More about us.... Dreams.. Hopes.. Values.

The dream of ABaby&Someone is to provide every parent and every type of family with the skills and knowledge to raise children who are securely attached for life.

Do you mean ALL children? even the tricky ones?. With so many years of experience, we understand and can help with complexity. If your bub is premature and bonding is hard, if one of the parents is on the autism spectrum, if mum has postnatal depression, if your baby is adopted, if one parent has a job that takes them away from home a lot, if this is your first baby after a stillbirth, if you’re parenting alone ... there are just so many “ifs” and ways for complexity to appear! But IF if your story is in any way complex (like so many of our stories are) ...we’re able to help you with parenting to security.

Our core belief is that solid secure attachment is the very best start you can give your little ones. There is now an enormous body of evidence which demonstrates that children who show what we call “organised secure” attachment at one year old are most likely to grow into children, adolescents and adults who are thoughtful, caring, emotionally literate and socially intelligent. They are also more likely to enjoy good health, successful work lives, happier and long lasting intimate relationships. In other words ... the secure baby becomes a resilient and thriving adult.

Come on, surely everybody does the best they can? You might be thinking, “but everybody loves their kids and does the best they can.” And yes of course we’re all determined to be great parents, but good research tells us that only 55 to 60% of children are securely attached and anecdotally we hear that researchers are seeing less of the most securely attached subgroup. Clinicians are also seeing more disorganized attachment, the most worrying category of all. So despite all our best efforts a lot of people are raising kids who aren’t secure.

We understand (we’re parents too.) At ABaby&Someone we understand that parenting can be challenging, that life is complex and that we parent in difficult times. Many of us come from places which make it hard to be the parent we’d like to be. Lots of things can get in the way of raising securely attached children: unresolved issues and trauma from our own families, financial pressure, the distractions of social media and devices, poor quality child care and so on.

So here’s how we can help. Perhaps you’ve heard about attachment parenting but you’re not sure how it could work for your family. We run a small, interactive group where we explain all the science for you, so you have accurate information to make the right decisions for your new bub.

What if I need a bit more help? what are you offering me? We can take you through one of the most highly regarded parenting courses there is. The Circle of Security parenting DVD course. Dan Siegal calls this program “psychological immunity for life” and the “latest and the best.” This is the absolute go-to for raising securely attached children. We work in small interactive groups, we can work with just the two of you or with your whole extended family. We have the capacity to juggle the sequencing of content to make it work for your timetabling, your family and your life.

If you, your partner or child is really struggling, or you’re concerned because you know that you or your partner is bringing some serious baggage to parenting - you may want the deep dive into parenting skills. We’re uniquely qualified to offer the truly life transforming 20 week Circle of Security group, where skills learnt promote more rewarding and loving relationships with your children for life and also enrich every relationship in your life.

I had a great childhood, and I’m not worried about parenting …but I’d like to make sure that our relationship isn’t messed up by becoming parents. Research tells us that you’re right to be concerned about the transition from hot couple to mum and dad. Around 65% of couples have a significant drop in relationship satisfaction for up to three years after the birth of a baby. We do the research-based Gottman Bringing Baby Home course which gives you the skills to deepen friendship and intimacy in your relationship as well as give bub the best start in life. Why would you not do something that has been proven to really increase relationship happiness and satisfaction? You can’t be great parents if you don’t have a great relationship. (And that’s a fact!)

My children aren’t babies, how can I support them as they grow? It might be that you’re looking beyond the first few months of life. You want to use the very early months and years to set up your darling baby with the best skills for life and all sorts of reliable Australian research is indicating that this is a very good idea indeed. In the 2016 black Dog Youth Mental Health Report found just under one in four young people aged 15-19 years met the criteria for having a probable serious mental illness. One in four!! And rising. It is of huge concern to us that the onset of mental illness is typically around mid-to-late adolescence and Australian youth (18-24 years old) have the highest prevalence of mental illness than any other age group. (these figures are from Black Dog Institute.) There are lots of good ways of bolstering a child’s resilience, but skills training during childhood works so much better if layered over a central core of secure attachment, which determines a child’s capacity for self regulation and emotional intelligence. Research tell us that emotional intelligence is the number one factor in success in life, and one of the best places to continue thoughtful parenting and lock in the benefits of secure attachment is with Emotion Coaching. The research has also confirmed that when parents practice emotion coaching, it makes a significant lifelong difference to their children’s success and happiness. My kids are getting older, I’m concerned about all the pitfalls of adolescence. I want to support them to be really decent, strong, confident adults.

We also run workshops on raising confident girls and empathic boys. Think about the kind of men and women you want your little boys and girls to become. Don’t we want to raise young women who are happy in their bodies and take their place and space in the world with confidence, authenticity and resilience? Surely our boys would be happier and safer if they became men whose lives are informed by a solid emotional core, strong moral centre and wide range of emotional expressiveness?

Look at our services and see how we can set up a lifetime of joyful parenting for you and your baby girls and boys. All the groups we run are aimed at helping you give your little ones a brilliant start in life … for life!

This is what we do. Enquire today. We’d really like to help you to be the best parents you can. Solutions and support. Informed by science. Motivated by love.