A programme intended to decrease the stress levels of mums-to-be in pregnancy, to help mums-to-be understand that babies are prepared for social interaction from birth and the importance of early interaction for brain development.

Each week there will be an activity for the mum-to-be herself and another on a baby topic. Mellow Bumps is designed to be offered at about 20 to 30 weeks’ gestation to capture the period when the pregnancy is most secure and the mother may have experienced foetal movement but before her attention is taken up with the delivery.

Mellow Ready is delivered in single-gender groups of up to eight participants, online groups are recommended to be six participants or below.

Mellow Ready face to face facilitator training takes place over one day and Online Mellow Ready takes place over two half day sessions.

Mellow & Online Ready create a safe space for young people to:

• Explore their network of relationships
• Discover tools to support their mental health including mindfulness
• Understand their emotions
• Develop empathy and self-compassion
• Find out what really matters to them
• Make informed choices about the future

Young people have amazing strengths and capabilities. They are willing to try new things and are not frightened to take risks and enjoy the moment. They can be passionate about justice and fairness, hugely loyal to their friendship groups and amazingly creative in solving problems.

To deliver Mellow Futures groups for parents, practitioners are required to attend a 3-day training.

Practitioners receive a comprehensive pack of manuals, access to materials and resources and continued support through reflective consultation with a senior consultant. The Mellow evaluation team also provide support to help you evaluate your group and collate pre and post evaluation measures.

Parents that are taking in part in Futures groups are assigned a mentor who can provide support in between sessions to reinforce and clarify new knowledge and learning.

For parents, there are three phase-focused components to Mellow Futures:

Antenatal (Bumps) 

• starts between 20-30 weeks’ gestation. Parent participation takes place for 2 hours a week over 6 weeks.

Babies (0-18months) 

• Parent participation takes place 1 day a week over a 14-week period

Toddler (18 months – 3 years) 

• Parent participation takes place 1 day a week over a 14-week period.

Similar to other Mellow programmes, it uses video and strengths-based feedback to help translate ideas into real life and to build confidence and self-esteem. Periodically throughout the programme, there are also opportunities for parents and children to come together as a bigger group, bringing to life the every- day realities of what parents do as well as having fun. Sessions involving the children are scaffolded and supported by practitioners (as well as the other parents in the group) and give everyone a chance to try out new ways of relating to their children and practising what has been learnt.

Parents who have attended the Mellow Ability groups have stated that they benefited from the Ability groups and would like other parents to have the same opportunities to attend that they have had. They highlighted that the groups have helped to reduce their social isolation, stress and feelings of alienation by helping them to build friendships, gain new support networks and to feel optimistic about the future.

Going Mellow is an attachment and relationship based group intervention programme for parents who have babies and children. Mixtures of reflective and practical techniques are used to allow parents to address their personal challenges and the challenges they face with their children.

Our core face-face Going Mellow training is split into therapeutic personal groups (Mums/Dads) and age defining workshops (Babies/Toddlers). The personal groups are gender specific and the workshops cover children from the ages 0 – 18months and 18 months – 5years. 

The group and workshop run for 14 weeks, one day a week, usually between 10am and 2:30pm. 

Children participate in a children’s group while parents meet together in their group. Over snack/activity time the parents and children eat together and participate in a joint activity. This allows the parent and child to share in fun activities which build and strengthen their relationship. Lunchtime activities are easy and inexpensive as to encourage parents to “HAVE A GO!” at home – putting into practice what they have learned.

In the afternoon the parents participate in workshop where strengths-based video feedback helps them build on their existing skills and practice new ways of relating to their children.

A programme intended to decrease the stress levels of mums-to-be in pregnancy, to help mums-to-be understand that babies are prepared for social interaction from birth and the importance of early interaction for brain development.

Each week there will be an activity for the mum-to-be herself and another on a baby topic. Mellow Bumps is designed to be offered at about 20 to 30 weeks’ gestation to capture the period when the pregnancy is most secure and the mother may have experienced foetal movement but before her attention is taken up with the delivery.

A programme intended to decrease the stress levels of mums-to-be in pregnancy, to help mums-to-be understand that babies are prepared for social interaction from birth and the importance of early interaction for brain development.

Each week there will be an activity for the mum-to-be herself and another on a baby topic. Mellow Bumps is designed to be offered at about 20 to 30 weeks’ gestation to capture the period when the pregnancy is most secure and the mother may have experienced foetal movement but before her attention is taken up with the delivery.