What does it look like to understand a system from every angle, from the inside of a probation office, to the floor of a care home, to the floor of a courtroom?

In this episode of In Her Own Name, I sit down with Creanna Dodson. Mother. Barrister. Business Owner. Founder of Soaring Heights Care.

Creanna did not plan to become a barrister. She will tell you that herself. What she did was spend nearly two decades working inside some of the most demanding spaces in the justice and care systems, and when the lightbulb moment finally came, she had something that most newly called barristers simply do not have. She already knew what the system felt like from the other side.

This is a conversation about protection. About building care for children who arrived in this country alone, without family, without language, without certainty. About what it takes to earn the trust of someone who has every reason not to trust you. About running a team so loyal that some of them have stayed for seven and eight years in one of the hardest industries there is.

It is also a conversation about what it means to finally stop brushing off your own achievements and own them.

In this episode, we explore:

How Creanna stumbled into law organically, through a family crisis, her social work experience and her work with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children at Soaring Heights Care

What nearly a hundred children over ten years of care has taught her about resilience, deferred gratification and believing that young people are worthy

Why her client care skills are described by other advocates at court as second to none, and where that really comes from

What standing on both sides of the courtroom has taught her about truth, perspective and doing right by people, even when the system is slow

The moment she stopped waiting for others to validate her achievements and started championing herself

What she would shout to her 18-year-old self about believing in your own source

This is not a story about a straight line. It is a story about trusting the process, building something with your hands and your heart, and showing up fully in every role you carry.

Connect with Creanna

LinkedIn: Creanna Dodson

Instagram: @creanna.dodson

Soaring Heights Care: @creanna_shc