Welcome to Mixed Signals, the weekly newsletter from me (Gareth K. Thomas 👋), helping adults understand children with trauma. From My Notes Understanding behaviour is not justifying behaviour. * You can’t use shame to teach a child already flooded with shame. * Almost 1 in 5 children experience abuse or neglect that

No. 40 – 10th of September, 2023 I'm back from the summer break. Just as summer seems to begin. As usual, our summer was a blur of camping, sleepovers, rugby training, and far too much food (back to the gym routine for me). I'm excited to be

No. 39 – 2nd of July, 2023 Lots of my thinking/reading/writing revolves around these two points: 1. Tech could make our lives better 2. Tech currently makes our lives worse There was a point, not too long ago, when keeping your home clean and tidy became much easier. Vacuum

No. 38 – 4th of June, 2023 Change feels slow. Especially where we need it most. Yet change is happening all the time. It wasn't too long ago, at my first proper job, that I would spend the entirety of my 10 hour shift answering the phone, and reading

No. 37 – 28th of May, 2023 How do we create big change? Systemic change. Cultural change. Perhaps it's a mix. Big vision, combined with the compounding of small actions. So where to put our effort? Focus our time on building that vision, then sharing it with everyone who

No. 36 – 21st of May, 2023 This week, I've mostly existed on the back foot. Do you ever get those days where you somehow start several miles behind where you should be? Those days have a way of feeding into the next day, and the next, and the

No. 35 – 14th of May, 2023 Maximum Effort is a film production company and digital marketing agency. It exists, “for the personal amusement of Hollywood Star Ryan Reynolds.” If it's good enough for Ryan, it's good enough for me. One of the upsides to being a

No. 34 – 7th of May, 2023 It's so hard to cook in a cluttered kitchen. Cookery books scattered everywhere, last night's dishes still to be sorted. What most of us like is clean, clear countertops. Maybe a single recipe. And the ingredients we need laid out

No. 33 – 30th of April, 2023 “It won't be like that in the real world!” That's a response I hear often, when I do my best to advocate for better support for children in schools. I talk about reasonable adjustments, and support through a therapeutic lens.