The Getting to Grips with Trauma Book Festival Scotland 2026 returns this autumn with an inspiring programme of authors, clinicians, educators and campaigners exploring how childhood experiences shape our lives and how understanding trauma can lead to healing.
Tickets cost £15. For more information about the festival programme, speakers and booking details, please visit Lanternhouse Arts.
For the Seen & Heard community, this year’s festival is particularly significant. Alongside sessions on early years, education, parenting, criminal justice and memoir, the programme includes a powerful focus on boarding school experiences, reflecting the growing recognition that institutional childhoods can have lifelong emotional and psychological consequences.
Boarding School Experiences Take Centre Stage
For many years, the emotional impact of boarding school was rarely discussed in public. Experiences of separation from family, disrupted attachment, institutional living and, for some, abuse or neglect, were often dismissed as simply “part of the experience.”
Today, that conversation is changing.
This year’s festival brings together several writers whose work shines a light on the lasting effects of boarding school, offering survivors the opportunity to hear stories that may resonate deeply with their own experiences.
Among the featured speakers is Angus Bell, whose new memoir, The Lost Boys: A Memoir of Survival and Silence, recounts his experiences of abuse and violence within an elite Scottish boarding school and his decades-long journey towards justice and recovery. His story examines not only personal trauma but also the institutional silence that can allow abuse to continue unchecked.
The festival also welcomes Morag Edwards, an educational psychologist whose memoir, Almost Boys: The Psychology of Co-ed Boarding in the 1960s, explores how boarding school shaped emotional development, attachment and identity. Drawing on both her professional expertise and personal experience, Morag reflects on how childhood adaptations can continue to influence adult relationships and wellbeing many decades later.
Award-winning journalist Alex Renton, whose work has helped expose the hidden harms of boarding school and institutional childhoods, also joins the programme. While his latest book explores his family’s links with slavery, Alex’s longstanding commitment to uncovering uncomfortable truths about childhood institutions makes his contribution especially relevant to many Seen & Heard readers.
Trauma Through Many Different Lenses
The festival demonstrates that trauma is not confined to one experience or one stage of life.
Across the programme, leading voices explore topics including attachment, early childhood development, trauma-informed education, parenting, criminal justice, memoir and cultural identity.
Highlights include:
- James McTaggart discussing trauma-informed practice in early education.
- Sue Palmer examining how modern society impacts children’s development.
- Alan Sinclair exploring why investing in babies and parents is essential for lifelong wellbeing.
- Sarah Lathan sharing practical approaches to creating trauma-informed classrooms.
- John Carnochan reflecting on violence prevention and public service through the lens of trauma.
- Darren McGarvey challenging contemporary conversations around trauma, storytelling and recovery.
Together, these conversations recognise that trauma affects individuals, families, communities and systems, and that healing often begins with understanding.
Why This Matters
At Seen & Heard, we know that many adults who experienced boarding school continue to carry feelings they have struggled to explain for years.
Some describe difficulties trusting others, maintaining close relationships or recognising their own emotional needs. Others speak of relentless achievement, perfectionism, emotional self-reliance or a persistent feeling of not belonging.
Increasingly, research and lived experience are helping us understand that these patterns may be rooted not in personal weakness but in the adaptations children made when separated from their families and required to survive emotionally within institutional environments.
Seeing boarding school experiences recognised within a national trauma festival is an important step forward. It acknowledges that these stories deserve to be heard alongside wider conversations about childhood adversity, resilience and recovery.
A Festival of Hope and Understanding
The Getting to Grips with Trauma Book Festival is not simply about understanding what happened in the past.
It is about exploring how compassion, connection and knowledge can help create healthier futures for individuals, families and communities.
Whether you are someone with lived experience, a therapist, teacher, researcher, social worker or simply interested in understanding trauma more deeply, the festival offers an opportunity to hear from leading thinkers whose work is helping to change how we understand childhood experiences and lifelong wellbeing.
At Seen & Heard, we warmly welcome the growing recognition of boarding school experiences within the wider trauma-informed movement. Every conversation that helps survivors feel seen, understood and less alone is a step towards healing.
Getting to Grips with Trauma takes place on Sunday, 6 September from 10am at Cumbernauld Theatre Trust, Lanternhouse, South Kildrum Ring Road, Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, G67 2UF.
Tickets cost £15. For more information about the festival programme, speakers and booking details, please visit Lanternhouse Arts.
