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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.