Woven Roots Therapeutic Practice

A beautiful quote to pause with…
to let percolate, simmer, and quietly stay with you.🌱✨

As therapists, we are constantly attuned to proximity, body language, posture, and spatial positioning. These subtle relational signals can significantly influence how safe a child feels in the therapeutic space.

In Sarah Lathan’s book, she reflects on Dr Bruce Perry’s observations about proximity and distance, particularly his concept of the “intimacy barrier” for trauma-affected children.

She highlights research suggesting that typically developing children often experience intimate space within roughly 45 cm, but for children who have experienced trauma this space can expand to nearly a metre. When this boundary is crossed too quickly, it can lead to heightened arousal or even a kind of cognitive shut-down.

From a clinical perspective in the playroom, I often notice that small adjustments can make a meaningful difference:

• Sitting alongside a child in a parallel position rather than directly face-to-face can feel far less threatening.
• Getting down to the child’s physical level rather than standing over them.
• Ensuring we are not positioned as a barrier to the doorway, so the child still experiences freedom of movement.
• Being mindful that some children have become highly skilled at reading non-verbal cues as a survival strategy.
• Asking children where they would feel comfortable with me sitting or standing in the room.
• Offering gentle reflections about what we notice in their body language or energy.

These adjustments may seem small, but they communicate something essential:

You are safe. You have agency here. Your body’s signals matter.

Often, the therapeutic relationship is built through these non-verbal signals of safety long before deeper verbal processing begins.

The body notices first.

🌿 Scotland’s ACEs Journey — a movement shaped across many sectors

This short presentation captures part of Scotland’s journey in developing trauma-informed awareness and practice.

What stands out is that this has not been the work of one profession alone. Over time, individuals across many different sectors have made a conscious effort to integrate trauma awareness into the way they work — from schools and health services to justice systems, dentistry, housing, and community organisations.

When you step back and look at the cumulative picture, it is quite inspiring.

Over the past two decades, Scotland has gradually built a national conversation about the long-term impact of children’s experiences and the importance of relationships in shaping health and wellbeing.

What the presentation shows so clearly is that change often happens through many small shifts occurring in parallel:

• schools rethinking behaviour as distress (Jenn Knussen) (Sarah Lathan)
• justice systems (Iain Smith)recognising the role of trauma in young people’s lives
• health services (embedding trauma training) Gwenne and Jennie
• community organisations building relational approaches
• even sectors like dentistry exploring how trauma affects patient care

When these shifts occur across multiple systems at once, the impact begins to become visible at a societal level.

It is encouraging to see how relational thinking and trauma awareness have gradually taken root across Scotland, reminding us that prevention, healing, and resilience are collective efforts.

There is still a long way to go in fully embedding these insights into systems, but it is inspiring and encouraging to see this overview of the journey so far.

As play therapists working in trauma-informed ways, we sit within this wider ecosystem of change. The playroom is often where children’s experiences are processed and understood, but the impact of that work grows when it connects with the systems around the child.

Continuing to build relationships across services, advocate for trauma-informed understanding, and support joined-up thinking between families, schools, health and community networks is part of how this wider momentum continues to grow.

Scotland’s ACEs Journey – Marking 20 Years This year – 2025 – is a significant one for Scotland. It marks 20 years since our country set out on an unexpected journey to engage with the science of Adve...

🌿 Scotland’s ACEs Journey: Why Early Experiences Matter

Over the past two decades, Scotland has seen a growing movement to understand the long-term impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) — difficult or traumatic experiences that occur in childhood such as abuse, neglect, domestic violence, parental addiction, or household instability.

The research behind ACEs shows something important:

Early experiences shape health, wellbeing, learning, and relationships across the lifespan.

But the message is not one of inevitability or damage. Instead, the work in Scotland has increasingly focused on prevention, healing, and relational support.

Key themes emerging from Scotland’s ACEs journey include:

✨ Relationships matter most
Emotionally attuned relationships with caregivers and trusted adults are one of the strongest protective factors for children.

✨ Trauma is not just psychological — it is biological and social
Early stress can shape brain development, stress regulation, and health outcomes across the life course.

✨ Communities and systems play a role
Schools, health services, social care, and community organisations all influence how children are supported.

✨ Understanding trauma changes how we respond to behaviour
Rather than asking “What is wrong with this child?” the trauma-informed shift invites us to ask
“What has this child experienced?”

✨ Prevention and early support matter
Supporting parents, strengthening families, and creating safe relational environments can reduce the impact of adversity.

For those of us working with children, this perspective reinforces something we often see every day:

Children heal through safe relationships, play, connection, and understanding.

The ACEs conversation in Scotland has helped move policy and practice toward a more trauma-informed, compassionate approach to supporting children and families.

And importantly, it reminds us that positive experiences can be just as powerful as adverse ones.

connectedbaby.net