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Empowering parents, carers, and professionals with tools to help children thrive emotionally.

📚 Courses • 🎥 Webinars • 🤝 Consultations • 💻 Web app provision • 🧠 Supervision

13/07/2026

Children develop through relationships.

That’s one of the central ideas behind attachment theory and it’s one of the reasons so much of our work at Alula Therapy focuses on supporting parents, carers and residential teams.

When adults feel more equipped, children experience relationships differently. Those everyday experiences matter.

12/07/2026

The adults around a child are never just observers.

Every calm response, repair after conflict or moment of consistency becomes part of the environment that child’s brain develops within.

Daniel Siegel’s work reminds us that regulation isn’t something children simply learn on their own. It develops in relationship, through thousands of experiences with adults who are able to stay present, curious and emotionally available.

This doesn’t mean adults need to be perfect. It means that showing up consistently matters.

Whether you’re a parent, foster carer, residential care worker, teacher or clinician, your relationship with a child is part of the intervention.

Swipe through for a few ideas from Siegel’s work that continue to shape how we think about child development at Alula.

Which idea stood out to you most?

09/07/2026

Children often communicate through behaviour before they have the words to explain what they need.

When a child pushes against a boundary, it can be easy to see it as defiance, attention-seeking or “bad behaviour”.

But sometimes, the behaviour is asking a deeper question:

Are you still there?
Can you stay calm with me?
Will this relationship survive the hard moment?

Bowlby’s attachment theory reminds us that children seek closeness to trusted adults because that closeness helps them feel safe enough to explore, cope and return for reassurance.

This does not mean removing boundaries.

It means holding them with calm, consistency and repair.

Over time, children learn that limits can exist without love being withdrawn. They are still cared for, even when the answer is no.

That repeated experience is what helps a child build emotional safety.

For residential teams, this is often where the work begins: not with perfect responses, but with adults who can stay connected through the difficult moments.

09/07/2026

Winnicott’s “good enough” caregiver is such a powerful idea because it reminds us that children do not need perfect adults.

They need adults who are present, responsive and able to repair enough of the time. Over time, those repeated experiences become part of the child’s inner world. The child begins to feel that hard moments can pass, mistakes can be repaired, and relationships can still be safe.

That lesson matters. It affects how a child handles distress, repairs conflict and learns how safe closeness can feel for the rest of their life.

Emotional safety is built in the relationship, then slowly carried within the child.

02/07/2026

Emotional safety is built through consistency, especially in difficult moments.

When a child is distressed, withdrawn, angry or pushing people away, the question underneath is usually relational:

“Are you still here?”

When adults show that repair is possible after hard moments, children gradually learn that conflict, limits and distress can exist inside a safe relationship.

That’s how trust grows.

02/07/2026

How is social media influencing girls’ mental health, confidence and sense of self?

In this Alula Therapy Fireside Chat, Dr Katharine Ayivor-Nygard sits down with Ramita Anand, educator, mentor and founder of Elevate RA, to explore the pressures many young girls are navigating online and offline.

Together, they explore how social media can influence wellbeing, comparison, confidence and identity, especially during the teenage years.

We also explored:

💭 Ramita’s journey in founding Elevate RA
💭 The pressures girls can face online and offline
💭 The role of mentorship and positive role models
💭 How parents, carers and educators can support resilience and emotional wellbeing
💭 Practical ways to nurture girls’ confidence and inner strength

This conversation is part of ‘s Fireside Chat series, where we speak with thought leaders in psychology, education and wellbeing to share thoughtful conversations for families and professionals.

🎥 Watch the full conversation via the link in our bio.

Follow and .ra for more conversations and resources supporting children and young people’s mental health.

02/07/2026

Sometimes children really do know better.

They know the rule, the routine, they may even know what helps.

The problem is that when a child is overwhelmed, those skills can become harder to access in the moment.

So instead of repeating what they already know, it can help to ask:

“What do they need right now to be able to use it?”

For example:

Instead of saying:
“You know you’re supposed to get ready for bed.”

Try:
“Let’s just start with pyjamas. Nothing else yet.”

This is what helps the child regulate enough to try again.

23/06/2026

There is a lot of conversation right now about social media and young people’s mental health.

The question is not only how much screen time is too much?

It’s also:
- When are young people most vulnerable to what social media is built around?
- What are they seeing?
- How is it shaping how they feel about themselves?
- How early do we need to start the conversation?

Research suggests that early adolescence is a sensitive window, especially around social feedback, comparison, belonging, and emotional development.

The adults around a child are really essential for managing this. The conversation is worth having early, calmly, and with curiosity as a first step.

18/06/2026

There is a lot of conversation about young people and social media at the moment and the reality is nuanced.

The research does not suggest that all screen time is the same. It points more specifically to prolonged daily social media use, especially when it starts to affect sleep, mood, relationships, school, movement and the time young people need to properly switch off.

For many families, carers and professionals, “under 2 hours” can feel unrealistic at first but it can still be a useful direction target to aim for as a protective boundary.

Also, before setting limits, it helps to understand what the young person is getting from it.

Are they connecting with friends?
Avoiding difficult feelings?
Looking for reassurance?
Trying to feel less bored, lonely or left out?

The boundary is important but so is the conversation around it. Young people are growing up with apps designed to keep them scrolling and they need adults who can be curious and realistic about helping them step away.

18/06/2026

Thank you Doctify for featuring Dr. Katharine Ayivor-Nygard this morning.

This is such an important and timely conversation. The concern around young people and social media is real, but the answer is rarely as simple as a blanket ban.

Dr. Katharine brings the nuance this debate needs: how social media is designed, who is most at risk, who may be overlooked and what parents can do right now.

Grateful to see Alula Therapy included in this discussion.

Address

85 Wimpole Street
London
W1G9RJ

Website

http://www.alulatherapy.com/

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