GROW: Working with
Families
for Practitioners
Working Within the Relationships That Shape Children
"Working with children is one thing… What if their behaviour is not something to manage — but something to be deeply understood… within the relationships and environments that shape them?"
We don't work with children
in isolation.
A child's regulation is shaped — and reshaped — within their relationships, especially with parents and caregivers.
This shifts the focus of our work. We are not only supporting the child. We are working with the relationships that organise their experience.
The environment around the child is where change becomes possible. That means working within the family system — not just with the child in the room.
We do not meet families at the surface of behaviour.
We meet them in the patterns that persist, in the moments where connection is interrupted, in what has not yet been able to be supported.
This is where parent, child, and practitioner come into relationship.
Three Dimensions
of the Work
This training moves across three interconnected layers of family work — understanding what sits beneath behaviour, supporting parents directly, and shaping the relational field through how you engage as a practitioner.
Parents Are Central to the Work
Parents are not separate from the work — they are at the heart of it. You will learn how to support parents to understand what sits beneath behaviour.
- Understand what sits beneath behaviour
- Recognise their own responses and triggers
- Respond in ways that support regulation and connection
- Small shifts in a parent's response can change the direction of an interaction
Behaviour as Communication
Behaviour is not something to manage. It is something to be deeply understood — as communication from a nervous system shaped within relationships.
- Translate behaviour into nervous system language
- Understand what a child is communicating through their responses
- Recognise patterns shaped by early relational experience
- Work with the developmental context of the child's responses
How You Engage Shapes the System
This work is shaped through how you engage. Your tone, your timing, your capacity to remain steady — each interaction shapes the family system.
- Supporting regulation, connection, and change over time
- Your tone and timing as relational instruments
- Remaining steady within the complexity of family dynamics
- Using yourself as part of the relational field
These are not
abstract ideas.
The anxious parent. The reactive child. The overwhelmed practitioner. These are the moments we meet in this work — and they are what this training prepares you for.
Through this approach, you are supported to slow interactions down, understand what is happening across the family system, and support new responses to emerge.
What hasn't been able to shift before can begin to shift here — not through technique alone, but through a deeper understanding of what is actually happening beneath the surface of behaviour.
Through This Approach, You Are Supported To:
Slow interactions down and create space for something new
Understand what is happening across the family as a whole
Support new responses to emerge within the family system
Hold steady when patterns are activated in the room
Change happens
through relationships.
As parents are supported differently, family patterns begin to shift. Interactions become less reactive. Connection becomes more available.
This is not about techniques applied from the outside. It is about a different quality of engagement — one that allows the family system to reorganise from within.
Because change happens through relationships.
Family Patterns
- Begin to shift
- Interactions less reactive
- Connection more available
Families Experience
- Greater clarity
- More confidence
- Less overwhelm
- More connected relationships
This Training Is For
Practitioners Who…
Want to work with both children and parents as part of the same system — understanding the family as the unit of change
Are seeking a clear, practical framework for engaging families — one grounded in relational neuroscience and developmental understanding
Want to move beyond managing behaviour into understanding it — translating what children do into nervous system language
Are ready to support change within everyday family interactions — working with the moments that matter most
Purchase Your Tickets
Secure your place in GROW: Working with Families for Practitioners. A clear, practical, and deeply relational framework for working with children and families. Places are limited.
Purchase TicketsConnect with Us
GROW: Working with Families is brought to you by Restoring Resilience — an Australian organisation dedicated to trauma-informed healing through relational, body-based approaches.
Restoring Resilience is an Australian organisation dedicated to trauma-informed healing through relational, body-based approaches. Grounded in Somatic Experiencing® and integrative practice, our work supports individuals, practitioners, and communities to restore safety, connection, and vitality.
Have questions about this training, suitability, or what to expect? We'd love to hear from you. Reach out directly or visit our website to learn more about the full GROW Ecosystem.