I made an effort to know who Aria's friends were, what music she liked, what shows she was watching and what was happening in her life beyond the safeguarding concerns.

Aria taught me a huge amount about my practice. Before a young person will hear what you're saying, they need to know that you genuinely care.

Aria was one of the very first young people I worked with when I started in the role, and honestly, she's a young person I'll never forget. When I first received her referral, she was 16 years old and there were already multiple concerns around her safety and wellbeing.

She’d been reported missing on numerous occasions, there were concerns about sexual exploitation, reports of receiving gifts and money from people she barely knew, worries about risky relationships, and concerns about her behaviour in the community. There were also reports around carrying a weapon. It was one of those referrals where, the more you looked into it the more complex the picture became.

What quickly became clear was that Aria wasn't simply a young person making ‘risky choices’. She was a young person trying to find somewhere she belonged.

Aria is autistic and has ADHD. She also lives with anxiety and depression. She’d been adopted and the relationship with her adoptive parents had broken down significantly. She often talked and presented herself as being much older than she was. She described herself as mature, independent and highly self-aware. But underneath that confidence, I saw a young person who was looking for connection, acceptance and purpose.

Shortly after I became involved, her situation at home deteriorated further and eventually she was no longer living at home. For a period, she was staying with her boyfriend and his mother. She was only 16 years old at the time. Later, social care stepped in and she entered care before eventually moving into a semi-independent placement where she had her own space and support around her. This transition was incredibly significant and marked the beginning of real positive change.

When I first started working with her, my biggest concerns centred around exploitation, missing episodes, community safety and her overall vulnerability. I was also concerned about some of the beliefs she held about relationships.

I remember one conversation particularly clearly. Aria casually told me that she believed there was "more love in toxic relationships than healthy ones." That one sentence told me so much about how she viewed the world. She saw intensity as love. She believed relationships needed drama, unpredictability and risk to be meaningful. The same pattern showed up in her friendships, her interests and the situations she found herself drawn towards. Safety often felt boring to her. Risk felt exciting.

The challenge was that traditional interventions simply weren't going to work with Aria.

Aria wasn't interested in worksheets. She wasn't interested in filling out forms or sorting cards into categories. She needed movement. She needed conversation. She needed somebody willing to debate, question and explore things with her.

Many of our sessions happened while walking. We'd grab a coffee and walk around while discussing relationships, exploitation, trust, safety and whatever else was happening in her life that week. Even when we met in school, she would often walk around the room while we talked. The intervention became almost entirely discussion-based because that's what worked for her.

Working with Aria challenged me professionally because she questioned everything. If I introduced a topic, she wanted to analyse it from every angle. She would ask difficult questions, explore exceptions and push back on things she didn't agree with. It forced me to think deeply about my own practice because I couldn't simply deliver information. I had to genuinely understand it and be prepared to discuss it openly with her.

Over time, our work became much less about structured sessions and much more about helping her make sense of the world around her. We talked a lot about friendships and romantic relationships. We explored exploitation, why young people get drawn into it, what warning signs look like and how people manipulate vulnerabilities. We discussed safety in the community, carrying weapons, peer pressure and future aspirations. We spent time exploring decisions she was making and why she was making them. Rather than telling her what to think, we thought through things together.

One of the greatest strengths Aria has is her ability to reflect. Once she trusts you, she is willing to really think about difficult issues. I could see moments where something clicked for her. We'd revisit things she had said weeks before and explore them together. Gradually, she began to challenge some of her own assumptions and started to look at situations differently. A huge part of our work was simply building a relationship.

I made an effort to know who her friends were, what music she liked, what shows she was watching and what was happening in her life beyond the safeguarding concerns. When she talked about someone in her friendship group, I remembered who they were. We spoke about makeup, hobbies, pets and things she enjoyed. I wanted her to know that I was interested in her as a person, not just as a case. That relationship became the foundation for everything else.

As time went on, she became increasingly open about the risks she had faced and the situations she had been tempted by. She spoke honestly about periods where she had come close to becoming involved in criminal exploitation and county lines activity. Together we explored what had made those opportunities attractive and what the long-term consequences could have been. By the end of our work together, she was able to reflect thoughtfully on both the risks and the reasons people become involved in those situations.

As we prepared to close the case Aria told me that she felt I didn't judge her. Out of everything she could have said, that meant the most. Because if that's what she takes away from our work together - the belief that there are adults who will listen, care and believe in her - then I think we've achieved something really important.

One of my favourite moments came during a conversation about her future. Aria is an incredibly bright young person, but she told me that university wasn't an option because she couldn't afford it. She genuinely believed higher education was unavailable to her. When I explained student finance and the support available it was as though a door opened. Her whole face lit up. Suddenly, something she had ruled out became a possibility. Not because I'd solved anything for her, but because somebody had helped her see that opportunities still existed.

As the intervention drew to a close, I could see an enormous difference in her. The concerns hadn't disappeared entirely. There were still vulnerabilities and challenges ahead. But she was living somewhere stable. She spoke positively about her future. She had goals. She was exploring careers, considering education and building a healthier support network around herself. Most importantly, she seemed to have a growing sense of hope.

Looking back, Aria taught me a huge amount about my practice. She reminded me that relationships come before interventions. Before a young person will hear what you're saying, they need to know that you genuinely care. They need to feel respected, not judged. They need somebody willing to meet them where they are. Sometimes the most important work isn't delivering a programme or completing a worksheet. Sometimes it's going for a walk, talking about life and showing up consistently week after week.

I genuinely believe Aria has a bright future ahead of her. She is intelligent, thoughtful, determined and capable of far more than she sometimes realises herself. My hope is that the people around her continue to remind her of that, continue to open doors and continue to help her see the opportunities that are already within her reach. Because she's already started building the future she wants - she just needs the right people beside her while she gets there.

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