Action4Families CIC

We have just finished the first round of 'Advanced Safeguarding for Therapeutic Practice' Training, with 10 participants!

Wonderful to read the evaluations, with an experienced play therapist saying,

'The course was excellent! I feel more confident moving forward and dealing with safeguarding procedures in my current role. I would highly recommend this training to other professionals.'

We will soon be releasing dates for the autumn, but places will be limited to 12 participants to ensure we keep the quality of provision high!

You can register your interest at [email protected]

Schools are increasingly being asked to hold complex emotional, relational and safeguarding needs whilst remaining calm, inclusive and emotionally available for children and young people.

But who supports the adults?

I am now offering Creative Reflective Supervision for Schools — a safe, professionally facilitated space for staff to reflect, process and think more deeply about the emotional impact of the work.

My approach is informed by specialist training in Clinical Supervision using the Creative Arts, designed to:

• develop core supervision skills
• integrate theory with practice
• practise supervision skills with feedback
• support personal and professional development
• strengthen communication and leadership as a supervisor
• explore therapeutic relationships through sand play and creative arts

Training included: • process models of supervision

• ethical issues
• trans-cultural issues
• expansion of personal creativity
• supervision skills for play therapy and creative arts
• individual and group supervision
• developmental stages of supervision
• live supervision sessions with feedback

Creative supervision may include:

🎨 line, colour and shape
🏖️ sand tray reflection
🪨 symbolic and metaphor work
💬 reflective dialogue

No artistic experience is needed.

Particularly valuable for:

✔ DSLs and safeguarding teams
✔ SEMH and pastoral staff
✔ SENCOs
✔ counsellors and therapists
✔ school leaders and inclusion teams

Benefits can include:

• stronger reflective safeguarding practice
• reduced burnout and reactive responses
• improved emotional containment
• deeper understanding of behaviour as communication
• healthier, more emotionally available school cultures

My practice is grounded in over 30 years’ experience working with children, young people and families across therapeutic, safeguarding and educational settings.



Image used with permission from

Free Webinar next week!

Autism & Communication: How To Encourage Social Interaction Join our free webinar with Anne-Marie Harrison, for professionals & SENCOs on supporting autistic pupils’ communication and social interaction in classrooms.

This is such an important insight. We work with many children and young people who carry what are often called “baby memories.” They may not consciously remember the events themselves, but the feelings remain in the body, in relationships, in behaviour, and in the nervous system.

A child may not have words for early fear, loss, unpredictability or disconnection, but those experiences can still shape how safe they feel in the world and with other people. Sometimes what we see later as anxiety, anger, shutdown, clinginess, control, or overwhelm is a child communicating something their body learned long before they had language to explain it.

That is why relational, trauma-informed work matters so much. Healing does not only happen through remembering the story. Often it happens through experiencing safety, consistency, co-regulation and connection in the present.

💜 One of the most important things we can equip teenagers with is the ability to recognise and ask for what they need — rather than silently concluding that nobody cares.

So many young people carry thoughts like:

“I don’t matter.”
“No one listens.”
“I’m too much.”
“There’s no point saying anything.”

Often, underneath this is not attention-seeking, but unmet emotional need and difficulty expressing it safely.

Helping teenagers develop emotional language and self-awareness can shift this from:

❌ “Nobody cares about me”
to:

✨ “I need reassurance.”
✨ “I need someone to spend time with me.”
✨ “I need encouragement.”
✨ “I need support right now.”

The 5 Love Languages can be a helpful framework for understanding how young people experience care, connection, and emotional safety differently.

When teenagers can identify their needs and communicate them safely, we are not creating dependency.

We are helping build:

• emotional literacy
• healthier relationships
• self-worth
• resilience
• safer attachment
• confidence in asking for support

Young people should never have to hide their needs to feel accepted.

Thank you Catherine for taking the time to visit us at Action4Families CIC and for your thoughtful reflections on our work.

It was a privilege to share more about our passion for supporting children, young people, families and schools through relational and therapeutic practice.

We truly believe trusted relationships can change lives, and it was wonderful to discuss both the Re-Connect Project and the importance of supporting the whole family system.

Thank you again for your encouragement and support for the work we are building within our communities.

You can find out more about our work at www.action4families.com.

September bookings are now open for Action4Families CIC training workshops supporting professionals working with children and young people.

We are currently looking to partner with schools and community venues interested in hosting practical, relational and trauma-informed training sessions, with places also opened to staff from other schools and organisations. Host settings receive 4 free staff places as part of the partnership.

Current workshops include:
🟣 Introduction to Sand Tray Work
🟦 Therapeutic Use of Minecraft Magnetic Blocks

Designed for:
• Teaching Assistants
• Pastoral Staff
• Therapists
• Mentors
• Wellbeing Practitioners
• School Support Staff

These workshops are reflective, creative and practical, exploring emotional regulation, communication, relational safety and therapeutic approaches that can support children and young people, including neurodivergent pupils.

If your school, church or community organisation may be interested in hosting a September workshop, we would love to hear from you.

📧 [email protected]
🌐 www.action4families.com
📞 07552 941604

We are excited to begin exploring a new pilot project through Action4Families CIC aimed at supporting young people aged 16–24 who are currently NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training).

We are currently in conversations about partnering with a Derby secondary school to develop an early intervention, trauma-informed therapeutic support programme focused on helping young people reconnect with confidence, relationships, education, training and future opportunities.

Many young people who become NEET have experienced significant barriers including anxiety, trauma, emotional overwhelm, exclusion, neurodiversity-related challenges, adverse childhood experiences, family instability or unmet mental health needs. We believe that relational and therapeutic support can play a vital role in helping young people rebuild trust, resilience and hope.

The proposed pilot would combine:

1:1 therapeutic support

Small group work

Emotional regulation and confidence-building

Support towards education, training or employment pathways

A compassionate, relationship-based approach that works at the young person’s pace

We are now seeking conversations with potential corporate funders, community partners and socially minded organisations who may be interested in supporting this initiative and investing in the futures of vulnerable young people across Derby and Derbyshire.

If you would like to find out more or explore partnership opportunities, we would love to hear from you.

📧 [email protected]
📞 0755 294 1604
🌐 action4families.com

Why does my teenager react so strongly… or shut down completely?

Sometimes what we see on the outside—anger, withdrawal, mood swings, needing constant reassurance—isn’t “bad behaviour.”

It’s about how safe they feel in relationships.

This infographic breaks down the four main attachment patterns in teenagers and helps make sense of what’s really going on underneath:

Why some teens need lots of reassurance.

Why others push people away.

Why emotions can feel so big—or completely shut down.

And what actually helps.

💡 When we understand the need behind the behaviour, our response changes—and that’s where real connection begins.

You don’t have to get it perfect.

Consistency, calm, and staying present matter more than anything.

Take a look and see what resonates 👇

At Action4Families, our work with adults is strengthened by a deep understanding of children, attachment, trauma, and family systems.

Many adult struggles are not isolated to the present moment. Anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, parenting stress, emotional overwhelm, shame, anger, and patterns of disconnection often have roots in earlier life experiences and relational wounds.
Because our practice is built around children, young people, and families—not just individual adult counselling—we are able to work with adults through a wider and more clinically informed lens.

We understand how early attachment shapes adult relationships.

We recognise how childhood trauma can continue to influence confidence, trust, emotional regulation, parenting, and identity.

We see how unresolved experiences can repeat across generations.

This means our adult counselling is not simply symptom-focused.

It is relational, trauma-informed, and grounded in understanding how people develop across the lifespan.

We support adults not only as individuals, but as parents, partners, carers, and people shaped by family history.

This is what makes Action4Families different.

We are uniquely placed to help adults make sense of the past, strengthen the present, and create healthier futures for themselves and the people they love.

Because healing adults often means healing families.