Family and Child Consultants

  The Trauma of Navigating the System Is Often Worse Than the Original Pain By Niki Gent There’s a particular kind of hurt that doesn’t come from what happened to you — but from what happened after . After you asked for help. After you reached out. After you reported what no one else knew. After you told the truth. It’s the hurt of being doubted. Delayed. Dismissed. It’s the trauma of sitting on hold with Centrelink for hours, only to be told you called the wrong department. It’s the trauma of telling your story for the fifth time to the fifth intake worker who still hasn’t read your file. It’s the trauma of walking into a service that was supposed to help, and walking out feeling smaller than when you arrived. System trauma is real. And in my work — sitting with people in crisis, navigating child protection, NDIS, homelessness, and mental health systems — I’ve seen it over and over again: The original injury was awful. But the trauma of not being believed? That’s what broke them...

  We Say We Want Change — But Do We Actually Create It? By Niki Gent Everyone says they want change. We say it in staff meetings, in policy reviews, in team supervision. We say it in therapy, in coaching, in conversations with ourselves. “Something needs to change.” “This system is broken.” “I can’t keep doing this.” But here’s the uncomfortable truth: Wanting change is not the same as creating it. In the community and human services sector, we often operate in environments that are overburdened and under-resourced. We care deeply, we advocate loudly, and we burn out quietly. But what I’ve seen over the years is that even when we have the opportunity to do things differently , we often default to the familiar. Why? Because real change isn’t just about systems. It’s about people . And people don’t resist change because they’re lazy or selfish. They resist it because change is uncomfortable. It requires loss. Letting go of what’s known. Risking failure. Sitting in the awkward, uncert...

  What Happens When You Finally Listen to Your Body By Niki Gent There’s a voice we’ve been taught to ignore. It’s not loud. It doesn’t shout. It doesn’t use clever language. But it’s always talking. Whispering, humming, sometimes screaming — through tight shoulders, shallow breathing, racing thoughts, clenched jaws, aching backs, insomnia. It’s the voice of the body. And most of us only start to hear it when it’s too late. In my work, I sit with people every day who are exhausted, anxious, disconnected — from themselves, their work, their families. They talk about burnout, about hitting a wall, about losing motivation. And more often than not, they’ll say something like: “I thought I was fine… until I wasn’t.” The truth is, their body had been trying to tell them the truth for months — sometimes years. But we live in a culture that values output over embodiment. We’re told to keep going, keep working, keep coping, keep serving — even as our bodies quietly begin to unravel. So what...