In this episode of Relational Practice: A Social Work Podcast, hosts Dr. Jodie Park and Rose Mackey sit down for a deeply honest conversation with Dr. Adam McCormick, Professor of Social Work at St. Edward's University and author of Healing the Helping Professional: The Unfinished Business of Childhood Trauma.

Drawing on his background as an educator, researcher, and former child welfare practitioner, Adam shares how both his academic work and personal lived experience led him to explore the unspoken links between childhood adversity and caregiving careers.

Together, they explore why so many professionals in social work and human services end up exhausted, overextended, and struggling with profound guilt whenever they try to establish standard boundaries. The conversation dives into how early childhood roles, like the family "peacemaker" or "hero” steer individuals into caregiving professions, and why high-stress, chaotic work environments can feel surprisingly familiar to an over-activated nervous system.

Adam breaks down why standard "self-care" advice often misses the mark, how the urge to "fix" others can inadvertently undermine client autonomy, and what it really takes to drop the "invulnerable expert" persona to build authentic, supportive connections with peers.

Connect with Adam & Explore His Work:

· Book: Healing the Helping Professional (NASW Press)

· Free Resources: Adam's Newsletter & Downloads

· LinkedIn: You can find and connect with Adam on LinkedIn

Show editing by Angus Pinkstone

Title music by Hannah Park

Let’s dismantle the most common misconception in social work: that boundaries are about keeping people out. Boundaries aren't about building fortresses; they are about managing the gate.

In this episode of Relational Practice: A Social Work Podcast, private practice social workers Dr Jodie Park and Rose Mackey explore what it means to maintain safe, ethical, and protective boundaries. Using the work of social worker, Lauren Finemore, they break down the "boundary spectrum”, from rigid brick walls to weak chicken wire and discuss the ideal "picket fence" balance of structured flexibility.

This conversation is for everyone, whether you are a clinician, case manager, or anyone working directly with people. Jodie and Rose unpack the vital difference between a therapeutic boundary crossing and an unethical boundary violation. They also dive into the complex realities of practice, exploring power dynamics, intersectionality, and how cultural humility allows us to co-construct boundaries in rural and Indigenous communities without enforcing a cold, alienating distance.

Finally, they highlight the true cost of boundary erosion, including compassion fatigue, burnout, and vicarious trauma and share evidence-based, practical strategies to help you maintain your fence so you can keep practicing relationally.

What We Cover:

• The Boundary Spectrum: Recognizing whether your current professional default under stress is a brick wall, chicken wire, or a picket fence.
• Crossings vs. Violations: The crucial reflective test to ensure your actions are client-centred, not self-serving.
• Context & Culture: Navigating overlapping dual relationships and power imbalances in rural and remote settings.
• The Cost of Erosion: Understanding the difference between secondary traumatic stress, vicarious traumatization, and everyday burnout.
• Maintaining Your Fence: Practical clinical tools, from transparent role induction and texting policies to regular, impactful supervision.

Connect With Us:

• Webpage: relationalpracticeasocialworkpodcast.com.au
• Email: [email protected]
• Socials: Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Please subscribe, rate, and review!
• Editing by Angus Pinkstone
• Music by Hannah Park

Remember to stay safe, take care of yourself, and always practice relationally

Why can trauma make a memory from decades ago feel like it happened yesterday, while wiping other events out entirely?

In this episode of Relational Practice: A Social Work Podcast, private practice social workers Dr Jodie Park and Rose Mackey dive into the neurobiology of trauma and memory. They break down how the brain processes information normally versus how it shifts into survival mode under extreme stress.

This conversation is for everyone, whether you are a clinician, case manager, or anyone working directly with trauma, or if you are a survivor, love someone who is, or simply want to understand how the brain works. Jodie and Rose unpack the difference between explicit narrative memory and implicit "body memories". They explore the unique impacts of childhood adversity and how early trauma shapes a developing brain.

This episode sheds light on universal experiences of disclosure dynamics, dissociation, and betrayal trauma. Finally, they share the hope of neuroplasticity, spotlighting evidence-based pathways to healing like EMDR, CPT, and memory reconsolidation

What We Cover:

• The Brain's Team: How the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex fracture under stress.
• The Reshaping Window: How the brain strengthens threat cues and weakens the broader picture within 24 hours of an event.
• Time-Stamping & Triggers: Why the brain struggles to mark trauma as "past tense," causing survivors to relive rather than just remember.
• Somatic Memory & Dissociation: Understanding body memories, behavioural re-enactment, and the survival logic of "betrayal blindness".
• Defining Recovery: Why healing means gaining the confidence to manage your feelings and narrative, not forgetting the past.

Connect With Us:

• Webpage: relationalpracticeasocialworkpodcast.com.au
• Email: [email protected]
• Socials: Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Please subscribe, rate, and review!
• Editing by Angus Pinkstone
• Music by Hannah Park

Support Services (Australia):

• Lifeline: 13 11 14
• Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636
• 1800RESPECT: 1800 737 732

Please listen in a way that feels safe. Take care of yourself first.

"We were taught to be empathic. Nobody taught us what to do when it starts to hurt."

Think of a client whose story has stayed with you, one you’ve carried home, or that found its way into your sleep. That isn't a sign that something went wrong. That is empathy doing exactly what it was designed to do. But how do we sustain that empathy over an entire career without burning out?

In this episode of Relational Practice: A Social Work Podcast, Dr. Jodie Park and Rose Mackey unpack the neuroscience, the nuance, and the real-world practice of empathy. Moving beyond the idea that empathy is just a personality trait, they explore it as a multidimensional, neurobiological process that can be understood, developed, and regulated.

What We Cover in This Episode:

• The Three Types of Empathy: Breaking down Cognitive, Affective, and Compassionate empathy—and why understanding the difference dictates the "cost" of your connection.
• The Neuroscience of Connection: How mirror neurons literally activate a client's physiological experience in your own brain, and how Tania Singer’s research differentiates the pain centers of empathy from the reward circuits of compassion.
• The Empathy Dial & The Nervous System: A practical clinical tool to keep you in the "optimal zone" (present and curious, but not swept away) using a Polyvagal lens.
• Protecting Your Empathy: Daily, actionable strategies for social workers—including micro-debrief rituals, maximizing supervision, and tapping into vicarious resilience.

Empathy doesn't wear out, but an unregulated empathic response does. Tune in to learn how to adjust your dial, not to feel less, but to feel sustainably.

Connect with Us: Go to our new webpage at relationalpracticeasocialworkpodcast.com.au to access past episodes and our ambiguous loss printables. Have a practice story or question?

Drop us a line at [email protected] or find us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Editing by Angus Pinkstone.

Music by Hannah Park.

Trigger Warning: This episode contains detailed discussions regarding aggression, violence, and antisocial behaviour. We recognize this content may be distressing, so please prioritize your well-being while listening.

Aggression is a topic that sits at the very heart of social work practice, yet it is rarely "one-size-fits-all". In this episode, Dr. Jodie Park and Rose Mackey dive into the nuances of aggressive behaviour, moving beyond the surface-level outburst to understand the underlying drivers.

Whether you are navigating a heated argument with a client or assessing purposeful, goal-directed harm, the distinction between Reactive and Instrumental aggression changes everything about how we assess, respond to, and ultimately help the people we work with.

Key Discussion Points

• The Two Faces of Aggression: We break down the fundamental differences between Reactive Aggression (the "hot," impulsive survival response driven by fear or threat) and Instrumental Aggression (the "cold," calculated, and goal-directed behaviour).
• The Survival Brain vs. The Thinking Brain: Understanding how reactive aggression often stems from physiological arousal and trauma, where the emotional brain takes over before the thinking brain can intervene.
• The Challenge of Instrumental Aggression: Why "cold" aggression is often harder to identify clinically and its strong links to callous-unemotional traits and reduced empathy.
• Evidence-Based Interventions: We explore which treatments work for which profile—ranging from CBT, Anger Management, and DBT for reactive patterns, to Schema Therapy and specialized cognitive training for instrumental behaviours.
• The Social Work Strength: Why a whole-person, systemic, and trauma-informed lens is the most powerful tool for de-escalation and long-term change.
• Practitioner Safety: A vital reminder that clinician self-care is a non-negotiable part of working with high-risk behaviours.

We’d love to hear from you! Do you have a story, question, or topic you'd like us to talk about? Or maybe you'd like to join us as a guest on an episode? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Editing by Angus Pinkstone.

Music by Hannah Park.

💡 How confident do you feel responding when a client dissociates mid-session?

Dissociation is everywhere in our caseloads, yet so many practitioners feel unsure about what it actually is, how to assess for it, and how to safely respond in the room.

In this episode of Relational Practice: A Social Work Podcast, Dr Jodie Park and Rose Mackey strip away the jargon fog to talk about the gaps between what we see and what we know. We map out the 4 levels of dissociation, dive into the neurobiology of "dissociative collapse" and look at why it's a brilliant survival response.

What you’ll learn:

• 🧠 How to use Dan Siegel’s Window of Tolerance to guide your session pacing.
• ❄️ 5 evidence-backed grounding strategies to use in a session.
• 🚸 How to differentiate trauma-related dissociation in children from normal developmental play or sensory shutdowns.
• 🤝 Why shifting from trauma-informed to trauma-and-violence-informed practice is the key to removing systemic shame for clients.

As always, your own nervous system matters! Tune in to learn how to cultivate conditions of safety so your clients can find their way back.

🎧 Listen now on your favourite podcast platform, and don't forget to download our ambiguous loss printables over at our website! 👉 relationalpracticeasocialworkpodcast.com.au

We would love to hear from you! Send practice stories, comments and feedback to [email protected]

Editing by Angus Pinkstone.

Music by Hannah Park.

Trigger Warning: This episode contains detailed discussions about self-harm (non-suicidal self-injury). We recognize this content may be distressing. Please prioritize your well-being while listening.

Discovering that a young person may be hurting themselves often triggers a level of fear and uncertainty in practitioners and caregivers that few other topics can match. Despite how common it is, self-harm remains a deeply misunderstood aspect of adolescent mental health. Far too often, the subject is buried under layers of social stigma and silence, or met with responses that, while well-intentioned, fail to provide the actual support a young person needs.

In this episode, Dr. Jodie Park and Rose Mackey "cut through" the misconceptions to provide a clear, evidence-based understanding of self-harm. Whether you are a parent, carer, teacher, welfare or social worker, this conversation is designed to equip you with the tools to recognize, respond to, and support a young person in pain.

We dive deep into:

• Defining the Intent: Why self-harm is increasingly recognized as a health issue independent of suicidal ideation.

• The "Why" Behind the Pain: Understanding self-harm as a way to cope with, express, or control emotional pain, or even as a form of self-punishment.

• Hidden Signs & Modern Variants: From the "visible" signs like clothing choices to less recognized forms like self-battery and digital self-harm (self-cyberbullying).

• The Power of First Response: Why reacting with calm, compassion, and curiosity, rather than shock or anger, is the most critical step in keeping the door of communication open.

Self-harm is a young person’s way of communicating they are in more pain than they know how to carry. Join us as we discuss how to help them find something better to put in its place.

Where to Find Support

Australia-Based Services (24/7)

• Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800 (For ages 5–25)

• Lifeline: 13 11 14

• Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636

• 13YARN: 13 92 76 (Support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people)

• Immediate Danger: Call 000 or visit your local emergency department.

For Our International Listeners

If you are listening from outside of Australia, please know that support is available to you. We encourage you to reach out to your local emergency services or search for national mental health helplines in your country. Many regions offer 24/7 crisis support via phone or text. Seeking help from a mental health professional is the most effective way to address self-harm and find long-term relief.

Editing by Angus Pinkstone.

Music by Hannah Park.

In this episode of Relational Practice: A Social Work Podcast, Dr. Jodie Park and Rose Mackey go beyond the catch-all term of "stress" to explore the specific psychological injuries that social workers sustain on the front lines. We often feel that our exhaustion is a personal failure, but today we reframe it as a predictable biological and ethical response to a high-pressure system.

Drawing heavily on the work of Vikki Reynolds, we dismantle the "Just Stressed" myth and look at why burnout is often actually "Ethical Conflict", the pain of being forced to work against our own professional ethics.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The Injury Spectrum: Distinguishing between Vicarious Trauma (a shift in your worldview), Burnout (systemic exhaustion), Compassion Fatigue (nervous system drain), and Spiritual Pain (moral injury).
• The "Zone of Fabulousness": How to stay connected to your clients without becoming enmeshed in their trauma or disconnected like a "bureaucratic robot".
• Boundaries as Physical Safety: Why saying "no" and choosing your meeting environment are high-level clinical tools that protect your nervous system.
• Radical Self-Compassion: Moving away from "performative" self-care (like bubble baths) toward "Ethical Resistance" and collective accountability.
• Justice-Doing: Finding small, subversive ways to honour client dignity within rigid systems to jumpstart your own resilience.

Whether you are feeling the "Sunday Scaries" or struggling with a sense of "Moral Injury," this episode is a call to reach out to your colleagues and start practicing collective care.

Show Notes & Resources

• Visit our website: relationalpracticeasocialworkpodcast.com.au
• Connect with us: Join our community on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
• Get in touch: Email your stories to [email protected].
• Featured Concepts:
  • Vikki Reynolds: "The Zone of Fabulousness" and "Justice-Doing".
  • Kristin Neff: The framework of Self-Compassion (Common Humanity vs. Isolation).
  • Polyvagal Theory: Understanding "Dorsal Vagal" shutdown and nervous system regulation.

Editing by Angus Pinkstone

Music by Hannah Park

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help us grow our community of relational practitioners!

In this episode of Relational Practice: A Social Work Podcast, Dr. Jodie Park and Rose Mackey are joined by Professor Joanne Spangaro, a distinguished researcher and academic leader whose career is defined by a deep commitment to addressing gender-based violence (GBV). With a professional journey that began in 1984 as a sexual assault counsellor, Jo brings over four decades of frontline experience to her high-impact systemic research.

We dive into Jo’s influential work as a researcher, specifically her critical examination of the implementation and impact of routine screening for intimate partner violence (IPV). We discuss the nuances of how survivors decide to disclose abuse and why the health system's response must be rooted in relationship-building and cultural safety.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Screening Research & Implementation: The background and evidence-base for domestic violence screening tools.
• "Deciding to Tell": Jo’s research into how women decide to disclose experiences of abuse when asked by healthcare professionals.
• Indigenous Health & Cultural Safety: Factors influencing Australian Aboriginal women’s decisions to disclose violence and the necessity of clinical safety.
• Implementation Tips: Practical considerations and tips for practitioners implementing screening in their own fields.
• Navigating Complexity: Understanding the risk factors and implementation challenges associated with IPV.

Whether you are a practitioner in health, child protection, or private practice, Jo’s insights offer a powerful look at how research can translate into safer environments and improved service delivery for survivors.

Show Notes & Resources

• Visit our website: relationalpracticeasocialworkpodcast.com.au
• Connect with us: Join our community on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
• Get in touch: We love hearing your practice stories! Email us at [email protected].
• Featured Guest: Professor Joanne Spangaro, a prolific author of over 60 peer-reviewed works and an expert in domestic violence practice.

Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review to help us continue bringing these vital conversations to the social work community!

Editing by Angus Pinkstone

Music by Hannah Park

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help us grow our community of relational practitioners!

In this episode of Relational Practice: A Social Work Podcast, Dr. Jodie Park and Rose Mackey tackle the heavy weight of professional fallibility. We often feel that because we work with human lives, we aren’t allowed the luxury of being human ourselves, leading to those 3:00 AM "mistake loops" in our minds.

Using the seminal work of Professor Eileen Munro, we dismantle the idea that errors are simply acts of incompetence. Instead, we explore how the high-pressure environments of child protection and social work naturally trigger cognitive biases and mental shortcuts.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The Core Conflict: Balancing fast, intuitive reasoning with slow, logical analytic thinking.
• Reasoning Traps: How "Confirmation Bias," "Availability Bias," and "The Primacy Effect" can skew our assessments of families.
• The Systems Approach: Why we need to stop asking "Who messed up?" and start asking "Why did this mistake make sense at the time?".
• Building Skilled Intuition: Using supervision as a "lab" to socialize our thinking and "de-bias" our practice.

Whether you work in child protection, hospitals, schools, mental health, aged care, or any frontline role where human complexity meets high-pressure decision-making, this episode is a reminder that professional integrity isn’t about being perfect. It is about being transparent in your reasoning and brave enough to treat mistakes as an inevitable part of a system built on uncertainty.

Show Notes & Resources

• Visit our new website: relationalpracticeasocialworkpodcast.com.au
• Connect with us: Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and our new YouTube page.
• Get in touch: Email your practice stories to [email protected].
• Featured Citations:
  • Munro, E. (1999). Common errors of reasoning in child protection work.
  • Munro, E. (2011). The Munro review of child protection: Final report—A child-centred system.

Editing by Angus Pinkstone

Music by Hannah Park

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help us grow our community of relational practitioners!