Dr Jackie Amos is a Child and Adolescent psychiatrist and Gestalt psychotherapist. She worked as a community CAMHS psychiatrist, for 17 years, where she supported many children and their families experiencing trauma. Jackie now works for Centacare, Adelaide, in the Children’s Services Unit. In her doctoral research Jackie developed two complementary and clinically informative models of the intergenerational transmission of trauma. These models were then used to understand the key objectives of treatment for families where the care and protection of the children is compromised. These objectives supported Jackie in developing in depth hypotheses about the mechanisms of action of a novel, and effective dyadic psychotherapy, Parallel Parent and Child Therapy, for mothers and children caught in intergenerational cycles of maltreatment.