Support and Intervention Types 

The following support and intervention options are offered by Connect & Grow. 

Connect & Grow is determined to be a flexible and adaptable support services for the community, so please feel free to contact directly and discuss your support needs if you feel that they do not “fit neatly” into one of the below options. 

Connect & Grow is a trauma-informed support service, which means that we recognise the complex impact that trauma (and traumatic experiences) has on an individual’s body, brain and life, and we hold this in mind when we consider how we can best support an individual and/or family. We also hold the individual’s trauma in mind when we consider what are reasonable expectations to have on someone’s behaviours, choices, emotional expressions, motivation and capacity. 

All of Connect & Grow’s intervention options utilise a range of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy, Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, Positive Psychology, Strength Based Parenting, Family Systems Theory and Trauma Informed Practice to enhance your family’s connectedness with each other. 

Family Mediation.

 

Mediation is a way of resolving disagreements or disputes between at least two people, using a neutral person who helps facilitate the discussion and resolution. 

If your family is currently finding it challenging to all agree, or agree to disagree on particular topics, family mediation may help. Examples of common topics of dispute are 

  • Reasonable and agreed upon expectations and boundaries within the family home

  • Differing communication styles of multiple family members

  • Supporting one member of the family who may be responding to a challenging life experience or life stage

  • Understanding and accepting the differing roles and responsibilities of family members

  • Post-separation arrangements regarding the care of the children (when, where, how, frequency, schedule etc)

  • Post-separation co-parenting across two family homes

  • Grief and loss responses

Therapeutic Individual Support.

 

Individual support sessions are about connecting with a trusted professional, in a safe space, and at your pace, exploring any of your emotions, life experiences, relationships, belief patterns, triggers, coping strategies and reactions which are impacting on your current day-to-day functioning and your sense of happiness and fulfilment.

Individual therapeutic sessions are a place to reflect on what is currently triggering big emotions for you and increase our understanding as to why. With an increased understanding of why, we are able to reflect on what is within our control and what is not. We are able to help ourselves accept what needs accepting, change thought patterns that may need changing, establish healthy boundaries around relationships and things that require boundaries, review the effectiveness of current coping strategies and be grateful for things that we have learnt and developed already. 

Therapeutic Family Support.

 

Family support sessions are similar to the individual support sessions, however the primary focus is on the family as a whole.

This support focuses on understanding the relationships within the family, the roles that those individuals play within the family, the stage of development that each member of the family may be going through at that given time, and the needs of the individual family members at that time.

These sessions also focus on parenting and increasing the parents/caregivers understanding of the way in which they parent, how they were parented and their parenting goals. These sessions can include multiple members of the family as well as individual sessions with whomever in the family is seeking that support. Therapeutic family support does not require the participation of all family members to be successful, it just requires that the focus be on the family unit, rather than on just one part of the family. 

Parenting Assessment & Coaching.

 

Some families have suffered immense trauma and some parents are doing their absolute best to parent their own children, despite experiencing childhood trauma themselves. Parents cannot be expected to know how to parent any differently to how they were directly parented, and this Parenting Assessment and Coaching Support is an intensive service which acknowledges that the parent/s and/or carer/s have a desire to parent differently or more effectively but do not yet have the skills to know how, often at no fault of their own!

This support is offered in the family home (at times, if agreed and necessary), where the clinician can observe that children’s behaviours, the structure and routine of the home, the current parenting styles and responses and any factors that may be impacting on the capacity of the parent/carer at that time. These observations and reflections form an assessment regarding what the family may need and the coaching phase of the service provides therapeutic support sessions (in home if required) to understand these needs and implement strategies to start to meet these needs. These strategies that parents/carers are supported with may be focused on the whole family as well as individual members of the family.

Parenting Assessment and Coaching will likely have recommendations to offer to the family and other professionals who may be supporting the family.

NDIS Intervention Support.

 

For plan-managed and self-managed NDIS participants, the above supports can be offered to the family (funded by NDIS as capacity building) if the goals identified in the participant’s NDIS plan reflect topics such as improvement of relationships within the family, effective communication, increased understanding of the child’s needs, increased understanding of effective parenting strategies for the participant and preservation of the family home for the participant.

Get in touch.

If you feel like now is the right time for you and/or your family to connect and grow, please complete the following form and I will make contact with you within two business days. 

If you are a professional who would like to refer a family and/or discuss the referral further, please complete the following form and I will make contact with you as soon as possible.