News

Firstly I’d like to wish you all the very best in terms of health and happiness for 2015. I’m already feeling really chuffed about just how much PB work is in the diary including another trip to Eire and maybe even adventures further afield.

And I’d also like to share with you that it looks like I will be working much closer to home in 2015 because Cambridgeshire County Council is now looking at ways to provide Protective Behaviours training to all those that work with children, young people and adults across the county. For me this starts with giving the keynote address at the Early Years Safeguarding Conference on 29th January alongside my fab PB Buddy, Judith Staff. Judith is also leading workshops to illustrate how PBs can be used to hear, record and communicate the ‘voice of the child. I’m offering another workshop on the Language of Safety with a view to rewriting personal scripts in order to empower and enhance relationships. The first two Foundation Courses for the County Council look likely to be held in March – please feel free to watch this space for further details.

Another reason I’m feeling so chuffed, and it may sound like a really trivial reason to some, is that I’ve recycled my ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ calendar from 2014 by laminating the illustrations so they can be used with people to highlight the PB process in action. After all, choosing to go on a ‘ bear hunt’ in the first place is definitely an example of risking on purpose in my opinion. And I could encourage individuals to protectively interrupt and turn back any time they want.

And as for the bear, surely he has the right to feel safe too!

Looking forward to a 2015 filled with lots of opportunities to practice PBs and share it with as many people as possible. Hoping too that you might be part of the adventure 🙂

Wow – that sounds like a directive to me!
And perhaps another wonderful opportunity to acknowledge all that Protective Behaviours can bring to any individual regardless of age or stage of development.

Despite the fact that the Protective Behaviours process was originally designed to equip young people with the skills needed to keep themselves feeling safe, I feel so chuffed to say the process has evolved over time to do so much more than that. And I recently updated my training resources to reflect this and highlight that the PB process when practised:

• Leads to self-empowerment
• Builds resilience & self esteem
• Helps people see people as people and therefore avoids people seeing themselves or others as victims or any other label
• Results in non-violent individuals, families and communities
• Satisfies the need for fun and excitement without violence and fear

So I think it would be wonderful if more people discovered PBs and those who have already done so shared their knowledge with ‘others’ – and you never know this might be a way to get in the ear of those who currently make so many decisions on our behalf.

Personally, I’m looking forward to a New Year filled with Protective Behaviours as in recent months the requests for PB training has really taken off – so I’m already feeling excited about 2015 and all the opportunities that appear to be on the horizon. 🙂

It feels like it’s been a bit of a whirlwind few weeks with lots of interest in PBs from old and new contacts and the prospect of lots more to come. This time last week I was in Brighton attending the Safety Net PB conference where I got to spend more time with Di Margetts and PBPeople buddies from around the country celebrating PBs and what those who practice and share the process can achieve. Hearing from Professor Robin Banergee and Dr Stephen Briers about how we can evidence-base PBs felt really exciting as this has so often felt like a barrier to getting PBs accepted by educational institutions and funding organisations – really looking forward to reading the transcripts from their presentations and following up the references. Also felt so good to acknowledge where PBs started in the UK with Di on an ‘adventure’ and to have her continued acknowledgement and support for what PBPeople and our training partnership is achieving.

So, where for me does feeling puzzled come from? On reflection, (and I had a quite a bit of time to do this on the way to and from Brighton), some of  it is from the time it has taken to get where I feel PBs is today. However, perhaps a bigger bit is from hearing and reading about organisations that claim to represent PBs yet, to me, lack authenticity with the process. For example, I received information in the last few weeks about a ‘new’ group that makes the following claims: ‘the national organisation for Protective Behaviours’ and ‘the voice of PBs’. My immediate reaction is to say ‘who says?’ And anyone who understands and promotes PBs the way I believe I do, will hopefully think the same as they recognise a lack of the application of the Language of Safety in such claims. And, as the Language of Safety is described in PBs as ‘the glue that holds the process together’, I wonder how long it might take this time round for things to become ‘unstuck’ for this group. So this is where I start to feel excited again, because I now realise that, for me, evidence of the application of the Language of Safety within the content of what is being communicated by individual trainers and training organisations, is what validates the authenticity of and maintains integrity towards the Protective Behaviours process and all that Di Margetts brought to the UK back in 1995.

Thank you so much Di for helping me to continue to ‘walk the talk’ and offering me a place to feel safe enough to sit and think – photo to follow!

Once again I can’t quite believe where the time has gone since my last post, although I do believe what’s said about time flying when having fun!

The last few weeks have been eventful in terms of the development of Protective Behaviours with lots of background work to help get the process established in lots of organisations. Training requests are piling up and I’m doing my first overseas course in August which involves 8 days away. Also planning to attend and be part of the wider PB evidence-base discussion at the fully-subsidised Safety Net PB Conference which is being held in Brighton & Hove on Thursday 19th June. This link will take you to the details page if you’re interested in attending. Demand for places has been so high that a bigger venue has been found! This will be an opportunity to hear Di Margetts speak as well as network with people who are using PBs on a daily basis. I’m feeling really excited about being there and also looking forward to spending 3 days earlier in June in Derbyshire with Di and members of the Protective Behaviours Training Partnership to further develop training courses and work on a new publication. Just realised that at this rate it will be July before I know it!

I will do my best to update this site before then, but in the meantime if you’re interested in finding out more please check out the Forum on the PBPeople website which has regular contributions on a wide range of PB subjects as well as great ideas for putting PBs into practice.