Adverse Childhood Experiences Trauma Webinar
Latest Webinar for Professionals Working with Trauma: What’s Missing from ACEs Training?
This Adverse Childhood Experiences trauma webinar is designed for professionals working with trauma, safeguarding, children, young people, survivors, families or frontline services.
ACEs training is an important starting point. It helps professionals understand how childhood experiences such as abuse, neglect, household dysfunction and instability can affect long-term health, behaviour, relationships and wellbeing.
However, ACEs training does not always show the lived experience behind the score.
That is where this webinar goes deeper.
Looking Beyond the ACEs Score
When we talk about Adverse Childhood Experiences, it is easy to focus on categories, numbers and risk factors. However, behind every score is a child.
A child may be confused, frightened, loyal, ashamed, overwhelmed or unable to explain what is happening to them. In many cases, they may not have the words, safety or emotional capacity to disclose abuse in the way adults expect.
This webinar explores what can be missed when professionals only look at ACEs from the outside.
It looks at trauma from the inside out.
Why Children Do Not Always Disclose
One of the key themes of this webinar is disclosure.
Professionals often ask why children do not tell someone sooner. However, disclosure is rarely simple. A child may be protecting a parent, fearing the consequences, trying to survive day to day, or not fully understanding that what is happening is abuse.
In addition, trauma can affect memory, behaviour, communication and trust. Therefore, a child may show distress through anxiety, anger, withdrawal, people-pleasing, perfectionism, school difficulties, emotional shutdown or physical symptoms rather than direct words.
This is why trauma-informed safeguarding matters.
Neglect and Pre-Abuse Vulnerability
The webinar also explores how neglect can create vulnerability before abuse happens.
Neglect is not always visible. It may appear as emotional absence, lack of protection, instability, poor supervision, rejection or unmet developmental needs.
Over time, this can leave a child more vulnerable to grooming, coercion, exploitation or unsafe relationships. Not because the child is responsible, but because their need for attention, safety, belonging and care can be exploited by unsafe people.
As a result, professionals need to understand not only what happened, but also what made the child vulnerable in the first place.
Inside-Out Safeguarding
This session introduces the idea of inside-out safeguarding.
Inside-out safeguarding means looking beyond policies, procedures and visible signs. It asks professionals to consider what may be happening inside the child’s mind, body and nervous system.
When we understand trauma in this way, we become better equipped to notice hidden harm, respond with compassion and create safer spaces for children and young people.
This webinar is suitable for schools, safeguarding leads, youth workers, charities, social care professionals, wellbeing teams, survivor-support organisations and anyone working with trauma.
To book Chris Tuck for trauma-informed training, motivational speaking, webinars or events please email chris@survivorsofabuse.org.uk for an exploratory call.
Further Reading
For further context, you can read more about Adverse Childhood Experiences through the CDC ACEs overview via their website.
Professionals working with children may also find the UK Government’s Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance useful.
For further information on recognising and responding to child abuse, the NSPCC Learning resources are also helpful.
Book This Webinar
If you work with children, young people, survivors, families or trauma, this webinar will help you look beyond the ACEs score and understand more of the lived experience behind childhood trauma.
Because safeguarding is not only about what adults can see.
It is also about understanding what a child may be carrying silently.