The Belonging, Mattering, Liminality (BML) Framework
Bring your team(s) together for a full‑day learning space that is deigned to equip all attendees with a practical, human‑centred lens for the children, young people and adults who will benefit the most; it’s grounded, applicable and ready to use!
Belonging, Mattering and Liminality, delivered by Dr Lisa Cherry.
Email lisa@lisacherry.co.uk to discuss bringing this training to your organisation.
“In a society so focused on division, tending to belonging and mattering is an act of resistance”
Dr Lisa Cherry
Tell me more…
What Does The BML Framework do?
This is more than just a framework. It fundamentally alters the lens you use. Most frameworks tell people what to do. This one changes what you see. And once you can see why someone feels invisible or is held by no-one or is stuck in an inbetween space with no idea of who they are to become, the intervention that can make the most difference follows.
" Lisa Cherry delivered both a keynote presentation and a workshop on her new BML framework. Lisa is an exceptional speaker who immediately engages her audience, holding attention throughout with her passion, expertise and authenticity. Her delivery was thought-provoking, inspiring and left a lasting impression.
The BML framework particularly resonated with me and was one of the standout aspects of the conference. Its strength lies in its simplicity; it is accessible, practical and easy to apply, whilst having the potential to make a significant impact on practice. I could immediately see how it could enhance and support my day-to-day work within the Virtual School.
Essex Virtual School have already signed up to receive a copy of Lisa’s new book when it is released. I am genuinely excited to explore the BML framework further and am confident that it is something that would benefit all the agencies working with our young people.”
Jane Mills
Education Adviser for Essex Virtual School
July 2026
The Day
Belonging, Mattering and Liminality is Dr Lisa Cherry's original framework, developed through her own doctoral research, lived experience and years of practice across education, children's social care and criminal justice. It rests on three questions that sound simple and turn out to hold most of what matters in the work.
How does this person/team/organisation experience a sense of belonging?
In what ways does this person/team/organisation experience mattering?
And is this person/team/organisation in a liminal space and is it destructive or transformative?
Tailored to your specific setting and exploration, with each person having their own workbook to take away with them, we will move between theory and practice using real-world case studies, research and explorations of our own positionality, developing ways to pick the framework up and put it to work immediately.
What Attendees Leave With in Their Hands and Hearts
Attendees will leave with a shared language for the children and adults who are easy to miss, a way of reading a situation that makes it legible rather than baffling and a set of protective, practical moves that hold up on a Monday morning, not just in a training room. The framework in informed by and sits firmly underneath, the umbrella of trauma-informed practice.
" Lisa Cherry delivered both a keynote presentation and a workshop on her new BML framework. Lisa is an exceptional speaker who immediately engages her audience, holding attention throughout with her passion, expertise and authenticity. Her delivery was thought-provoking, inspiring and left a lasting impression.
The BML framework particularly resonated with me and was one of the standout aspects of the conference. Its strength lies in its simplicity; it is accessible, practical and easy to apply, whilst having the potential to make a significant impact on practice. I could immediately see how it could enhance and support my day-to-day work within the Virtual School.
Essex Virtual School have already signed up to receive a copy of Lisa’s new book when it is released. I am genuinely excited to explore the BML framework further and am confident that it is something that would benefit all the agencies working with our young people.”
Jane Mills
Education Adviser for Essex Virtual School
July 2026
Who Is This Day For?
Schools and education settings
Virtual School conferences/training events
Whole school conferences/training events
Children's social care teams
Probation and criminal justice services
Anyone working with people in transition, in disruption or on the margins of belonging
The day is shaped to your context and your workforce, which will be tailred specifically to the sector you work in.
About Lisa
Dr Lisa Cherry is an author, trainer and keynote speaker with nearly four decades of experience working in education and children’s services and in the last 10 years, with criminial justice and probation too. Lisa brings a perspective that bridges research, policy and the reality of frontline practice. She is the author of several books including Conversations that Make a Difference for Children and Young People and Weaving a Web of Belonging and hosts the Trauma Resonance Resilience Podcast. She works with organisations across the UK and internationally.
Step Into This Work
Bring your team into a framework that will change how they see the people they serve, shaped around your people and your context.
Email Lisa on lisa@lisacherry.co.uk to explore further.