KCA Blog:

Becoming Centred.. This is the transformative knowledge which will, when applied to everyday life and experience, contribute to that gentle revolu

Kate Cairns, 7 May 2024

We are living in an environment of profound social chaos and collective trauma in the UK. Public services have been ravaged by so-called austerity, with funding simultaneously being reduced and much of the residue being diverted to expensive private sector providers. Public service workers are left often bewildered and disorientated. How can work that is dedicated to serving the community be so little valued? When did we collectively decide, or at least agree, that evident human need could be redefined as greed, while evident human greed is redefined as success?

In KCA we turn to the work of Paolo Freire to recognise that this disorientation arises when systemic and systematic oppression affects communities or whole societies. And we agree with Jack Mezirow that this disorientation can become the trigger for a process of transformative learning. Our CENTRED knowledge base draws on current science and is formulated in ways which let science speak to the daily lived experience of public service workers.

Briefly summarised CENTRED knowledge consists of the following elements. Complexity and chaos: Everything is interconnected, emerging and indeterminate – our shared values shape our shared world. Evolutionary science: We developed as a species through our connectedness to each other and our environment – we are born to connect and care. Neuroscience: Our internal brain connections develop through our external connectedness to others and to our environment – we have access to a stable, integrated and adaptive flow state. Trauma: Connections break under extreme stress to speed us up for survival, and getting stuck in that emergency state leads to trauma, our fear state – we are born to disconnect and survive. Resilience: We need to connect externally with other people to get back our internal connectedness and move from fear to flow – we are born to reconnect and recover. Ecopsychology: We have an evolutionary need to live in harmony with our human and non-human environment to sustain our flow state – we are born to connect and care. Diversity: interconnectedness enables ongoing transformation from fear to flow and healthy emerging development – we are complex beings in a complex world. We know from what people tell us, and from our own experience, that this shared knowledge can be transformative.


Research into collective trauma shows that recovery requires community leadership that engages others and enables the community to stabilise, to form the stories that heal and integrate, and to adaptively act together to promote the social good of the community. Such recovery leaders arise from the community itself. Recovery leadership is not an office of state or specific to a particular role or profession. And recovery leaders are aware that they cannot always be leading, because they too are human and vulnerable, but that their leadership today means that tomorrow there will be another able to lead the community towards the healing it so urgently needs. Recovery leadership is naturally shared so that it is resilient and sustainable.

Since we began in 2011 KCA has had the opportunity to contribute to co-created projects in which this knowledge base has been used as part of a transformative programme. This has led to more than 5000 face to face events reaching more than 100,000 people. Even though some people, of course, attend more than one event this is still a great many people, and thousands more have used our e-learning. Yet more thousands will have benefited from the ripple effects of such transformation – one centre alone told us that since 2018 they have shared their transformative journey with more than 2000 adults. We already have evidence that some of these thousands of people have become recovery leaders in their communities, because they have come to us for support in their work.

KCA is committed to being part of this gentle revolution of recovery and hope. We believe that communities can heal, and become the environments in which humans can flourish again however chaotic the wider social environment may be. Indeed, we believe that communities of healing and recovery are the hope for the human species and the planet. We urgently need to find recovery leaders wherever they are so that we can support them, and share with them the more recent and even more inspiring discoveries that scientists and researchers have been making. This is the transformative knowledge which will, when applied to everyday life and experience, contribute to that gentle revolution we all need. If you recognise yourself as a recovery leader (at least some of the time – you are human too!) and would like to see how KCA can support your work, then please do get in touch with us.

Some other recent blogs/podcasts

Social ties are the cheapest medicine we have.

Richard Holmes, 2 Sep 2024

In this blog, Rich reflects on collective trauma and the challenge of addressing the social conditions that cause collective trauma, as well as treating the symptoms experienced by an individual.

Take down the fences: why we need to demilitarise our community life

Kate Cairns, 10 Jul 2024

In this blog we the discuss how our social and emotional ties have been eroded and the long term impact of being disconnected. When we invest in social connection instead, we reap the benefits for generations to come - Social ties are the cheapest medicine we have.

A choice Issue

Barry Golten, 9 Jun 2024

In this Blog, Barry Golten shares his thoughts on the difference of making bad choices and struggling to self regulate.

See all our blogs and podcasts…