Celia started her professional career as a social worker in a local authority children’s team but under the 1968 Seebohm Report reforms became ‘generic’. Subsequently, she focussed on psychiatric social work then for over eleven years was a specialist in child protection employed by the NSPCC. After a break for family commitments, she acquired qualifications in psychology recognised by the British Psychological Association and became an independent play worker. Subsequently, while working as a senior lecturer in university settings she undertook research into the emotional abuse of children, which culminated in a doctoral thesis. She has published extensively in the field of child protection. She continues to research and lecture in child protection particularly in early childhood studies at the University of Northampton.