Keynote address: Trauma‑Transformative Education: Building Schools Where Safety, Connection and Healing Can Flourish
Tracks
Track 1
Track 2
Track 3
Track 4
Track 5
Track 6
Track 7
Track 8
Track 9
| Saturday, October 31, 2026 |
| 10:30 AM - 11:20 AM |
| Plaza Ballroom, Plaza Level |
Overview
Janise Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Childhood Foundation
Speaker
Janise Mitchell
Chief Executive Officer
Australian Childhood Foundation
Trauma‑Transformative Education: Building Schools Where Safety, Connection and Healing Can Flourish
10:30 AM - 11:20 AMAbstract
Schools are now at the frontline of responding to the impacts of trauma on children and young people. Teachers see it every day in learning disruptions, relational withdrawal, emotional overwhelm and behaviours that communicate distress long before they communicate intent. Yet the frameworks available to educators have not kept pace with the complexity of what children are carrying, nor with what schools are being asked to hold.
This keynote traces the evolution of trauma‑informed approaches and explains why education now needs a more contemporary, practice‑aligned paradigm: trauma‑transformative practice. The presentation highlights how early trauma‑informed models helped raise awareness but have struggled to translate into consistent, measurable change in classrooms and school cultures.
Trauma‑transformative practice offers that roadmap. It reframes trauma not as a behavioural issue but as a disruption to safety, development, meaning‑making and relational connection and positions schools as powerful environments for buffering, healing and hope. The keynote introduces the dimensions of trauma‑transformative educational practice, including:
• Safety and predictability as foundations for learning
• Shame‑responsiveness and relational repair
• Cultural humility and decolonising commitments
• Strengths‑based meaning‑making
• Relational integration across the whole school
• Compassion, hope and future orientation
• Collective responsibility and system alignment
This keynote traces the evolution of trauma‑informed approaches and explains why education now needs a more contemporary, practice‑aligned paradigm: trauma‑transformative practice. The presentation highlights how early trauma‑informed models helped raise awareness but have struggled to translate into consistent, measurable change in classrooms and school cultures.
Trauma‑transformative practice offers that roadmap. It reframes trauma not as a behavioural issue but as a disruption to safety, development, meaning‑making and relational connection and positions schools as powerful environments for buffering, healing and hope. The keynote introduces the dimensions of trauma‑transformative educational practice, including:
• Safety and predictability as foundations for learning
• Shame‑responsiveness and relational repair
• Cultural humility and decolonising commitments
• Strengths‑based meaning‑making
• Relational integration across the whole school
• Compassion, hope and future orientation
• Collective responsibility and system alignment
Biography
Janise Mitchell is one of Australia’s leading voices in the field of childhood trauma and child abuse prevention. A career spanning more than 30 years, she has played a pivotal role in transforming systems of care and advancing therapeutic support for vulnerable children and young people.
Janise is the Chief Executive Officer of Australian Childhood Foundation delivering trauma-informed therapeutic services across Australia. In this role, she has led the development and implementation of state-wide and national programs in therapeutic out-of-home care, therapeutic counselling services for children and young people who have experienced a range of forms of abuse and violence, child abuse prevention, and professional education. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at Southern Cross University, where she contributes to research on relationship-based and trauma-responsive practice. She is a Board member of both the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse and the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare (Victoria and Tasmania).
She was awarded a Master of Social Work (Research) in 2008, with a focus on therapeutic care policy and practice. Since then, Janise has led applied research projects, government consultancies, and program evaluations, ensuring that evidence translates into real-world impact. She has collaborated with leading researchers including Professor Chris Goddard and the late Dr Joe Tucci and is currently involved in a range of Australian Research Council funded research projects with a number of universities across Australia.
Janise has published more than 48 peer-reviewed articles, co-edited and written chapters in two internationally recognised books: The Handbook of Therapeutic Care (2019) and The Handbook of Transformative Practice (2024), both published by Jessica Kingsley, London. She also co-convenes the biannual International Trauma Conference, which attracts over 2,500 professionals globally.
