Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a relatively new form of therapy which helps you relate differently to your anxious feelings, depressed moods, worrying mind, self-defeating behaviors, and/or anything else that causes you problems. The aim of ACT is to limit the ways these run your life. This 6-week group comprises short educational components, group discussions, and lots of experiential exercises. ACT has been shown to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety and psychological distress.

How does respectful care work when we have more than one child?

What can we do when siblings, multiples, and other groups of children seem to need our attention all at once? Presented in partnership with Maribyrnong City Council, this online session is suitable for anyone with more than one child in their family, and will focus on current research, practical strategies and information.

Bringing Baby Home is a research-based research-tested psychoeducational program focused on strengthening the couple relationship during the transition to parenthood. In this 6-week course, you and your partner will learn how to: 

• Strengthen your friendship

• Increase intimacy and affection

• Work through conflict with greater ease

• Maintain relationship satisfaction

• Reduce hostility

• Create positive baby-child interactions

• Ensure quality involvement for both parents 

• Reduce the incidence of mental health issues

At times all parents feel lost or without a clue about what our child might need from us. Imagine what it might feel like if you were able to make sense of what your child was really asking from you. The Circle of Security® Parenting™ program is based on decades of research about how secure parent-child relationships can be supported and strengthened. 

This 8-week group focuses on helping you:

• Understand your child’s emotional world by learning to read emotional needs

• Support your child’s ability to successfully manage emotions

• Enhance the development of your child's self esteem

• Honour the innate wisdom and desire for your child to be secure

Managing to get enough sleep is one of the hot topics in parenting - when sleep difficulties arise in a household everyone suffers. This workshop will help parents to understand how their baby sleeps as they move on from the newborn phase of their development and gain a new sense of awareness of their surroundings. We will cover what patterns are common, night feeding needs, and how to create an environment that is conducive for sleep. In this interactive workshop we will discuss what circumstances make it hard for babies to achieve a restful sleep, and realistic expectations of how much sleep can be expected during this period of ever changing physical and emotional growth.

Intrusive thoughts are often negative, scary or confronting ideas or images that pop into our heads when we don’t want them to be there. 100% of new mothers report unwanted, intrusive thoughts of harming their infant by accident, and 50% report unwanted, intrusive thoughts of harming their infant on purpose. We all have intrusive thoughts, but these are increased during the perinatal period and can be very distressing. Many parents report feeling as though they are alone in this experience.

Would you like to feel, act, or think differently when it comes to parenting? 

Mindfulness is an important first step in developing greater self-awareness which can improve parenting confidence and parent-child relationships. 

Mindfulness during the perinatal period has also been shown to improve the ability to cope with anxiety, stress, and depression. Through becoming curious about our needs, expectations, and emotions we are in a much better position to be present for the needs and emotions of our children. 

This 3-week group will incorporate information and practices with the goal of developing a stronger connection to your body, mind, relationships, and environment. Based on a framework that encourages curiosity and self-compassion we talk about the what, whys, and how’s of being mindful and application to understanding the needs of and responses to our children.

Struggling with infertility can take an emotional toll, impacting every facet of your life. Feeling overwhelmed? Our complimentary webinar offers the support you need. Dive into a comprehensive session where we uncover the common causes of infertility, explore its emotional impact, and share some effective coping strategies. Discover a range of family-forming options and learn about our Family Forming Support Service, specifically tailored to help those impacted by the overwhelming emotions or enduring prolonged conception attempts. This service delivers emotional, informational, and practical advice. Take the first step toward empowerment and understanding.

When the daily stress of parenting becomes chronic it can turn into parental burnout. According to new research, this is an intense exhaustion that leads parents to feel detached from their children and unsure of their parenting abilities, distinct from other forms of burnout. 

This is a 3-week group devoted to helping you kickstart your mental health in the postnatal period. It is based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) which is the recommended, first-line treatment for perinatal anxiety and depression.

Without good information and the right skills, parenting can feel overwhelming. Parents often wonder: “What is one thing I could do for my child that would make a difference both now and in the future?” The answer, found after more than twenty years of research, is to build your child’s emotional intelligence. This means helping kids understand their emotions by recognizing what they are feeling and why. 

During this workshop you'll learn: 

• The importance of Emotional Intelligence 

• How to recognise, respond to, and validate what your child is feeling

• How to be an effective Emotion Coach using the Five Steps of Emotion Coaching with kids of any age 

• Ways to express understanding and empathy

• How to set limits and problem solve with children

Even the strongest relationships are strained during the transition to parenthood. Lack of sleep, never-ending housework and new fiscal concerns can lead to profound stress and a decline in marital satisfaction — all of which affect baby’s care. Not surprisingly, 69% of new parents experience conflict, disappointment, and hurt feelings.