Solihull Approach 2 day foundation training
The Solihull Approach promotes emotional health and well being in children and families. The model supports practitioners to work with families with babies, children and adolescents and supports parents to understand their child. The Solihull Approach is an evidence based model with a strong theoretical foundation, and provides a highly practical way of working with families. It is an early intervention model and is also used in preventative and group work. The Solihull Approach began in 1996 through joint working between health visitors, clinical psychologists and child psychotherapists in Solihull, led by Dr Hazel Douglas. The approach was initially designed for health visitors to work with families with children with feeding, sleeping, toileting and behaviour difficulties, but it rapidly developed further and is now used by a wide range of professionals from different agencies to work with families - these include doctors, teachers, SLTs, OTs and counsellors. The Solihull Approach model provides professionals with a framework for thinking about children's behaviour that develops practice and can support effective and consistent approaches across agencies.
Although none of the content is new or revolutionary, this model provides a new structure for practitioners to integrate their existing skills and knowledge in a way which has proved highly effective in working with families. The Solihull Approach model combines three theoretical concepts, containment (psychoanalytic theory), reciprocity (child development) and behaviour management (behaviourism). One of the key principles underpinning the Solihull Approach is that the concepts of containment and reciprocity can promote change in the quality of attachment – to help a more secure attachment to develop between a child and their carers. Secure attachment underpins all other relationships for the rest of the child’s life, including the relationships that they go on to develop with peers, teachers, colleagues, partners and even their own children.
Thousands of practitioners have been trained across the UK and practitioners have also been trained in several other countries. Along with my colleague and co-facilitator, Dr Eimear Cunningham, I was the first Irish provider of Solihull training for professionals and groups for parents. To date in Ireland we have trained teams of Public Health Nurses in the Wicklow and West Dublin areas, and along with co-facilitators from the U.K I have also trained a number of multi-disciplinary groups in Dublin (including the Childhood Development Initiative, Family Matters ABC and the Blue Skies Initiative). Delegates have been very positive about the approach and have found it very applicable in the context of their HSE roles. Training is extremely cost-effective and can be provided to teams in your workplace setting (max 14 people), or individual practitioners can sign up to attend trainings we are running in various locations. Please contact me for information on available training dates and costing.
For more information on the Solihull Approach, including recent research studies, please see here
Although none of the content is new or revolutionary, this model provides a new structure for practitioners to integrate their existing skills and knowledge in a way which has proved highly effective in working with families. The Solihull Approach model combines three theoretical concepts, containment (psychoanalytic theory), reciprocity (child development) and behaviour management (behaviourism). One of the key principles underpinning the Solihull Approach is that the concepts of containment and reciprocity can promote change in the quality of attachment – to help a more secure attachment to develop between a child and their carers. Secure attachment underpins all other relationships for the rest of the child’s life, including the relationships that they go on to develop with peers, teachers, colleagues, partners and even their own children.
Thousands of practitioners have been trained across the UK and practitioners have also been trained in several other countries. Along with my colleague and co-facilitator, Dr Eimear Cunningham, I was the first Irish provider of Solihull training for professionals and groups for parents. To date in Ireland we have trained teams of Public Health Nurses in the Wicklow and West Dublin areas, and along with co-facilitators from the U.K I have also trained a number of multi-disciplinary groups in Dublin (including the Childhood Development Initiative, Family Matters ABC and the Blue Skies Initiative). Delegates have been very positive about the approach and have found it very applicable in the context of their HSE roles. Training is extremely cost-effective and can be provided to teams in your workplace setting (max 14 people), or individual practitioners can sign up to attend trainings we are running in various locations. Please contact me for information on available training dates and costing.
For more information on the Solihull Approach, including recent research studies, please see here
