Principal Clinical Psychologist | Author | Supervisor | Consultant | Podcaster
Colby Pearce is the Principal Clinical Psychologist and founder of Secure Start®.
Across more than thirty years, Colby has worked continuously with children and young people who have experienced abuse, neglect, family disruption and other forms of childhood adversity, and with the parents, carers, professionals and organisations responsible for supporting them.
His work spans clinical psychology, child protection, out-of-home care, therapeutic care, professional supervision, training and service development.
Clinical Practice
Colby maintains a busy psychotherapy practice working with children, young people and families.
His clinical work is strongly informed by attachment theory and an understanding of the developmental consequences of childhood adversity. A central theme throughout his work is the importance of relationships—not only in understanding children’s difficulties, but as the primary context in which safety, recovery and healthy development are supported.
This same emphasis on relationships informs Colby’s work with parents, carers, practitioners, teams and organisations.
Child Protection and Therapeutic Care
Alongside his clinical practice, Colby has maintained a longstanding involvement in child protection and out-of-home care.
He has developed and delivered programs intended to increase understanding of the experiences and needs of children and young people who have experienced complex childhood trauma and to strengthen the capacity of the adults and organisations who care for them.
Colby is the developer of the Triple-A Model of Therapeutic Care, an attachment-informed and relationship-focused framework for understanding and responding to children and young people who have experienced adversity.
His work in therapeutic care has included foster care, kinship care, residential and social care, family preservation and reunification, supported accommodation and therapeutic services for children and young people in out-of-home care.
Supervision and Consultation
Colby provides clinical supervision, reflective practice and professional consultation to practitioners, teams, service leaders and organisations.
His current work includes supervision and consultation with individuals and organisations involved in residential and social care, supported accommodation, kinship care stabilisation, family preservation and reunification, therapeutic services for children in out-of-home care, and services supporting parents whose children are at risk of entering state care.
Colby’s work increasingly has an international reach. He currently works with individuals and organisations across Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland and consults internationally as a subject matter expert in child protection and out-of-home care.
He has a particular interest in the experiences of the adults who undertake this work, including the emotional and organisational demands associated with caring for and working therapeutically with children and families experiencing significant adversity.
Writing, Education and Knowledge Sharing
Colby has written extensively for parents, carers and professionals.
He is the author of two books, including A Short Introduction to Attachment and Attachment Disorder, and numerous professional and periodical articles concerning attachment, childhood adversity, caregiving and therapeutic practice.
He is also the host of The Secure Start Podcast, where he speaks with practitioners, researchers, authors, care-experienced people and other contributors from around the world about relationships, therapeutic care and the experiences of children and young people involved with care systems.
Colby is also the creator of the Secure Start AURA apps, which translate core principles of attachment-informed and relationship-focused practice into simple everyday prompts for caregivers and educators.
Professional Contribution
For fourteen years, until 2024, Colby held appointments within Australia’s National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for health practitioners, with a particular focus on the psychology profession.
Across his career, he has also contributed to the education and development of psychologists and other helping professionals through clinical supervision, postgraduate training, workshops, professional education and consultation.
A Continuing Focus
Across the different parts of Colby’s work—from psychotherapy and supervision to therapeutic care, writing, podcasting and program development—a consistent question has remained:
What do children and young people need from the adults around them in order to feel safe, understood and supported to develop well?
Secure Start’s clinical, educational and therapeutic-care work continues to develop around that question.
Work with Colby
Colby is available for selected clinical supervision, professional consultation, organisational consultation and Triple-A implementation work in Australia and internationally.
For enquiries, please contact:
Colby Pearce
Principal Clinical Psychologist
Secure Start®