Learn on the go: Jenny Molloy on the adult legacy of her childhood trauma

Welcome to Learn On The Go, the podcast from Community Care Inform where we discuss research, theories and practice issues and look at what they mean for social care practitioners.

In this episode we talk to Jenny Molloy, motivational speaker, trainer, care leaver and bestselling author of three books with a fourth about to be published.

Her first book, Hackney Child, written under the pen name Hope Daniels, describes Jenny’s childhood and how at the age of nine she walked into Stoke Newington police station with her two younger brothers and asked that they be taken into care. Both their parents were addicted to alcohol, their mother was a sex worker, and they’d experienced neglect, malnourishment and poverty.

When she was 19, Jenny decided to read her social services files, where she discovered that both her parents had also been in care and had experienced traumatic childhoods. So it is testament to Jenny’s strength of character that she not only conquered her own alcohol addiction, but achieved her childhood dream for her future: that her children be raised in a safe, loving, family home and have a "normal life", breaking the cycle of children in care having their children go into care.

Ordinarily, Jenny talks and trains about life as a child in care, and issues around care leavers and childhood trauma. On this occasion, Jenny is talking about how childhood trauma can play out in adulthood, and how she relapsed and then recovered when it happened to her.

We do want to give a content warning: Jenny talks about her attempted suicide, being sectioned, and time in a psychiatric hospital. 

We know it can be difficult to hear about people’s trauma so we’d like to remind you to practise self-care and use supervision and peer support if this has brought up anything difficult for you.

And if you’ve been affected by this episode, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123.

During the interview, Jenny references the Lambeth Children's Homes Redress Scheme, which you can read about here. And she also mentions the National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS).

The questions were asked by Natalie Valios, senior content editor at Community Care Inform Adults. 

0:02:37.3 - The three triggers

0:10:10 - The psychiatric hospital

0:17:49.8 - Recovery

0:20:53.1 - Adult mental health services

0:27:36.9 - Healing

0:31:23.7 - Advice for social workers

0:33:41.4 - The future

0:37:05.8 - Hope