Understanding children. Strengthening relationships. Supporting therapeutic care.
Secure Start is the clinical, professional and educational practice of Clinical Psychologist, author and consultant Colby Pearce.
Across more than thirty years, Colby has worked with children and young people affected by adversity and with the parents, carers, practitioners, teams and organisations responsible for supporting them.
Secure Start brings together this work across clinical psychology, therapeutic care, professional supervision, consultation, training and practice development.
The common focus is simple:
Understanding what children need, and helping the adults around them respond in ways that support safety, relationships and healthy development.
How Secure Start Can Help
Therapy
Psychological assessment and therapy for children, young people and families, with particular experience in attachment, developmental trauma, relationships and the effects of childhood adversity.
Learn about Therapy ? Click here
Clinical Supervision & Consultation
Clinical supervision, reflective practice and professional consultation for practitioners, teams, clinical leaders and organisations working in child protection, out-of-home care, mental health and related services.
Colby currently provides supervision and consultation to individuals, teams and organisations across Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Explore Clinical Supervision & Consultation ? click here
Triple-A Model of Therapeutic Care
The Triple-A Model of Therapeutic Care provides a practical framework for understanding children affected by adversity and responding therapeutically in everyday care.
Triple-A brings together two complementary frameworks:
AAA — Understanding the Child
Attachment
Arousal
Accessibility to needs provision
AURA — Therapeutic Responding
Accessible
Understanding
Responsive
Attuned
Together, AAA and AURA provide caregivers, practitioners and organisations with a shared language for understanding children’s needs and translating that understanding into therapeutic care.
Explore the Triple-A Model of Therapeutic Care ? click here
Training & Implementation
Training can introduce ideas. Implementation is what helps those ideas become everyday practice.
Secure Start works with organisations to implement psychologically informed and relationship-focused approaches to therapeutic care through training, reflective supervision, consultation and attention to organisational practice.
Triple-A has been implemented in foster, kinship and other care settings in Australia and Ireland.
Explore Triple-A Training & Implementation ? click here
AURA by Secure Start
Keeping therapeutic caregiving in mind
The AURA by Secure Start apps translate four important qualities of therapeutic caregiving into simple prompts for everyday reflection:
Accessible. Understanding. Responsive. Attuned.
AURA supports caregivers and educators to pause and reflect on how they are showing up for the children and young people in their care.
The apps are reflective supports. They are not assessments of children or caregiver performance and do not replace professional judgement, therapy or supervision.
Discover AURA ? click here
The Secure Start Podcast
Conversations about children, relationships and systems of care
The Secure Start Podcast brings together practitioners, researchers, authors, leaders and people with lived experience to explore child protection, out-of-home care, therapeutic relationships and the systems in which children and families receive support.
Hosted by Colby Pearce, the podcast provides an international forum for thoughtful conversations about what helps children, families, caregivers and practitioners thrive.
Visit The Secure Start Podcast ? click here
About Colby Pearce
Colby Pearce is a Clinical Psychologist who has worked continuously with children and young people affected by adversity, and the adults who care for and work with them, for more than thirty years.
Alongside his psychotherapy practice, Colby works with practitioners, service leaders, teams and organisations in Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland. His work spans child protection, out-of-home care, residential and social care, kinship care, family preservation and reunification, and therapeutic services for children and families.
He is the developer of the Triple-A Model of Therapeutic Care, creator of the Secure Start AURA apps, author of two books and numerous professional articles, and host of The Secure Start Podcast.
More about Colby ? click here
Resources & Learning
Secure Start provides a growing collection of resources for parents, carers, educators and professionals interested in attachment, childhood adversity, therapeutic care and relationship-focused practice.
Explore:
Work With Secure Start
Secure Start works with individuals and organisations in Australia and internationally.
Enquiries are welcome regarding:
- Clinical psychology and therapy
- Clinical supervision and reflective practice
- Professional and organisational consultation
- Triple-A training and implementation
- Therapeutic care and service development
- Professional education and speaking
Contact Secure Start ? click here
Important Information
Secure Start is a psychology service that consults from 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Contact outside these hours will be responded to as soon as practicable during normal business hours.
Secure Start does not provide a crisis or emergency service.
If you or a child require immediate assistance, contact emergency, crisis, mental health or child protection services appropriate to your location.