March 7–8, 2026 | Online | Free to attend
A two-day online summit with 12 experienced voices offering grounded, compassionate support for blended families.
Blended families are complex systems.
This summit offers grounded conversations that help parents, stepparents, and professionals better understand what supports children, relationships, and the family as a whole.
Togetherness - Unity - Belonging - Harmony - Connection - Compassion - Healing - Understanding
What you’ll walk away with
Many people join because they’re feeling overwhelmed, unsure, or stuck.
What they often leave with is clarity, steadiness, and reassurance.
The summit is an invitation to gain:
Clear, practical ways to navigate blended family challenges
Healthier communication tools for partners and co-parents
Greater understanding of child safety within complex family systems
Insight into grief and loss for both children and adults
Tools to support a more regulated nervous system during change, conflict, and transition
Support in setting boundaries without guilt or unnecessary conflict
A deep sense of validation and reassurance that you’re not alone or doing it wrong
These insights are offered without pressure to fix anything.
They’re here to support stability, safety, and connection, even when family life feels messy or tender.
Why this Summit
Blended family life often comes with high expectations and very little guidance.
Adults are expected to adjust quickly.
Children are expected to cope quietly.
And when things feel hard, people often turn inward, wondering what they’re doing wrong.
The Blended Family Summit was created to offer a different lens
The summit exists to slow things down, offer understanding, and support families in a way that honours complexity and belonging.
When there is understanding, things often soften.
When things soften, new possibilities can emerge.
This Summit is for if you...
Are a Parent or co-parenting in a blended family
A stepparent finding your place in an existing family system
A grandparent or step-grandparent wanting to support your family with care and understanding
Want practical guidance, not surface‑level tips
You’re navigating co‑parenting dynamics with an ex‑partner
Supporting children who move between households
Want healthier communication, boundaries, and peace at home
Are a therapist, educator, or practitioner working with blended families
You don’t need to have everything figured out.
You’re welcome exactly where you are.
Meet the Speakers
You’ll hear from a carefully curated lineup of speakers who bring real-life experience, professional expertise, and deep compassion to the blended family journey.
Together, these voices create a wider field of understanding than any single approach alone.
Day 1: Speakers
Kristi McVee
Former Police Detective
Child Safety Expert
Claudette Chenevert
The Stepmom Coach, working with stepmoms
Melanie Enders
Therapist, Family Constellation facilitator & Trainer, BA Psych Science
Lisa Jayne
Speaker, Author - Relational Coherence
Marie Mooney
Psychotherapist / Counsellor, Systemic Constellation Facilitator
Fernanda Sampaio Vitale
Family Constelation Facilitator, Systemic Education
Day 2: Speakers
Christine Fell
Family & Systemic Constellation Facilitator
Victoria Edmond
Early Childhood Education
Katie Kjelsaas
Clinical Psychologist, ICEEFT Certified Emotionally Focused Therapist and Supervisor
Helen Younan Barrett
Founder / Systemic Play Therapist & Psychotherapist
Antonia Kersting
Counsellor / Family Constellations Facilitator & Trainer / Shamanic Womancraft Practitioner
Tricia Mohamed
Parent Educator; Community Cultural Wealth; School readiness
What we’ll explore together
Across two days, conversations will explore:
Understanding nervous system responses during stress, change, and conflict
Attachment patterns and how they shape behaviour, loyalty, and connection
Child safety and protective awareness in blended families
Grief and loss that often sits quietly within blended family systems
The lived experience of children of blended families within educational settings
How play therapy supports children’s emotional processing
Supporting stepparents to find their rightful and respectful place in the system
Meet Your Host
I’m Melanie Enders, a Family & Systemic Constellation Facilitator, therapist, educator, and a parent in a blended family.
I created this summit through years of working closely with families, and through my own lived experience of the emotions, transitions, challenges, and growth that blended family life brings. My intention is to offer support that feels compassionate, grounded, and genuinely helpful.
This space isn’t about perfection. It’s about honest conversations, shared understanding, and offering relief in knowing you’re not alone.
Through The Blended Families Summit
Mel brings together trusted voices and lived experiences to remind you:
You’re not alone in this journey
Your challenges are valid
Support can make all the difference
Your feelings are valid, even when they’re complicated
There is no “right” timeline for blended family harmony
You’re allowed to redefine what family means to you
It’s okay to set boundaries that protect your peace
Children don’t need perfection—they need safety and consistency
Trust can be built, one moment at a time
Healing doesn’t require everyone to move at the same pace
What’s included
24 hrs Access to expert-led sessions focused on blended family realities
Emotional, relational, and practical tools you can actually use
Honest conversations around co‑parenting, step‑parenting, and identity shifts
Reflection prompts to help you integrate what you learn
Practical frameworks to navigate complex family dynamics with confidence
Supportive perspectives that help reduce guilt, pressure, and overwhelm
And much more....
You’re warmly invited to join
Blended families don’t need more pressure.
They need understanding, pacing, and support that honours everyone involved.
This isn’t theory. Each session is grounded in real experiences, honest conversations, and actionable insights you can apply immediately, whether you’re newly blended or years into the journey.
🍃 No sugar‑coating. No one‑size‑fits‑all solutions.🍃
Just practical wisdom for modern blended families.
Frequently Asked Questions
The summit is a fully online event, so you can attend from anywhere in the world.
Once you register, you’ll receive daily access links via email during the event dates.
Each session will be available for 24 hours only after it goes live.
A new set of talks will unlock each day, and you’ll receive reminder emails so you don’t miss anything.
No preparation is needed.
Just register, check your email during the summit days, and watch the sessions at your convenience.
You may want a notebook if you’d like to take notes and apply what you learn.
All sessions are pre-recorded to ensure high-quality conversations and a smooth experience for you.
This also means you can:
✔ Watch at your convenience
✔ Pause and take notes
✔ Learn without time pressure
We understand life gets busy, especially in blended families.
That’s why we offer a VIP Upgrade, which gives you extended access so you can watch everything at your own pace. Link for VIP TICKET
Free ticket holders can watch each session during its 24-hour availability window only.
If you’d like continued access after the summit ends, you can upgrade to the VIP Pass for extended viewing and bonus content. Get the VIP PASS
Helen Younan Barrett
Learn more about Helen’s work:
Understanding Children Through Play, Attachment & Systemic Insight
Helen Younan Barrett is the Founder of The Family Systems Hub, a Systemic Play Therapist and Psychotherapist, dedicated to supporting children and families through attachment-informed and systemic approaches.
Her work recognises that children often express what they cannot yet articulate through words. Through play, behaviour, and relational cues, children communicate their inner world — including the impact of separation, transition, and blended family dynamics.
Helen brings a deep understanding of attachment, trauma-awareness, and systemic principles, helping parents and professionals see beneath behaviour and respond with clarity and compassion. She supports adults to create environments where children feel safe, seen, and secure, even within complex family structures.
In This Summit, Helen Will Share How To:
• Understand how play reveals a child’s inner emotional world
• Recognise attachment disruptions in blended families
• Support children who struggle with change or divided loyalty
• Strengthen emotional safety through attuned adult responses
• Use systemic awareness to reduce pressure on children
This session offers practical insight and therapeutic depth for parents and professionals wanting to better understand and support children in blended family life.
Tricia Mohamed
Learn more about Tricia’s work:
Strength-Based Parenting, Cultural Awareness & School Readiness
Tricia Mohamed is a Parent Educator with a focus on Community Cultural Wealth and School Readiness, supporting families to recognise and build on the strengths already present within their home and cultural context.
Her work centres around preparing children not just academically, but emotionally and socially for the transition into school. Tricia understands that blended families can hold diverse cultural narratives, parenting styles, and values, and she brings a strengths-based approach that honours these differences rather than viewing them as deficits.
With warmth and practical clarity, she helps parents understand how identity, belonging, and family structure influence a child’s confidence and readiness to learn.
In This Summit, Tricia Will Share How To:
• Support children’s emotional and social readiness for school
• Recognise and build on family and cultural strengths
• Help children navigate transitions between households and school
• Strengthen confidence and resilience in early learners
• Reduce stress around school adjustment in blended families
This session offers practical guidance and a culturally responsive perspective for families wanting to support their children’s educational journey with confidence and care.
Antonia Kersting
Learn more about Antonia’s work:
Nervous System Regulation & Conscious Leadership in Blended Families
Antonia Kersting is a Counsellor, Family Constellations Facilitator & Trainer, and Shamanic Womancraft Practitioner, working at the intersection of systemic healing, nervous system awareness, and embodied leadership.
With extensive experience training facilitators and supporting individuals and couples, Antonia understands that sustainable change in families begins with regulated, grounded adults. Her work emphasises the stages of regulation, co-regulation, and the responsibility adults carry in stabilising the family field.
She brings depth, presence, and practical understanding to the way stress, trauma, and relational history can influence blended family dynamics. Through systemic and embodied practices, she supports adults to lead with clarity rather than reactivity.
In This Summit, Antonia Will Share How To:
• Understand the stages of nervous system regulation
• Practise co-regulation within couple and family dynamics
• Reduce emotional reactivity during conflict
• Strengthen adult leadership in complex family systems
• Create greater stability for children through grounded presence
This session offers embodied insight and practical tools for adults wanting to create a thriving and emotionally regulated family system.
Kristi McVee
Learn more about Kristi’s work:
Protecting Children with Clarity, Confidence & Compassion
Kristi McVee is a former child abuse detective and Specialist Child Interviewer who spent years investigating complex child sexual abuse cases and interviewing both adult and child victims. Today, she is a child safety educator and passionate advocate for empowering families to have clear, age-appropriate conversations about body safety and protective behaviours.
With extensive frontline experience and years supporting parents, educators, and community organisations, Kristi helps adults navigate the often uncomfortable yet essential conversations around boundaries, consent, and recognising red flags, especially when new partners or extended family members are introduced into a child’s life.
Her approach is calm, practical, and deeply respectful of children’s developmental stages. She understands that blended families can carry additional layers of complexity, and offers guidance that strengthens unity across households rather than creating fear or division.
In This Summit, Kristi Will Share How To:
• Introduce body safety education in a grounded, non-fear-based way
• Recognise early warning signs without becoming hypervigilant
• Support children to speak up with confidence
• Help adults align around shared protective language
This session offers clarity, reassurance, and practical tools that every blended family can benefit from.
Get your FREE Summit Ticket
Lisa Jayne
Learn more about Lisa’s work:
Rebuilding Connection & Emotional Safety in Blended Families
Lisa Jayne is a parenting educator and family support specialist who works closely with parents navigating emotional disconnection, behavioural challenges, and relational stress within the home. Her work focuses on helping adults understand what sits beneath children’s behaviour and how to respond with steadiness rather than reactivity.
With a deep understanding of attachment, nervous system regulation, and family dynamics, Lisa supports parents to move from confusion and self-doubt into clarity and confident leadership. She brings warmth, practicality, and grounded tools that families can implement immediately.
Lisa understands that blended families often carry additional emotional layers, transitions, and loyalty tensions, and she offers guidance that strengthens connection rather than intensifying division.
In This Summit, Lisa Will Share How To:
• Understand the emotional drivers beneath children’s behaviour
• Respond to dysregulation with calm authority
• Strengthen attachment and trust within blended family dynamics
• Reduce power struggles and increase cooperation
This session offers reassurance, practical strategies, and relational tools to help families build stronger emotional foundations.
Melanie Enders
Learn more about Melanie’s work:
Creating Belonging Within the Complexity of Blended Families
Melanie Enders is a Family & Systemic Constellation Facilitator, therapist, educator, and parent living in a blended family herself. She holds a Bachelor of Psychological Sciences (BA Psych Sciences), a Graduate Diploma in Gestalt Therapy, and is trained as an EFT Couples Therapist, bringing together systemic, relational, and attachment-based frameworks in her work with families.
Her work is rooted in the understanding that family systems carry invisible loyalties, unspoken grief, and deep longings for belonging.
Through her therapeutic practice and educational work, Melanie supports families to untangle hidden dynamics, reduce tension between households, and restore a sense of order and safety within the system. Her approach is trauma-aware, relational, and grounded in both professional training and lived experience.
She understands that blended families are not broken, they are complex systems asking for conscious leadership, clarity, and compassion.
In This Summit, Melanie Will Share How To:
• Understand hidden loyalties and loyalty binds in blended families
• Navigate grief and loss that often sits beneath conflict
• Support children without forcing emotional alignment
• Strengthen the couple’s foundation within a multi-household system
• Create belonging without betrayal
This session offers depth, insight, and practical systemic tools to help families move from survival into steadiness.
Katie Kjelsaas
Learn more about Katie’s work:
Helping Stepfamilies Find Stability, Clarity & Connection
Katie Kjelsaas is a Clinical Psychologist and ICEEFT Certified Emotionally Focused Therapist and Supervisor, specialising in supporting couples and stepfamilies through the emotional complexities of blended family life. With both professional expertise and lived experience inside a stepfamily, Katie understands how loyalty binds, parenting differences, and relational stress can impact the entire system.
Her work is grounded in attachment science and Emotionally Focused Therapy, helping couples strengthen their bond while creating a home environment that feels secure and respectful for everyone involved. She supports adults to move out of reactivity and into intentional, emotionally attuned leadership within the family.
Katie brings warmth, clarity, and deep relational insight, helping stepfamilies replace confusion and resentment with connection and teamwork.
In This Summit, Katie Will Share How To:
• Strengthen the couple bond in a blended family
• Navigate common stepfamily conflict patterns
• Reduce loyalty tensions and emotional reactivity
• Build secure attachment within complex family dynamics
• Create a united partnership while honouring children’s needs
This session offers evidence-based insight and practical relational tools to help stepfamilies build lasting stability and connection.
Fernanda Sampaio Vitale
Connect with Fernanda:
Seeing the Child Within the System of School & Family
Fernanda Sampaio Vitale is a Family Constellation Facilitator working within the field of Systemic Education, supporting children, parents, and educators to understand the deeper relational dynamics that influence learning, behaviour, and belonging.
Her work bridges the family system and the school environment, recognising that children carry their family stories, loyalties, and emotional burdens into the classroom. Fernanda brings a systemic lens to education, helping adults see what may be invisible yet deeply impactful in a child’s academic and social development.
With warmth and clarity, she supports parents and professionals to understand how belonging, hierarchy, and relational order affect a child’s capacity to learn, focus, and feel secure, especially within the added complexity of blended families.
In This Summit, Fernanda Will Share How To:
• Understand the role of the teacher within a blended family system
• Recognise how family dynamics show up in the classroom
• Support children in finding their right place at school
• Strengthen collaboration between parents and educators
• Reduce pressure on children who feel caught between households
This session offers systemic insight and practical understanding for parents and professionals wanting to support children more consciously within blended family structures.
Christine Fell
Bridging Legal Systems & Family Systems with Clarity and Care
Christine Fell is a Family & Systemic Constellation Facilitator, bringing a rare and powerful perspective to the realities of separation, mediation, and blended family life.
With years of experience inside the legal system, Christine understands how conflict can escalate, how fear can shape decisions, and how children can become entangled in adult disputes. Through her systemic work, she now supports families to move beyond adversarial positioning and toward greater awareness, responsibility, and relational order.
Her approach is grounded, compassionate, and deeply informed by both legal insight and systemic understanding. She helps adults recognise the long-term impact of how separation is handled and how conscious communication can reduce harm within complex family structures.
In This Summit, Christine Will Share How To:
• Understand the legal system without becoming consumed by it
• Navigate mediation and separation with greater awareness
• Reduce conflict between households
• Protect children from being pulled into adult disputes
• Make decisions that support long-term family stability
This session offers clarity, steadiness, and a broader perspective for families navigating legal and relational transitions.
Victoria Edmond
Learn more about Victoria’s work:
Supporting Children Through Rhythm, Safety & Grounded Adults
Victoria Edmond works within Early Childhood Education, supporting young children and families through the foundational years of development. Her work centres around understanding the world from the child’s perspective and recognising how deeply children are impacted by transitions, emotional tone, and the steadiness of the adults around them.
With years of experience in early learning environments, Victoria has observed how changes between homes, shifting routines, and adult stress can show up in young children’s behaviour, sleep, play, and regulation. She brings calm insight and practical guidance to help families create predictability and safety within complexity.
Her approach emphasises rhythm, consistency, and emotionally grounded adults as the core stabilising force for children, especially within blended family structures.
In This Summit, Victoria Will Share How To:
• Understand how young children experience blended family transitions
• Recognise stress signals in early childhood
• Create predictable rhythms across households
• Support emotional regulation through co-regulation
• Become the steady, grounded presence children rely on
This session offers reassurance, practical understanding, and gentle guidance for parents wanting to support their children through change.
Marie Mooney
Learn more about Marie’s work:
Honouring Grief, Loss & Emotional Healing in Blended Families
Marie Mooney is a Psychotherapist, Counsellor, and Systemic Constellation Facilitator, supporting individuals, couples, and families through grief, life transitions, and relational complexity.
Her work recognises that blended families are often formed through loss — loss of the original family structure, loss of shared dreams, loss experienced differently by adults and children alike. Marie brings a compassionate and grounded presence to these often unspoken layers, helping families acknowledge what has been before trying to build what comes next.
With deep therapeutic experience and a systemic lens, she supports adults to hold space for both their own grief and their children’s emotional worlds, without rushing or dismissing the process.
In This Summit, Marie Will Share How To:
• Understand how adults and children grieve differently
• Recognise hidden grief beneath conflict and resistance
• Support children without minimising their loss
• Integrate the past rather than trying to erase it
• Build new family bonds without bypassing what came before
This session offers emotional depth, validation, and gentle guidance for families navigating the tender realities of blended life.
Claudette Chenevert
Learn more about Claudette’s work:
Supporting Stepfamilies with Strength, Strategy & Heart
Claudette Chenevert is a certified stepparent coach, educator, and long-time advocate for stepfamily wellbeing. With decades of experience supporting blended families, she brings both professional expertise and lived understanding to the complex dynamics stepfamilies navigate.
As the founder of StepMom Coach, Claudette specialises in helping stepparents move from overwhelm and isolation to clarity, confidence, and grounded leadership within their family system. Her work bridges practical strategy with emotional intelligence, offering tools that are both compassionate and actionable.
She understands that blended families require intentional structure, clear communication, and strong internal boundaries — and that thriving is possible when adults are properly supported.
In This Summit, Claudette Will Share How To:
• Navigate common stepfamily challenges with confidence
• Strengthen the couple relationship inside a blended family
• Reduce loyalty binds and household tension
• Create clearer roles and realistic expectations
This session offers reassurance, practical tools, and a pathway toward greater harmony in stepfamily life.