Connected for Life

Connected for Life

83 Annacloy Road
83 Annacloy Road
Downpatrick
BT30 9AJ
United Kingdom

Opening Hours

9am - 5pm,  Mon - Fri

Services

Training

Connected For Life supports parents, professionals, individuals & families to understand the impact of and prevent childhood adversity. Our aim is to prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences from casting a shadow over lives, communities and society.

Connected For Life is a collaboration between Marie Blaney and Deirdre McLaughlin, who have had long term careers in Social Work and Youth Justice and have experience in management, teaching and working with families.

What do Connected for Life offer?:

1. FOR PARENTS:

We aim to raise awareness of how critical our early relationships and experiences are, in shaping the people and the parents that we become. We offer:

  • Start from the Heart Parents Support Programme - This programme is normally delivered over 12 weeks (approx. 2 hours per week). In a down to earth manner, the Programme introduces the latest research on neuroscience, brain development, attachment and the impact of childhood trauma. This research tells us how we can and why we need to; build loving and lasting attachments with our children in order to give them the best future possible! We explore how stress, our relationships as well as our early experiences affect us, as we journey through parenting. We share idea and techniques that will help parents build their self-esteem, self-awareness and enhance their physical and mental health.
  • Parents Workshops - Our one off workshops are open to parents of children of any age, in order to strengthen and enrich their relationships with their children and themselves. Like the Parents Support Programme, the workshop introduces the latest research (as outlined above) in a fun and user friendly way, helping parents explore the impact of their own early experiences on their parenting journey.

2. FOR ORGANISATIONS AND GROUPS:

We offer training, workshops and consultations around a range of themes which include but are not limited to attachment, trauma, adverse childhood experiences, stress, mindfulness and building safe and respectful relationships. Below are just some examples of the types of training we offer:

  • The importance of early attachment in infant mental health
  • How to cultivate secure attachments with children.
  • How relationships, trauma and adverse childhood experiences impact on brain development and physical, social and emotional health
  • How trauma and attachment issues can lead to mental health issues, anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide.
  • Recognising attachment and trauma issues in educational settings and how they may affect educational outcomes.
  • How offending behaviour can be understood from an attachment / trauma perspective.
  • Helping children, adolescents and adults to develop self-regulation techniques.
  • Understanding and working with challenging and violent behaviour from and attachment / trauma perspective.
  • Impact of stress and effective stress reduction techniques.
  • What is mindfulness and how can it help us?
  • The importance of ‘the self’ in professional practice and how it affects our connection with and service users.
  • Exploring the impact of our own story on how we connect with colleagues.
3. FOR INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES:
  • One to one sessions - In these sessions, we use our knowledge and expertise to support individuals in finding long terms solutions to the problems which are damaging their lives and relationships.
  • Family Sessions - As well as supporting individuals, Marie and Deirdre have worked with families experiencing a range of problems throughout their careers and have undertaken training in systemic practice and family therapy.
 

 

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More Information

Type of Organisation

Business

Team

  • Deirdre McLaughlin