Dr Lisa Cherry: Caring for the Carers in a Fractured System

·51 min·5 clips

Lisa Cherry redefines trauma as what happens inside when your system is overwhelmed, not just an individual problem.

Dr. Lisa Cherry joins hosts Mohamed and Danielle on The Kitchen Table to discuss her work on trauma-informed practice and supporting professionals in caring roles. The conversation centers on her latest book, which shifts the focus from individual self-care to systemic and cultural support for carers. Lisa is an author and researcher whose decades of work have influenced trauma-informed approaches across education, social care, and health systems. She explains that trauma-informed practice involves understanding trauma's impact and creating organizational policies that prevent harm. Lisa critiques tokenistic support like poorly implemented Employee Assistance Programs or superficial "well-being hours." She argues that genuine care requires leaders to model vulnerability, asking for help and admitting mistakes to foster psychological safety. The hosts, both CEOs of academy trusts, explore how to create cultures where staff feel safe to say they are overwhelmed. Lisa shares examples from her book, including a chapter with someone named Alex discussing the quality of support mechanisms. A key insight is that vulnerability in leadership is a strength, essential for repairing relational ruptures in teams. Lisa reflects that older leaders often become more comfortable with not knowing, citing Brené Brown's work on shame and courage. She connects her professional focus to personal experiences of "unbelonging," including being a child in care and experiencing homelessness. Her educational journey, from exclusion to graduating from Goldsmiths University, highlights how supportive "people in waiting" can change trajectories. Lisa applies this lens to current rising school exclusions, arguing punitive approaches place the problem in the child and cause harm. She suggests schools need creative, relational configurations, like vertical tutoring groups, to foster belonging. The discussion notes that alternative provisions often use family-style groupings successfully. For attracting and retaining new practitioners, Lisa emphasizes organizational flexibility, like allowing part-time work, to prevent burnout. She observes that COVID-19 highlighted how staff members also experience adversity, breaking down a "them and us" dynamic between professionals and those they serve. Lisa prefers long-term, relational partnerships with organizations over one-off keynote speeches, valuing deep investment over superficial engagement. The tone is conversational, reflective, and grounded in personal narrative and professional experience. This episode would deeply interest leaders and practitioners in education, social care, and health seeking to build compassionate, sustainable workplaces. Listeners looking for quick, tactical fixes or disinterested in systemic change might find the discussion less applicable.

As heard by us

A careful conversation about the people who keep care systems from cracking.

The episode uses The Kitchen Table to talk about the people who keep education and care work moving. Lisa Cherry traces a path through disrupted schooling, alternative provision, charity support, and her eventual entry to Goldsmiths, and the hosts draw that story into a plain…

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For when you need a humane conversation about the people who do the caring.

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