The correlation between young people with poor outcomes and educational exclusion is well documented, but the relationship between the two is taken for granted and remains unexplored. A qualitative longitudinal research project, employing innovative biographic and visual methods, explored this relationship. This article argues that the timing of exclusion is directly related to periods of increased or intense trauma with the transference of emotionality from one domain (personal) to another (educational). This methodological approach enables a distinctive and powerful way of understanding young people’s experiences of exclusion and social change, through the voices of the young people themselves. An original methodological and empirical contribution is made by exploring the unique value of a biographical longitudinal approach focusing on critical moments to understanding young people’s experiences of exclusion; the relationship between multiple traumas in young people’s lives; and how these traumas precipitate exclusion.