher and Therapist
“I can’t praise this book enough. In a profession where the needs of pupils are becoming increasingly complex and adult roles increasingly diverse, this book provides a safe space for self-reflection… It’s about self-reflection, learning from mistakes and doing better when we know better. For staff who work with trauma-experienced pupils and need to consistently show up and be emotionally available, this is the book those adults need.”
— Rachel Thynne, SEMH Outreach Lead Teacher and Author