Professional curiosity: Finding meaning in social and emotional responses of children

Can we always trust what we see and hear? Is there anything we can do better to uncover hidden harm or neglect? Sometimes as practitioners we might have a gut feeling something is not right but the social and emotional responses we see in others appear to directly contradict our own feelings.

There can be some situations in child protection where theory may be relied upon too much and professional curiosity gets lost. We may even lose our exploratory senses and need to “search for new knowledge”.

Join this session to:

• Understand the importance of professional curiosity in finding meaning in the social and emotional responses of others
• Learn how certain survival strategies can develop in the context of relational trauma.
• Consider how to break down barriers that get in the way of developing professional curiosity and understanding behaviour

Laura Hanbury, clinician and PhD research student, Royal Holloway University