Owen Robinson is a clinical social worker in private practice (providing counselling since 1999).  Counselling is his second profession after previously working as a secondary teacher for two decades although he admits that counselling is the more rewarding of the two; as a counselling student last century he simply found himself enjoying study for the first time.  Since then he’s worked as a branch manager for Relationships Australia, also as a case manager and acting senior social worker for Armadale Adult Mental Health Service; presently he is a Medicare provider working from GP practices, a senior consultant for Converge International and an Open Arms Outreach Program Counsellor (formerly Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service), plus he holds an ACA supervisor credential.

Professional development, lived experience, a curious mind and some downright miraculous moments of God’s direction have led Owen to discover much of what causes “Childhood Emotional Neglect” (CEN), what it does to people’s ability to trust their closest relationships and stay connected, what it can do to their experience of themselves, God, their faith community and their connection with other people generally.

He notes that if a person went through other adverse childhood events it is common that CEN was operating at some level as well.  CEN can leave people so hungry for connection at any level that they will risk pleasing others much of the time to get even crumbs of connection, they may say “Yes!” too often, or simply give up on trying to have positive connection at times.  Some children experiencing CEN will operate from the premise that negative attention is better than none at all.

If you are curious about how Childhood Emotional Neglect may be affecting your client group, be sure to connect into this CPD event.