our associates

Each of our associates has years of excellence in practice, using the theory and research that underpins our training and consultancy to inform their own work.

They come from a variety of backgrounds: foster care, early years, teaching, therapy, social work, psychology, health and justice. Many of them have moved between disciplines, as their interests have taken them in different directions. What they all offer is a wealth of practical experience, both in direct work with vulnerable people, and in sharing their knowledge and wisdom with others.

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Liza Lomax has been an associate at KCA since its inception and sums up her experience thus...

"I joined KCA hoping that it would offer a route to providing social workers and foster carers with the tools to work therapeutically with children traumatised by early experiences of abuse and serious neglect. I knew from my own experience of being a foster carer that such tools were not readily available and I was concerned that exciting knowledge about the brain's development - and how to heal it when injured - was being published and not being linked to practice as quickly as children needed it to be.

It's rare that dreams are realised - but, for me, that is what has happened through KCA's work. People from all sorts of backgrounds and experience come to training and leave at the end of the day with knowledge that they can put into practice and with a renewed sense of hope for better outcomes for their particular child.

The academic integrity and the professionalism of the organisation means that there is a constant evaluative process happening, ensuring that materials are up to date and the highest standards are maintained. KCA's expertise in the area of relationships is reflected in their interactions with their associates and we are empowered in our work just as children and carers are empowered by the training that we help to develop and deliver."

Kate Cairns

Photo - Kate Cairns

Kate is an author, speaker and trainer with an international reputation for her work around attachment, trauma and resilience, particularly in relation to vulnerable children and young people. She has been a social worker for forty years, and a trainer for twenty years.

With her husband Brian and their three birth children, Kate provided a permanent family for twelve other children between 1975 and 1997. Thereafter, she worked as a trainer/consultant and writer for the British Association for Adoption and Fostering. In 2002 she published Attachment, Trauma and Resilience, which explored how these three key concepts could provide a structure for understanding ourselves and those with whom we work. The book became a bestseller for BAAF and has influenced practice around the world.

Over the past decade, Kate has concentrated on translating the insights of current neuroscientific research on brain development and function into accessible knowledge and practice skills for carers and practitioners working with children and young people, and for those who support them. She has developed online learning and vocational qualifications, and provided widely-acclaimed training and consultancy to both universal and specialist services across social work, child care, health and education.

Since conducting research for her first book, Surviving Paedophilia (now reissued as Circles of Harm), Kate has been convinced that working with vulnerable people has to be a collaborative exercise. She therefore feels it is a great privilege to be part of a group of associates who embody the shared understanding and vision, and the unity of purpose and action, that are the vital ingredients for supporting recovery and transformation after trauma.

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