Mellow Parenting draws from several theoretical sources.

A main influence is from Attachment Theory and the assumption that our experience of being parented is directly linked to the way we parent our children.

The early relationship we have with our parent(s) serves two important functions: to provide us with security and feelings of trust in adults and the world around us and also with a secure base from which we can learn and explore. If this early relationship is damaged it can lead to mental health problems such as depression and anxiety and can also make it harder to fit in within society.

The personal group run within the Mellow Parenting programme allows parents to explore safely aspects of their early experiences which may have led to difficulties they have in their lives in general and with their own child in particular.

Group dynamics are understood and used within the programme, in particular attention is given to building a safe and supportive group, trusting in the power of the group to help individuals with their experience of interpersonal relationships and containing feelings within the group itself.

The worksheets addressing mental health issues are based on cognitive behavioural therapy and the parenting workshop uses principles of positive behaviour management with the children.

Principles of social learning theory are also applied in modelling from the facilitators; using video feedback with the paretns to help them build on their existing skills and practicing new ways of relating to the children in the lunch and activity sessions and at home with homework.

Mellow Parenting avoids the use of an expert model of parenting, thereby encouraging parents to problem solve and come up with their own solutions, their attendance on the 14 week programme is recognised as a positive commitment and rewarded with a certificate to acknowledge their own learning.

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Mellow Parenting is for families who have experience serious adversity to the extent that they are struggling to establish or maintain a positive relationship with their children. The group programme is very intensive and therefore most suitable for the very families who would not otherwise be able to engage in parenting programmes.

The programme includes some work with parents as well as some joined lunch and activities with the children and some homework.

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The biggest research findings have been done with pre-school children but there is now a programme for babies and a developing programme for school age children.

We believe that the principles of Mellow Parenting are applicable throughout childhood but obviously the earlier we can work with families the better.

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Mellow Parenting is not always systematically available throughout the country, there are areas with regular groups available and other areas who do not have any groups at all.  Family centres would be a good place to enquire or you could ask your health visitor.  We do not yet have a central register of all groups but we are hoping to get to that point so it is worth contacting us through the email address an we will see what we can find out for you.

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Mellow Parenting has been shown to be effective in improving parent-child relationships, reducing parental stress, and accelerating the children’s language and general development.

Further research is underway on Mellow Babies and the core programme.

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Anyone with a professional interest or experience in working with young children and their families can apply for Mellow Parenting training.

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We do not have a central register of Mellow Parenting groups. Your health visitor may know where your nearest group is.

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There are no formal criteria before you train in Mellow Parenting though group work, child development or mental health training and experience is all very helpful.

Not every practitioner needs all of these skills, but it is helpful if the implementation team has members or access to support from those who do have these skills.

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A difficult question! We have trained a lot of practitioners over the years and we know of specific areas in which Mellow Parenting groups are running regularly as part of service delivery but we cannot be sure of exactly where all the groups are, we are always delighted to hear from practitioners running groups and we hope that the practitioners area of the site will become a busy place with news from all corners of Britain (and beyond!)

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Thank you for your question, there have been several permutations tried out with groups and the reason we would not recommend mums and dads being together in the personal group is that it can make it difficult for some of the women to talk freely about some of their experiences and can also make it tricky when some of the mums have partners and others do not.  If you have a combination of male and female co-facilitator (ideal but rare!) the male facilitator can take the men for the personal group whilst the female facilitator can take the women for that same session.  Everyone can then get back together for the rest of the day, ie lunch, activity and parenting workshop, that would make an ideal set up as it would mean that both parents do the parenting group together thereby doubling the chances of working things out at home with the children! if you need any more discussion on the subject, you can contact me by email at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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We do not have a central register of Mellow Parenting groups. Your health visitor may know where your nearest group is.

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It is never good practice to have some parents in the group whom you are working with in parallel in individual, or family work because of the conflict of roles and the possibility of splits in the group. Parents can ask “Why is she selected for special treatment and not me?” or conversely, “Am I so much worse than everybody else that I need extra treatment?”. Either of these sets up rivalries.

However, it may be inevitable that some parents with whom you have a previous relationship will want to come into the group. As long as you are not trying to keep up individual work with them that can work. You just need to be really vigilant about confidentiality. If you have been told something outside the group and the parent chooses not to reveal that to the group, you need to keep it quiet until they are ready to share. It can be very easy to let information slip, when it is not really yours to share.

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You can get your Mellow Parenting practitioner’s certificate by running either a Mellow Parenting or a Mellow Babies group, under the supervision of a Mellow Parenting trainer. Don’t forget to let the office know when you are about to start a group and use the telephone, email or face to face supervision to ensure you qualify. Face to face supervision is provided on the last Tuesday of every month in Glasgow and at other times elsewhere. Please get in touch with the Mellow Parenting office to arrange your supervision.

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Yes, of course you can use the materials in several aspects of your work, not just for running Mellow Parenting groups and we know that they have proved very useful in several ways, however it is important to the integrity of the programme that only the group programme as it is taught in training with all its components should be called Mellow Parenting (personal group, lunchtime and activities, parenting workshop and use of the video with families).

It is fine to use some worksheets or the dimensions in assessments and remember to give the appropriate attribution to the Mellow Parenting programme.

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