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A toy fawn, a wordless picture book, a skull on a desk—what can these objects teach us about caring for children who’ve known chaos, loss, and confusion? We welcome back Richard Rawlinson, former director of the Mulberry Bush and long-time consultant in therapeutic childcare, to explore how everyday items become portals to insight, empathy, and better practice.

Richard traces a personal collection—gifts from children, reminders of moments, and metaphors with staying power. Bambi in a crowded cinema reveals the gap that trauma can carve between event and feeling. Rosie's Walk becomes a case study in continuity, ritual, and how the body helps the mind make sense. Damasio’s challenge to Descartes underpins it all: psyche and soma are not separate lanes. We look at what practitioners can observe—posture, presence, tone, pacing—and how these embodied signals change as safety builds.

There’s humour and humility too. A child hears “cremated” as “cream egged,” and we glimpse how kids personalise big, baffling ideas—death included—into images that fit their world. Rather than correct, we learn to guide: offer manageable doses, invite reflection, and let children lead with their meanings. Richard adds a crucial caution from his early years—don’t predict outcomes for children. What we can judge is the reliability of services, the existence of a plan B, and the quality of the holding environment.

A family photo at Yankee Stadium turns into a working model for care: boundaries that are clear but not crushing, a field of play with room to move, warning tracks before walls, and gates that open when it’s time to leave. We connect Winnicott’s work–love–play to daily routines, early signs of progress (ordinary participation, communication beyond meltdown, being in class to learn), and practical dialogue techniques like “let’s pretend you do know” to spark thinking.

Richard’s Bio

Richard has a long association with Residential Therapeutic Communities, having worked at the Mulberry Bush School for well over 20 years and where, from 1991 to 2001, he was its Director. He was also Director, Children and Young People, at the Peper Harow Foundation, from 2001 to 2005. 

Richard qualified as a Social Worker with an MSc from Oxford University in 1983, following the then Part 1 training in Child Psychotherapy at the Tavistock Centre. In 2005 he completed the Ashridge MA and training in Organisational Consulting. He has been Chairman of the Charterhouse Group of Therapeutic Communities and for many years the Chairman of the Care Leavers’ Foundation. In 2014 he became Chair of Trustees at the Mulberry Bush School, only recently stepping down from that position, while remaining a Trustee with a special brief for the links and development of the contacts with and participation of former pupils. He has published numerous articles and continues to lecture widely across the UK and Europe.

Links:
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Disclaimer:

Disclaimer: Information reported by guests of this podcast is assumed to be accurate as stated. Podcast owner Colby Pearce is not responsible for any error of facts presented by podcast guests. In addition, unless otherwise specified, opinions expressed by guests of this podcast may not reflect those of the podcast owner, Colby Pearce. Finally, all references to case examples are anonymised to the extent that the actual case could not be identified, or are fictional but based on real-life examples for illustrative purposes, or have client consent to talk about in an educative context.

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