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#48: Making The Unbearable Bearable In Trauma-Informed Care, with Dr Laura Steckley
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When people are overwhelmed, they don’t need a lecture. They need someone who can help them think again. That’s the heart of our conversation with Dr Laura Steckley, a leading researcher in therapeutic residential childcare, as we tackle one of the most misunderstood ideas in trauma-informed practice: containment.
We start by naming the problem. “Containment” often gets misused to mean restriction, restraint, or simply keeping behaviour quiet. Laura and I unpack the psychodynamic meaning instead: making the uncontainable containable, the unbearable bearable, and the unmanageable manageable. We talk about what uncontainment looks like in real life, when language disappears, anxiety spikes, and a child (or adult) feels like they are coming out of their own skin. From there we map the mechanics of good containment: receiving the emotional message, staying steady enough not to be flooded, processing it, then giving it back with empathic acknowledgement so the other person feels seen, heard and felt.
Containment also isn’t just a one-to-one skill. We explore “holistic containment” in residential care and across organisations, including predictable routines, clear policies, reflective supervision, and the meaning-making conversations that help staff and young people understand what happened. We go straight into leadership too, because senior leaders often need the most containment and get the least, and that gap can shape the entire culture of care.
If you work in residential care, foster care, education, child protection, counselling, or any trauma-informed setting, this will give you language, frameworks and practical ideas you can use immediately. Subscribe to Secure Start, share this with a colleague who carries a lot, and leave a review to help more people find the show. What helps you feel contained when the work gets hard?
Laura’s Bio
Laura previously joined me for episode 20 of The Secure Start Podcast. Those who have listened to that podcast episode will remember that Laura joined the University of Strathclyde in 2003 and that she is simultaneously part of the School of Social Work & Social Policy and CELCIS (the Centre of Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland).
Before coming to the University, Laura worked in direct practice, management and training in residential treatment for adolescents in the United States and residential child care in Scotland.
Laura’s research interests broadly involve deepening our understanding of key areas of practice in order to improve the experiences and life chances of children and young people in residential child care.
In this episode we plan to delve more deeply into the topic of containment.
Links:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/TheSecureStartPodcast
Podcast Blog Site: https://thesecurestartpodcast.com/
Disclaimer: Information reported by guests of this podcast is assumed to be accurate as stated. Podcast owner Colby Pearce is not responsible for any error of facts presented by podcast guests. In addition, unless otherwise specified, opinions expressed by guests of this podcast may not reflect those of the podcast owner, Colby Pearce. Finally, all references to case examples are anonymised to the extent that the actual case could not be identified, or are fictional but based on real-life examples for illustrative purposes.
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By Colby PearceSend us Fan Mail
When people are overwhelmed, they don’t need a lecture. They need someone who can help them think again. That’s the heart of our conversation with Dr Laura Steckley, a leading researcher in therapeutic residential childcare, as we tackle one of the most misunderstood ideas in trauma-informed practice: containment.
We start by naming the problem. “Containment” often gets misused to mean restriction, restraint, or simply keeping behaviour quiet. Laura and I unpack the psychodynamic meaning instead: making the uncontainable containable, the unbearable bearable, and the unmanageable manageable. We talk about what uncontainment looks like in real life, when language disappears, anxiety spikes, and a child (or adult) feels like they are coming out of their own skin. From there we map the mechanics of good containment: receiving the emotional message, staying steady enough not to be flooded, processing it, then giving it back with empathic acknowledgement so the other person feels seen, heard and felt.
Containment also isn’t just a one-to-one skill. We explore “holistic containment” in residential care and across organisations, including predictable routines, clear policies, reflective supervision, and the meaning-making conversations that help staff and young people understand what happened. We go straight into leadership too, because senior leaders often need the most containment and get the least, and that gap can shape the entire culture of care.
If you work in residential care, foster care, education, child protection, counselling, or any trauma-informed setting, this will give you language, frameworks and practical ideas you can use immediately. Subscribe to Secure Start, share this with a colleague who carries a lot, and leave a review to help more people find the show. What helps you feel contained when the work gets hard?
Laura’s Bio
Laura previously joined me for episode 20 of The Secure Start Podcast. Those who have listened to that podcast episode will remember that Laura joined the University of Strathclyde in 2003 and that she is simultaneously part of the School of Social Work & Social Policy and CELCIS (the Centre of Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland).
Before coming to the University, Laura worked in direct practice, management and training in residential treatment for adolescents in the United States and residential child care in Scotland.
Laura’s research interests broadly involve deepening our understanding of key areas of practice in order to improve the experiences and life chances of children and young people in residential child care.
In this episode we plan to delve more deeply into the topic of containment.
Links:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/TheSecureStartPodcast
Podcast Blog Site: https://thesecurestartpodcast.com/
Disclaimer: Information reported by guests of this podcast is assumed to be accurate as stated. Podcast owner Colby Pearce is not responsible for any error of facts presented by podcast guests. In addition, unless otherwise specified, opinions expressed by guests of this podcast may not reflect those of the podcast owner, Colby Pearce. Finally, all references to case examples are anonymised to the extent that the actual case could not be identified, or are fictional but based on real-life examples for illustrative purposes.
Support the show