In a world where words hold the power to heal or harm, the language we choose when speaking with others—especially those who have experienced trauma—carries...
Noel Macnamara
Deputy Director
Noel is the Deputy Director of the CETC and the Executive Manager, Research and Policy at the Australian Childhood Foundation. Noel has worked in child protection, child abuse and family violence across his career as a social worker, operational manager, organisational consultant, and child rights advocate.
In 2013, Noel’s contribution to the field was acknowledged in his being awarded the Robin Clark Award in Victoria for his contribution to the area of child protection and out-of-home care. He has a particular interest in supervision and leadership, and organisational development.
Noel has written extensively in national and international journals and practice literature. He has trained 1000s of direct care staff, carers and organisational leaders and regularly facilitates training and community practices for therapeutic specialists.
He is well known as a trainer in trauma-informed care, with a particular passion for exploring how neuroscience has improved understanding of the impact of child abuse on the developing brain. Noel believes that neuroscience provides a compass for carers supporting children and young people to heal from trauma and adverse childhood experiences.
Noel lives on Bundjalung country and when he is not busy with the CETC can be found pulling out weeds in his treacherous tropical backyard.
Articles written by
Noel Macnamara
We never expected to become kinship carers to two grandchildren carrying the weight of past trauma, but life had other plans. If someone had told...
As a kinship carer and a therapeutic specialist, I have found it’s critical to know the difference between top-down and bottom-up behaviours and I think...
This practice guide is designed to strengthen the capacity of staff in out-of-home care services to actively support and promote the online safety of children...
Every child and young person in out-of-home care deserves more than just a placement—they deserve a network of dedicated people working together to meet their...
The big wins—like smashing an exam or bringing home a shiny sports trophy—are easy to celebrate. But today, in this brief blog, I want to...
Christmas time can be a whirlwind of joy, excitement, and emotions. However, supporting foster and kinship children during the Christmas period requires thoughtful planning, empathy,...
The concept of organisations as living systems is not new. Extensive work, particularly in the area of systems thinking, has brought this perspective into the...
The iconic opening line of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities perfectly sums up the whirlwind that was this year at CETC: Through the...
The past year has seen alarming regressions across Australia in youth justice policy, with some governments moving towards more punitive measures and stepping back from...
Control-seeking behaviours are one of the most common challenges in caring for children and young people impacted by abuse, neglect, and violence. Children and young...
The Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care (CETC) has submitted its response to the Senate Inquiry into Australia’s Youth Justice and Incarceration System. This submission...
Today in Australia, the preference for and growth of kinship care has meant that the majority of children in out-of-home care are now placed in...
The Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care (CETC) is confounded, disappointed and seriously concerned about the Victorian Government’s backflip on raising the Minimum Age of...
Working with trauma-impacted children and young people can be exhausting and overwhelming. This feeling is often compounded by not having the resources to help these...
At this week’s National Kinship, Permanent and Foster Care conference held in Melbourne, the experiences of pleasure and pain faced by kinship carers were clearly evident. Amidst...
Over the recent decades, we have seen leaps in research and practice promoting the importance of taking a holistic trauma-informed approach to caring for children...
Christmas, for many, is an exciting time of year. However, for some children and young people, particularly those who have experienced attachment difficulties, trauma and/or...
Not everyone is suited to being a therapeutic residential worker. Working in therapeutic care requires special skills and qualities, some that can be taught or...
Fear is a fundamental human emotion triggered by a perceived threat. It serves as a basic survival mechanism that signals our bodies to respond to...
Can we provide trauma-informed care for children without changing our beliefs about their behaviour?
This blog article was written by Noel Macnamara, Executive Manager - Research and Policy and Deputy Director, Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care, CETC. There...
A system in crisis: A call for transformation The out-of-home care system in New South Wales (NSW) should be a safe haven for children, young...
You have opened your homes and your hearts to children who are unable to live with their parents. You want to help them access a...
Working in out-of-home care means being busy. We often have more work than we can reasonably manage. It’s also difficult to help others when there’s...
Many of you who know me know that I have a big interest in sleep hygiene and the children and young people in out-of-home care...
In almost every session I have run for foster and kinship carers, someone tells a story about a child or young person in their care...
We did not and am still not receiving support requested or needed. Case managers or staff change without us being informed. Phone messages left at...
What are Compassion and Self-Compassion?Compassion is the ability to feel and connect with the suffering of another human being, self-compassion is the ability to feel...
Remember that time when you put the child you care for back to bed for the fourth time? Your thoughts suggested a level of desperation...
Recent research was conducted by the Southern Cross University and the Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care (McPherson, Gatwiri, Day, Parmenter, Mitchell & Macnamara, 2022)...
The significance of sibling relationships for children and young people in out-of-home care is well documented by national and international scholars (Luu, Conley Wright, &...
Kinship care placements in Australia are now more prevalent than foster care. They are the fastest growing form of out-of-home care in this country (AIHW,...
In Australia, there are about 18 thousand children and young people in foster care. Most foster carers will be the first to tell you how...
This guide has been developed to support Therapeutic Care carers and staff to navigate the critical balance between empowering children and young people and setting...
This guide has been developed to describe and support the enactment of the role of the Therapeutic Specialist. The guide provides an overview of the...
Much has been written about understanding and managing the challenging pain-based behaviours of children and young people who have experienced trauma and live in therapeutic...
This guide has been developed to support organisational congruence and in the provision of trauma informed therapeutic care and the critical need for a well-supported,...
When someone says ‘self-care’, what image comes to mind? What are the positive and negative aspects of this image? Do you have clear intentions for...
Many of you will have experienced something like the following… A residential worker is observing two young people playing table tennis in the rear yard...
Dr Perry and Oprah Winfrey recently released What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience and Recovery. The book tells the story of how adverse...
The ITC Pulse Check Survey and Outcome Report provides a point-in-time reflection on the experiences of the reform process by ITC agency staff. To this...
Client mix and the process of client matching is one of the 10 Essential Elements underpinning the Intensive Therapeutic Care (ITC) system in New South...
"The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter." Mark Twain We all like to laugh. It makes us feel good....
Many of those of you who know me, know that I have a big interest in sleep hygiene and the children and young people in...
Children and young people need adults who can co-regulate with them and teach them about feelings and their inner world. This Trauma Informed Relationship-Based Recovery...
Lockdown means we lose touch with many things: friends, family, freedom. For young people, therapeutic youth workers and other staff in Intensive Therapeutic Care, however,...
Whilst the following Arabian proverb takes a bit to get your head around it leads rather nicely into this blog and our brief introduction on...
This submission addresses the question of whether the age of criminal responsibility (MACR) should be increased and submits that the age should be raised...
Over the last few years, there has been an increase in the profile and awareness of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE). Undoubtedly there is a benefit...
Much of the available research regarding the sexual exploitation of children and young people is explored through the prism of victim as female and perpetrator...
Last week, we launched our new Responding to Child Sexual Exploitation online training resource for caseworkers, residential workers, house supervisors and managers, therapeutic specialists and...
The Safe Connections resource kit has been designed for use with young people at risk of or experiencing child sexual exploitation in care. Child sexual...
Peta had worked in residential care for 18 months. She took the position because she had had a difficult childhood and she felt that she...
In the previous blog, we discussed how easy it is for the supervisor/supervisee relationship to be consciously or sub-consciously ambushed by power/defensive game play. Kadushin...
In this blog, I explore the relationship between neuroscience and leadership. The latest research in neuroscience tells us that our neurobiology is what drives our...
Research shows how profoundly influenced we are by other people’s emotional states and how rapidly our interpersonal affective responses occur, and how dynamically our physiology...
Young people living in residential care are highly vulnerable and have commonly experienced a significant level of trauma and abuse. They often present with complex...
It’s all too easy to get wrapped up in the fun and happiness of Christmas and forget that, for others, the season isn’t necessarily a...
Many young people in out-of-home care are at an elevated risk of self-harm and suicidality. The reasons range from early exposure to abuse, disconnection from...
Can the friendships and connections that can develop in Intensive Residential Care be nurtured and grown rather than feared? I would like you to take...
We can see each of our daily interactions with each of the young people we care for as bids for connection and opportunities for change....
Some of the young people we care for in the ITC programs deal with emotional distress and pain by hurting themselves physically. Young people hurting...
Therapeutic residential work can be conceptualised as a dance. It works best when therapeutic workers display therapeutic presence, are in sync with the young person,...
The intention of trauma-informed practice and care is an increased understanding of how present behaviours and difficulties can be understood in the context of past...
A care team approach is an essential element of therapeutic care. This guide has been developed to support the practice of collaboration and participation through...
An inability to understand trauma-based behaviours often sees young people 'labelled' in ways that can create a 'spiral of negativity'. A trauma-informed approach orients us...
When it comes to the sexual exploitation of children, most Australians tend to view it as a problem that exists somewhere else. However, those of...
At the recent Therapeutic Specialist’s forum, there was lots of discussion about the concept of physical and relational safety in Intensive Therapeutic Care (ITC). We...
Curiosity is something that has excited me my whole life. I am sure a lot of you share my fascination and enthusiasm for curiosity. There...
What follows is a mixture of tips, reminders, encouragement and hopefully a little bit of inspiration. Start with your “why" - Knowing your why is...
The role of emotions within human service work may at first glance appear to be intuitively obvious and incontestable. Indeed, Howe (2008) described the day...
Sometimes you might wonder why you need to learn about theory. I have heard people say: Residential work with young people is often conducted...
Reflective Practice is one of the 10 Essential Elements of Intensive Therapeutic Care. This guide has been developed to support Therapeutic Specialists to engage staff...
This guide has been developed for use by Therapeutic Specialists and Supervisors who have a role in supporting and developing the practice of staff. It...
This guide has been developed to support Therapeutic Specialists and Supervisors in Intensive Therapeutic Care in NSW in their development and support of staff. It...