What to expect
Our goal for the day is to deepen awareness, strengthen shared understanding, and inspire active participation in creating a more compassionate, safe, and resilient community.

Over the course of the day you can expect a blend of:

  • Evidence-informed tools and approaches
  • Opportunities to connect concepts to your own practice
  • Space to pause, process, and consider real-world application
List of speakers

Key Information
Date: Tuesday 21 April 2026
Times: 09:00 – 17:00

Location: Kilcullen Hotel, Co. Kildare, W91 DC98

Schedule of events

9:00-9:20am
Registration Tea/Coffee

9:30-9.50am
Opening Address – Dr Catriona O’Toole MUI Maynooth: Kildare’s Journey to trauma informed practice

09:50-10:25
Panel Discussion: Implementing Trauma Informed Practice in Community Services
Sandra Byrne – In Sync Youth & Family Services
Sarah Rush – Barnardos Childhood Domestic Violence and Abuse Project

10:30-11:10
Siobhan Prenderville: The Therapeutic Powers of Play

11:15-12:00 Workshops round 1

This workshop takes place in the Fountain Suite. It is a reflective and supportive session exploring how trauma affects individuals and families across generations. The session will focus on understanding trauma, building resilience, and supporting healing and change. Deirdre and Marie use visual life‑span examples to demonstrate how intergenerational trauma can either continue or be broken, highlighting the importance of accessing the right supports at the right time.

This workshop will take place in Boardroom 1. In this session participants will understand the therapeutic Powers of Play in Action and experience play as a regulatory system with powerful relational opportunities inherent. Participants will also make direct links to trauma informed and trauma responsive practices in a reflexive manner and leave with tools they can actually use. This workshop is highly interactive so be prepared to experience the therapeutic powers of play for yourself!

This workshop will take place in the Innovation Hub. Kyrie Farm is a planned residential therapeutic farm in County Kildare, Ireland, designed to support adults experiencing significant mental health difficulties through a recovery‑oriented, nature‑based model of care. Eoin, Therapeutic Director of Kyrie Farm will explore lived experience, vision and journey, as well the Kyrie Farm’s approach to mental health and recovery.

This workshop will take place in Moore Abbey. Step into a lovely, hands-on experience designed through a trauma-informed lens. In this nurturing space, participants will have the opportunity to create a personalised essential oil roller bottle blend to support nervous system regulation.

This workshop will take place in Belling suite. Pamela will create an uninterrupted space for you to cultivate a deeper sense of ease, connection and well-being. In this short introductory session, you’ll experience how sound can help restore the natural flow of energy within the body, which can become sluggish or blocked through stress, emotional challenges, trauma, or ill health. The sound bath begins at 11.15 am sharp. Distraction during a meditation is very unsettling, therefore please arrive on time.

12:05-12:55
Lunch

13:00-13:40
Dr. Isabela Troya: Relationship between trauma, adversity, self-harm, and suicide through a compassionate, trauma-informed lens.

13:45-14:30 Workshops round 2

This workshop takes place in the Fountain Suite. This workshop explores the Start from the Heart Programme. Deirdre and Marie believe that parents are best helped when they feel respected and supported in a non-judgemental way. In a down to earth manner the programme introduces the latest research on neuroscience, brain development, attachment and the impact of childhood trauma. This research tells us why we need to build loving and lasting attachments with our children in order to give them the best future possible and how best to do so. We explore how stress relationships and early experiences effect us as we journey through parenting. We share ideas and techniques that will help parents build their self esteem, self awareness, and enhance their physical and mental health.

This workshop will take play in the Belling suite. It will introduce participants to the playbook and motivations of hate in Ireland, the role social media plays and strategies and tips on how to respond when confronted by it. This workshop has been created to support people directly affected by hate to feel prepared when confronted by hate on the street or in their communities. It is also for people supporting people directly affected by hate to understand how hate is manifesting and how people can prepare themselves.

This workshop will take place in Boardroom 1. WAVE Trauma Centre is the largest cross community organisation working with those impacted by trauma in what was known as ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland. Set up in 1991, they work with a very inclusive attitude, serving all those impacted by the Conflict, regardless of religious, political or cultural belief. Their work involves a full wrap around service including outreach support, health and well-being, counselling and psychotherapy, peer group support, welfare advice, advocacy, as well as campaigning initiatives and social support.

This workshop will take place in Moore Abbey. Step into a lovely, hands-on experience designed through a trauma-informed lens. In this nurturing space, participants will have the opportunity to create a personalised essential oil roller bottle blend to support nervous system regulation.

This workshop will be take place in the Innovation Hub. This workshop explores how the HSE Dublin South Central Adult Psychology Primary Care Service has developed a more neuroaffirmative and trauma-sensitive pathway for Autistic adults. This pathway emerged from both research and clinical experience, which highlighted the significant barriers and discrimination Autistic individuals can face when accessing mental health services. The workshop will share the process of dismantling personal ableism and bridging double-empathy gaps in assessment and intervention.

14:35-15:20 Workshops round 3

This workshop will take place in the Boardroom 1. In this session participants will understand the therapeutic Powers of Play in Action and experience play as a regulatory system with powerful relational opportunities inherent. Participants will also make direct links to trauma informed and trauma responsive practices in a reflexive manner and leave with tools they can actually use. This workshop is highly interactive so be prepared to experience the therapeutic powers of play for yourself!

This workshop will take play in the Belling suite. It will introduce participants to the playbook and motivations of hate in Ireland, the role social media plays and strategies and tips on how to respond when confronted by it. This workshop has been created to support people directly affected by hate to feel prepared when confronted by hate on the street or in their communities. It is also for people supporting people directly affected by hate to understand how hate is manifesting and how people can prepare themselves.

This workshop will take place in the Moore Abbey. Yoga Nidra is an immensely powerful meditation technique, and one of the easiest yoga practices to develop and maintain. While you rests comfortably in savasana this systematic meditation leaves you with a sense of wholeness.

This workshop will take place in the Innovation Hub. It introduces Safe Harbour – a trauma-informed, evidence-informed resource developed to support children bereaved by suicide. Safe Harbour is an illustrated storybook, accompanied by a practical guide and additional supportive materials, designed to help parents and caregivers navigate the difficult conversations children may have following a suicide death. This workshop offers both professional insight and personal perspective on supporting children after suicide bereavement, highlighting the importance of compassionate, trauma-informed and age-appropriate communication.

This workshop will take place in the Fountain Suite. The Seeking Safety programme is a coping skills approach to help women attain safety from trauma and/or addiction. It is present-focussed and designed to be safe, optimistic and engaging. Seeking Safety is an evidence-based, present-focused counselling model to help service-users attain safety from trauma and/or substance abuse. It can be conducted in groups or individually. The programme directly addresses trauma and addiction without requiring clients to examine in detail their disturbing trauma memories.

15:25-15:40
Tea/coffee break back at Main Stage

15:40-16:20
Mick Finnegan: From Silence to Survival: Class, Institutional Harm, and the Cost of Being Unheard

16:20-16:30

Closing ceremony