Find your way to a connected and calmer family life
A supportive group programme for parents who want to respond to their child's emotions with more confidence, less conflict, and the reassurance of others who understand.
Raising MindsÂ
A clinically-backed parent group
Raising Minds offers a way of communicating which leaves you feeling good about yourself as a parent and your child feeling good about themselves.
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Being a parent means dealing with emotional outbursts that seem to come from nowhere, frustration at refusal to do what you’ve asked, walking on eggshells not to upset them, inventing elaborate reward charts to incentive them, then throw in mobile phones and parenting just had another challenge added to the list.
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If these are challenges you face and they are getting in the way of connected and calm family, the Raising Minds group can help.Â
There's nothing wrong with you, or your child
The truth is that no one hands you a manual for the hardest parts of raising a child. Most of us are working it out as we go, often while tired, stretched thin, and quietly wondering whether everyone else has cracked something we haven't. They haven't. Difficult moments at home are not a sign of a bad parent or a broken child. They're a sign that big emotions are hard, for children and for the adults who love them.
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What makes the difference isn't getting everything right. It's understanding what's happening beneath the behaviour, and learning a few skills that help you respond in a way that actually works. That's exactly what Raising Minds is here to help you do.
How does Raising Minds work?
Raising Minds is a supportive group programme for parents and carers, run over six fortnightly sessions. It brings together two evidence-based approaches I use every day in clinical practice, Emotion Coaching and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and turns them into practical skills you can use at home.
What you'll take away
Over the six sessions, you'll build skills in:
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Understanding what's really driving your child's behaviour, and responding in a way that helps them feel heard
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Supporting your child to recognise and manage their own emotions
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Staying calm and steady in the moments that usually tip over into conflict
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Managing your own difficult thoughts and feelings, so they have less hold over how you respond
Who Raising Minds is for
Raising Minds is open to parents and carers of children from nursery through to secondary school age. You're welcome whether your child has a specific identified need or you simply want to feel better equipped to support them.
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Groups are intentionally mixed, and parents with children of different ages often find they learn the most from one another.
Why group support works
You'll be in a room with other parents facing the very same things, and there's a particular relief that comes from realising you're not alone in this. Parents often tell me they learn as much from each other as from the sessions themselves, and many leave with friendships and a support network that carry on long after the programme ends.
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It's also more affordable than working with me individually, at a lower cost per session.
Hello, I'm
I'm Dr Kathryn Smith, a Clinical Psychologist with over 20 years of experience working with children, young people, parents and families.
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For 15 of those years I worked in the NHS, across both paediatrics and child and adolescent mental health, where I came to specialise in supporting parents. In my experience, parents are often the people who feel the weight of a child's struggles most heavily, and yet they're the ones most often left out of the support that's offered.
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That's something I've spent much of my career trying to change.
Where Raising Minds came from
I first developed Raising Minds in 2016 within an NHS child and adolescent mental health team in Argyll and Bute, and have since run it across NHS teams in Scotland and in Brisbane, Australia.
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It's grounded in real clinical experience, and shaped by the hundreds of parents who've been through it.
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What keeps me coming back to this work is simple. When a parent starts to understand what's happening for their child, and feels more steady in themselves, the whole family feels it. That's what Raising Minds is built to help you do.
Getting started with Raising Minds
Format: Six sessions, run fortnightly
Length: Two hours per session
Cost: £495 for the full six-session programme
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Location: Sessions are held in person in the West of Scotland. Location to be confirmed, register your interest and I'll be in touch with the details.
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Tea, coffee and biscuits are included, and sessions start and finish on time.
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Not sure whether the group is the right fit for you? You're welcome to book a free 15-minute call with me first, with no obligation.