A different description of trauma: a wider systemic perspective—a personal insight

This special edition ofChild Care in Practice provides a unique opportunity to reflect on the years since the signing of the Belfast Agreement in 1998 and the period leading up to this. This article offers my personal views based on my experience of working with families affected by the Troubles. As a family therapist I am trained to view matters systemically; at its broadest definition this includes matters of a social, cultural and political nature. The Family Trauma Centre is a community‐based treatment service for children, young people and their families. Since its conception in 1998, its development and practice has mirrored many of the political developments that have occurred in our society. I would like to try to capture and consider some of these connections and explore the recursive relationship between political and therapeutic developments. I would also like to include some of the voices of the families we work with. Often it seems their experiences of trauma related to the Troubles is either at best misunderstood or at its worst ignored. This paper seeks to identify with the dilemmas faced by workers and families in view of the ongoing but changed violence in this society, which has continued since the Belfast Agreement. It also considers to what extent we can describe Northern Ireland as a post‐conflict society.