Trauma | Resonance | Resilience

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Join Dr Lisa Cherry and Andi Brierley as they explore how stigma in criminal justice turns labels into lifelong identities and shapes whether people feel safe to speak about their past. We connect lived experience, criminology and policy to show how stigma can block rehabilitation and make reintegration harder than it needs to be.

• Defining stigma through Goffman and the idea of being deeply discredited
• Unpacking discredited versus discreditable identities and why it matters
• Challenging language like offender and ex-offender as timeless labels
• Noticing how “disclosure” can reveal unequal social norms
• Linking stigma to institutions, politics and austerity narratives via Imogen Tyler
• Using David Garland to explain punitive policy and public fear
• Questioning lived experience recruitment when DBS checks override intent
• Arguing that relationships, housing, education and belonging support desistance

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www.lisacherry.co.uk

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Join Dr Lisa Cherry and Niamh Cullen in conversation on stigma and addiction and why drug-related deaths are more often driven by exclusion, trauma and missed connection than by a lack of services. We trace how labels, “choice” narratives and system design quietly add harm, then map practical ways to build hope through relationships.

We explore: 

• Niamh’s career timeline from children’s homes to needle exchange, prisons, outreach and commissioning
• Writing a Safeguarding Adult Review after five street deaths and recognising lifelong trauma patterns
• Stigma as a public health issue that contributes to drug-related deaths
• How labels like “addict” erase strengths, roles and identity
• The “it’s a choice” myth and the double bind it creates
• Internalised stigma, shame and the impact on self-worth
• Why stigma can be subtler and stronger inside services than in communities
• “Engagement” expectations that ignore poverty and unstable housing 
• Treatment gaps, outdated pharmacology and the harm reduction debate
• What trauma-informed practice looks like in real contact; names, kindness, eye contact and reflective practice
• How austerity and policy shifts change culture, partnerships and the workforce
• The power of lived experience roles to rebuild trust and shift outcomes

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Learn more about Lisa here:
www.lisacherry.co.uk

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Join Dr Lisa Cherry in conversation with Graham Chatterley, educator and parent on how stigma shows up in SEND, from school labels to healthcare dismissal and what it costs families when professionals assume the worst. We explore trauma, regulation and how to rebuild trust so parents and services can genuinely work as a team around the child.

We explore: 

• Graeme’s journey from traditional behaviour management to trauma-informed education and SEND understanding
• How autism traits can be masked by fight or flight until a child feels emotionally safe
• The impact of labels such as EBD and how stigma shapes staff expectations
• Parent stigma in health and social care meetings, including being talked over or dismissed
• Why exhaustion and grief can look like “unreasonable” behaviour in parents
• Empathy versus sympathy and why performative empathy breaks connection
• Isolation, loss of support networks and the pull of social media validation
• Practical meeting skills: regulate first, slow down, make space to think
• System issues: austerity, funding disputes and the need for real multidisciplinary teamwork

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Learn more about Lisa here:
www.lisacherry.co.uk

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As we continue the series on 'stigma', join Dr Lisa Cherry in conversation with Emmerline Irving as we talk candidly about obesity & stigma and why blame-based stories in the media and in healthcare block recovery, dignity and effective treatment. 

We explore obesity as a chronic, relapsing disease shaped by biology, trauma, poverty and an obesogenic environment, naming what trauma-informed support can look like in real services.

We explore: 

• Emmeline’s lived experience of obesity and her public health work across West Yorkshire
• Where GLP-1 medicines such as semaglutide come from and why press coverage becomes stigmatising
• Why terms like “fat jabs” do harm and why “metabolic drugs” is more accurate
• The bi-directional link between trauma and obesity and what we learn from lived experience
• Why weight management services can be re-traumatising and set people up to relapse
• “Food noise” and why clinicians often misread it as depression, anxiety or an eating disorder
• How GP interactions show how stigma gets embedded in pathways and referrals
• Obesity, poverty, double stigma and the commercial determinants of health
• Reframing obesity through both a trauma-informed lens and a clinical lens
• What personalised, essential care looks like before, during, and after treatment

You can learn more about Emm's work here. 

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We explore how stigma sticks to children when they are moved out of mainstream schooling and into alternative provision and how that shift can turn a young person into a visible “case” for the system to manage. We connect Goffman’s stigma theory with liminality, class and digital life, asking what it means to be a student when the ideal pupil is the only one the system truly recognises.

• What alternative provision means and how it differs from PRUs
• How exclusion creates a liminal identity between being and becoming
• Why AP is politically contested as either opportunity or segregation
• How stigma becomes visible and fixed through labels and paperwork
• The role of disciplinary language such as ‘at risk’ and ‘hard to reach’
• How blame often lands on the child and the mother
• Why critical theory still matters for understanding structures
• Whose voices are missing in AP research and practice
• Working class boys and the stereotype of the ‘angry’ young man
• Class as rational decision-making under risk and limited opportunity
• The digital space as a new frontier for stigma and cultural capital

You can find Craig on LinkedIn and at UWE (University of the West of England) Bristol.

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A new series! 

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Learn more about Lisa here:
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Join Dr Lisa Cherry in conversation with Betsy de Thiery about why vague trauma language creates real harm, from shallow training to rising shame for people living with complex trauma. We argue for clearer definitions, better role boundaries in services and a return to community and connection as the foundation for recovery.

RESOURCES:

Trauma Recovery-UK, which is a highly specialised therapy centre charity for children and their families who have experienced trauma. www.trc-uk.org 

Trauma Recovery Global https://www.traumarecoveryglobal.com/

Amazon links to books: 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Betsy-de-Thierry/author/B07BB398RW?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1776341282&sr=1-1&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

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Learn more about Lisa here:
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Join Dr Lisa Cherry and Dr Cathy Malchiodi, expressive arts therapist,  challenge the idea that trauma-informed practice is a set of tools you can apply without relationship, culture and context. They explore how the arts can restore joy and capacity when the world feels stuck in long-haul distress, distraction and performative “quick fixes”.

RESOURCES:

Cathy Malchiodi, PhD, LPCC, LPAT, REAT www.cathymalchiodi.com  

Director, Trauma-Informed Practices and Expressive Arts Therapy Institute

Author, Trauma and Expressive Arts Therapy: Brain, Body and Imagination in the Healing Process | Guilford Press 

Handbook of Expressive Arts Therapy | Guilford Press (October 2022)

Contributing Writer, Psychology Today Online | Arts & Health, 6.5 million readers

LinkedIn (39,000 followers) and Facebook (400,000 followers) for resources, articles and community networking in the fields of trauma, expressive arts therapy, sensory integration and neurodiversity

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Learn more about Lisa here:
www.lisacherry.co.uk

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Join Dr Lisa Cherry in conversation with psychotherapist Graham Music about why trauma-informed practice cannot be reduced to training badges or compliance, and how real trauma work demands presence, humility and emotional stamina. We explore how helpers can stay close to pain without shutting down, over-identifying, or turning hope into a shallow performance.

RESOURCES:

http://www.nurturingnatures.co.uk/

Books here 

Online courses here

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Journal articles here

Book chapters here 

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Learn more about Lisa here:
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Join Dr Lisa Cherry and Dr Lucy Johnstone as they explore why trauma-informed practice becomes diluted when services keep diagnosis, coercion and the medical model intact. They explore meaning-making, formulation and the Power Threat Meaning Framework as practical ways to build understanding without turning distress into disorder.

RESOURCES:

'A disorder 4 everyone' events and resources: www.adisorder4everyone.com

'A straight talking introduction to psychiatric diagnosis' https://www.pccs-books.co.uk/products/sti-diagnosis

Resources and information about the Power Threat Meaning Framework: https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/introducing-power-threat-meaning-framework

A video about the Power Threat Meaning Framework: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWAv4IBsCjc

Accessible introduction to the PTMF and how to use it: https://www.pccs-books.co.uk/products/a-straight-talking-introduction-to-the-power-threat-meaning-framework-an-alternative-to-psychiatric-diagnosis

Follow the PTM Framework on Twitter @PTMFramework and on Bluesky: ptm-framework.bsky.social 

Support the show

Thank you for listening! Please share and subscribe the practice wisdom in this episode and create social change, one connection at a time. If you're feeling it, then leave a comment too!

Learn more about Lisa here:
www.lisacherry.co.uk

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Connect on Linkedin, Instagram and Substack by searching for Dr Lisa Cherry