Play therapy rewires the brain! Facing childhood traumas, with The King’s Trust

0:01Hello and welcome to Happy Place with me, Fearne Cotton. Today, this chat is going to properly warm your heart and fire you up. I'm talking to an incredibly impressive woman. Her name is Shauna. My experiences have been like self-belief, self-confidence, not feeling worthy enough. All of the things that happened for my parents were always blamed on me. Now, looking back, I can see as a child, it was never my fault. But when you're growing up in that situation, means that now it's been challenging to face them barriers because I'm not only breaking the barriers of what the internal model is, but also recognising that actually I was just a child.

0:42But the experiences before, I've been told you're not worthy, you don't deserve it, you're not going to do anything. That repeatedly meant that I didn't trust anyone. Now, Shauna was in the care system as a child and her experiences inspired her to start her own business, Lighthouse Therapy Hub, where as an accredited play therapist, she uses different creative therapeutic approaches to revisit people's past experiences and trauma. She's one of the 2026 winners of a Regional Young Changemaker Award from the King's Trust, which is such an amazing charity. I'm actually a goodwill ambassador for mental health and well-being for them.

1:23And I absolutely hold that title by my heart at all times. I feel very lucky to be a goodwill ambassador for the King's Trust, mainly because I get to meet so many wonderful people that properly shift my perspective and motivate me, just like Shauna, who you're going to meet today. King's Trust helps support young people aged 11 to 30 and believe that every single young person should have the chance to succeed, no matter their background or their personal challenges. They offer support into education, into training and into jobs too. And as you're here, they help Shauna launch her business. This was a really cool opportunity to talk with Shauna about the power of both self-belief and good people believing in you.

2:12And I think you definitely want to stick around to the end because there's a massive surprise for her that makes us both cry.

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3:34All right, here we go. This is the show.

3:58I'm excited to chat to you, Shauna. Thank you so much for the opportunity. And it's so lovely to meet you in person. It's so lovely to meet you. I just adore what the King's Trust does and to hear stories like yours this is what it's all about like hearing actual people's experience of not only their lives before finding the King's Trust but what they've done since so I want to get to as much of that as we can. First up before we start you good? You happy? I am yes thank you. You're liking the chairs. I love the studio yeah I love it thanks. I know they're so cosy aren't they? So there's so much I want to talk to you about.

4:34First of all let's just start with a bit about you. Tell us where you're from, anything that you think we would love to know about you. So I'm Shauna. I'm a mum of two and I'm based in Leeds and I run a therapy business based on play and creative arts. Which is so up my street and we're going to talk more about that in a moment. But first of all, let's just get a bit more about your background and your childhood. So you grew up in care. How do you think that impacted, I guess first of all, you as a child but also how it's informed who you are today? Yeah it's a good question because we look at the part of being in care but it's not always talked about what happens before that of what led to that situation and I think my experiences have been like self-belief, self-confidence, not feeling worthy enough, all of the things that happened for my parents were always blamed on me.

5:29Now looking back I can see as a child it was never my fault but when you're growing up in that situation, always being blamed for something repeatedly means that now it's been challenging to face them barriers because I'm not only breaking the barriers of what the internal model is, but also recognising that actually I was just a child and it's okay. It was the responsibility was there and not with me. And to break through them barriers has been really challenging. And hopefully we'll talk about the King's Trust as well, but that has been like the turning point for me in being able to do and sit and talk about my experiences too so I know one of the things that you've said is that growing up in care you don't necessarily feel like you've got people backing you and saying you can do this this is the path you can take that's a key element that's missing yeah we were really lucky that our foster parents were amazing and we had a really wonderful experience there but the experiences before I've been told you're not worthy you don't deserve it you're you're not going to do anything you're not worthy of anything don't do anything that repeatedly meant that I didn't trust anyone so even like the foster carers even though they had my best interests my sister's best interests meant that I didn't believe it because up until that point I was on my own it was just me and my sister so we had repeated experiences of that which were really really tough really challenging and that is a very hard cycle to break when you're that young and that's what's being kind of programmed within you to believe about yourself that takes an almighty amount of strength to change that sort of mindset obviously the king's trust as you said has been a big part of this so how did that even happen how did you even hear about the the words king's trust good question and i thank my children for that because i had two children under two, one that was 17 months, one that was a newborn.

7:30Yeah, I know. I just did a face and you're like, yeah. Exhausting. Yeah, exhausting. Mad, madness. Crazy. What were you thinking? Yeah, it's just, it's what happens, isn't it? I remember those days and it's like, you don't know how you get through it. It's bonkers. And I remember one of the night feeds you know you're up all night yeah like I deserve my family deserve better I need more how can I put myself in a position that means that I can be the parent that my kids deserve and I was scrolling through social media and on Instagram actually like two o 'clock feed really late at night and I came across the King's Trust and one of the hashtags at the bottom I'm like oh what's this about I'll have a look and ended up going through a rabbit hole of information and was like okay okay well maybe maybe just maybe that this could work but I decided okay I'm not I can't it's not for me it's not going to work they're not going to like my idea no no and then I spoke to my partner Tom and he was like just what's what have you got to lose take the risk or lose the chance even if you're not sure you take the risk we don't have to believe anything I believe in you I think you can do anything but take the risk for the kids and then you never know what will happen um so yeah that was how I first found the King's Trust I love that that is just a random moment yeah of chance you could have scrolled on to like Katy Perry's lunch I mean it could be any old stuff but you happened across that which is so beautifully fateful but as you say it's one thing to come across it and go that's piquing my interest that feels like could be an option for me but then to see it through and to action it especially when you're a mum is a whole other thing so what what led you to then getting in touch with them and thinking this is worth it I've got to do this so I was finishing my postgraduate study as a play therapist I was right at the very end of that and one of the modules was how to set up a business I'm like okay is this another sign that this is where I need to be because ultimately I'm supporting myself being able to write this and do this course too like what are the chances that this is happening so I was like okay let's let's bounce and having two children I was really lucky to be a part of the first cohort that had it online so meant that child care wasn't an issue because I had two kids under two I have very limited support without it being an option online there's no way I'd have been able to attend.

10:03God how brilliant. It just aligned. So you'd had your idea which we're going to get to and really deeply dive into you'd had that before what what sparked the idea for you to have your own therapy hub? Great question so with my background and experiences we know that trauma I knew that I needed to access therapy because of the history that I had and I tried like the talking therapies and there's a therapy for everyone is is what I think will take away from that but I realized that play and creative arts therapy offer opportunities that doesn't attach with shame so you know being cast as an orphan is tough it's horrible and to face that reality which is mine that you don't know how that's going to be received and actually do you want to face that so it offers layer of protections to be able to dive deeply in the safety of a metaphor so that you're not directly facing everything all at once you can take it back as far as you can essentially come back to safety and then go again until you're ready to reach that place and like now for me there's always going to be challenges that I face anxiety stress I'm really sensitive to that but I also know that I have the tools to be able to manage that and that's come from playing creative arts which sounds crazy it's not not at all I think it's It's not, but it is just such a beautiful way to not only calm your nervous system, but to also explore and look at whether it's your past or how your brain works at the moment without having to sit there and trawl over traumatic things or keep talking about them.

11:36So is play therapy something that you had experienced? Wow. And you knew that it was impactful for you. Yeah. The thing that makes me passionate about what I do is it helps rewire the brain. and 20 opportunities of play or creative arts versus hundreds of talking so we have more chance of being able to help rewire the brain in a way that's long lasting and as I can't when I first experienced it I'm like I'm not sure but then on this side of it going okay everyone if you need it everyone needs the opportunity to be able to have a fulfilling life of whatever that looks like passionate for that me too but I just love how you know your passion has created this whole thing so let's talk more about the business that you're setting up and how the King's Trust helped you bring that to fruition so it's called Lighthouse Therapy Hub correct yep tell us about what you do and how it works yes so we support it started as just me as the play therapist and my jam is children 10 and under and I'm like yes this is where I know that my zone of genius as we at work like to call it where it's like I know that if somebody comes in need support for this age group I know that this is where I excel and what happened was as family started to come to us they started to trust us and realized that they wanted to access mental health for themselves and we were able to we're in a unique position to be able to support the whole family so what it meant was the adults the mum the dad their grandma granddad uncles were saying please can we see you I'm like I'm really sorry that's not possible however would you consider if I found a team which my team are fabulous they are amazing would you consider experiencing therapy through them and those like yeah if you say we believe in you we trust you yes so the team that we have now they are fine-tuned but all have such a unique zone of genius and all complement each other so much we have an art therapist a movement therapist and play therapist there's two of us now and all for empowerment self-esteem self-confidence to help support long-lasting change and it's something that i think if we can you know we look talk about children but if we can get to the parents to and support them and give them real-time skills we're ultimately resetting their path for generations to come and partly why i'm like advocating flying the flag yes you are therapies because it's so powerful and it's also sparking so much i don't know just like so many thoughts in my head and this like motivation like this is so cool you're breaking these cycles you're changing whole families and like some generational trauma so these kids can go out into the world and live their best lives and be I mean it must be amazing to see that happen in real time to be working with kids or whole families and over a course of weeks months to see the change in it must be amazing yeah it is to see the end result and usually when we get to the end result and they're ready to go and to leave they're non-recognizable but also to get to that point the journey is tough therapy is hard yeah and there is yes we provide like the lighthouse is so important to me because it stands strong in all of them storms and it doesn't matter like the personal storms that they're going through the experiences that they have we know that we can hold strong for them and be the guardrails for that but it also means that as they experience the safety net that we provide they're able to take the self-esteem and confidence out from us and into the real world into jobs I can think of one client that has got a new job and has emailed us he's the first one we've told that he's got a new job because he's just so happy and we've supported him on that journey and it's so empowering to see that although the journey isn't easy no we know the end result to go we believe in you even if it's challenging even if that you find it really tough now we know that you can make it because I know that I have and I know everyone with the right opportunity can too yeah I mean you're sat here talking about your skill set, your genius, what you can offer in the most brilliantly empowering way, which makes me feel like I could burst with happiness.

15:55Like this is what we need more women out there going, I know my skill set, I've got it to offer. But obviously coming from a background where that confidence wasn't a given, you are living proof that this works and that you can change, you can rewire your brain and you can sit here today saying, I feel so confident in who I am and what I've got to offer it's incredible yeah massive there's still worries there but it doesn't hold me back like it used to there was a time that I'd be like no thanks no yeah no I can't do that whereas the King's Trust has offered opportunities to build on skills from before so yes I've done the Enterprise program and been supported from that being a part of the Change of Girls Life program just like the filming took place in October last year and for that to go live in March The difference in me is huge.

16:43Really? Yeah.

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18:01And so let's talk about how the King's Trusters helped you on your journey with confidence, certainly, but also helped you on a very practical note build this thriving business you've got going yeah well there's so many things that the king's trust support with it's so hard to pinpoint exactly which one because there's so many different ways that they support but for me it was the confidence in me they believed in me before i believed in myself which is empowering in and of itself you just need one person to go oh no i believe in you yeah i believe in you yeah It's amazing. And it was the King's Trust for me.

18:39And then, so how did they help you on a practical note go, right, you've got a bloody good idea for how are we going to make this into an actual thing? The programme that I did was Enterprise and they offered practical tips like cash flow, business plans, accountancy, all the key skills that you need to set up and run a business. How to support them registering with HMRC, sole trader, all of them things that are actually terrifying to do when you know what they want to do. All of it. I'm just like, la, fingers and ears, la, la, la. The worst. Yeah, terrifying. But we need to know. We do. We do.

19:12And I look back on that period now and go, knowledge is power. Yeah. And the change was that they gave me the knowledge so I could turn that into quite a powerful and meaningful movement for me. And to now sit back and go, okay, I know that if I was struggling with something, trademarking, for example, I can go out and reach the King's Trust and ask for advice and guidance on that. Or actually my business plan hasn't gone the way that I thought, how can I adapt and support myself to be able to overcome these challenges that we offer us in so many different ways. You don't have to sit there worrying about it on your own.

19:49You've got that support network. It's so, so key. And then tell us about the Change Girls Life campaign that you were part of as well. What did that involve? Oh, crazy. That was, I was just saying earlier that I nearly pulled out of it really why terrified terrified just because you knew it would be something different to do pressure just didn't know what it was well I knew what it was but I was like it's just it can't be me I'm please can you go check the name and Lizzie who I who supports one of the new ambassador team and Marissa I'm like please can you just go back and check because I don't think you mean me like are you sure 100 % you yeah yeah um and it's like no it's fine um but then when you hear like Like the celebrities that are involved, I'm like, I'm terrified.

20:35What if I say the wrong thing? What if I don't show up in a way that I hope to show up or convey what I'm trying to, you know, it is about your care leavers. What if I miss say something? No, I can't. And the King's Trust wrapped around me essentially to be able to go. It's okay. Let's not worry about that. Let's take one step first. And that is get on the train. Get on the train, babes. Get on that train. Get on the train and then worry about what's happening next. Yeah. And then it's step by step from that. And the Kings Trust are like that throughout it. So they offer support. Like for today, there's just so many different opportunities to be able to support in being able to sit with someone and have them open conversations.

21:16But also to go, it's okay that it's hard because it is hard. It's not an easy thing to do. But also everyone's rooting for you too. And we are. So everyone's rooting for you. Not only that, every single person who would have been involved in that campaign whether they were a celebrity or not would have been feeling the same you know I think that's always the thing to remember isn't it that we can go oh my god I don't want to mess this up I don't want to say the wrong thing but everybody's thinking that and actually when you've got people you know you can lean on if you feel uncomfortable or out of your depth that that safety net's there again that you can push through and do something that would have been terrifying a couple of years ago and now you can do it yeah even like the couple of days before that and actually it was so empowering like to sit now and look back on that and I say to Lizzie I say to everyone that was a massive turning point for me in my own confidence to be able to say I don't have to share my story with shame now yes it's a part of my history but it doesn't define what happens next that was challenging but this can also thrive too both can co-occur together and that has been a credit the change girls life campaign for the being able to sit and talk openly about my story now and was the start of something quite powerful and significant because wow I'm sat here with you now being able to talk about the King's Trust and all the amazing things that they do well and you're a King's Trust ambassador we need to point that out as well I mean that must feel like a lovely badge to wear yeah I'm so proud yeah um we work a lot with like children's homes with schools and we link them directly if we're supporting them we always link them to the King's Trust because I know that yes the support network and the village can go around them not just us but let's bring in other people to help these young people thrive yes let's support the mental health and well-being but let's them also give them opportunities to succeed somewhere else so we connect a lot with the King's Trust separately and I'm proud to do that because look where I am would not be where I am today without the King's Trust and the support they offer.

23:16That's why I love hearing these stories, because every time I've been at, you know, a King's Trust event and I've met young people who are doing extraordinary things, but you hear the story before that, you see how things could have been so different. Like this stuff is life changing. And that phrase gets thrown about a lot. But this is this is the real deal. This is life changing stuff. It is. And it is mentioned a lot, life changing, but to go from an orphan that has no opportunities, no support network or limited to now having a business that's thriving and we're looking for new office spaces.

23:52We're looking to expand like that is happening for us. The connections that are happening with the schools and that's happening to me because of what the King's Trust has offered me. And your hard work. Yeah, for sure. For sure. I'm chuffed to bits for you. And also recently you won the King's Trust Regional Young Changemakers Award. I know. How did that feel? Honestly, the experience from the beginning to end was phenomenal. It was back in January and we were in this space with so many other young people that have done really phenomenal things. And to sit back and hear their stories and where they've come from and the journeys that they've been on and being a part of that was really inspiring.

24:35inspiring. Did you celebrate? Yeah. Yeah, my kids did. Actually, we had a phone call from the kids school that my eldest put a potato up his nose.

24:47As a reaction to the joy? To get come to with us. He was sad that he was left out. Brilliant. What a move. Yeah. A potato up the nose. Yeah. Who knew? Who knew? Yeah, obviously it didn't work. What a genius. Yeah. Yeah. When we got home, I said, oh why did you do that I wanted to be celebrating with you thanks I love it I like his thinking outside the box but yeah the experience for them was amazing in terms of the sponsor um the sponsor of my award they were so lovely the feedback from that but that's the thing that I find the toughest is hearing them positive things because it's not something that I've particularly heard well before and I don't necessarily believe it.

25:27So to sit in here that they've read my story and seen that was overwhelming, joyous, but also empowering to another change. So empowering. Well, get ready to celebrate some more because you're also the King's Trust National Young Changemaker Award winner. Oh my God.

25:52It's so brilliant. Oh my god!

25:59I'm so chuffed for you. Third! Shorter! What? What? It's the best. You better get a nice dress ready because we're going to the awards. And you've won it.

26:17Oh my dears! Will you be there too? I'm there, babes. Oh my gosh! I'm picking out a frock. We're going. We're going. No way. Yes way. Yes way.

26:30You just got to let it sink in. Got to let it sink in. And what? Oh, mate. Furner. I was so nervous to say it. I was like. Oh, my God. It's so nerve-wracking. I'm so chuffed for you. It is so deserved. Everything you're doing, everything you've achieved, all the adversity you've overcome, you are such a deserving winner. I'm speechless but honestly I also think from to come from where I am to now but also for the play therapy community, for the creative arts if it means that somebody even connects with someone locally to them the power that it could change for them for anyone, like what? Yeah, you're putting that message out there you're getting the word out it's so amazing, it's so amazing I'm so chuffed for you so chuffed let's go celebrate yes oh my god I think I need a tissue bloody hell Shauna I tell you what moments like that are the best part of my job the team here were in tears being part of that with Shauna too I sort of couldn't recover for ages we had to have a hug for about 10 minutes I'm just over the bloody moon for Shauna I'm over the moon and I cannot wait to be at the big awards ceremony cheering Shauna on in person.

27:57It's going to be so good. If you'd like to support the work of the King's Trust or know someone who might be in need of their support or you're interested in finding out more about any of the free courses they have to offer, do visit their website, kingstrust.org.uk. Now, are you following us on Instagram? We're at happyplaceofficial and that's the place to share your own stories and be inspired by loads of other really cool people too. Hey, thank you so much again to the bloody fantastic Shauna, the champion, to the producer Anushka Tate at Happy Play Studios and to you, I love you. You're all champs.

28:49Thank you.

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