About Us

First and foremost, Connected Self is about you.  We work with individuals, families, and organisations to assist them in achieving their wellbeing goals.

Connected Self, founded in 2007, is a community of passionate practitioners who are driven to have a positive impact on others and, as our name suggests, we are about making connections.  We believe that by supporting people and organisations to create connections to themselves (who they are), their family, community and customers, their environment and aspirations, they can achieve higher levels of wellbeing, personal fulfilment and productivity.

We assist many individuals, families and organisations to achieve their goals. We do this by recruiting qualified, talented, inspirational and committed people and supporting them to work with you to identify the outcomes you want to achieve. Our people then employ evidence based and innovative approaches to help you achieve these outcomes in a sustainable way.

Our Mission

To provide innovative, engaging and best-practice services and concepts that support children, families, individuals and organisations to better understand and meet their needs, and achieve higher levels of personal fulfillment, achievement and productivity.  

Our vision is to assist our young people, adults, families, organisations and our people to be grounded, mindful, inspired and productive by supporting and strengthening:

·   Their connections to themselves (e.g., valuing who they are);

·   Their connections to their family community and customers;

·   Their connections to their environment;

·   Their connections to their goals and aspirations, and ways to overcome barriers to these.

Connected Self is proud to be an endorsing organisation of the Office of the Guardian for Children and Young People's 'Charter of Rights.' The Charter of Rights for Children and Young People in Care states simply and clearly the rights of children and young people who are in care.

If you would like to learn more, you can click the logo to your left or click HERE to be taken to the Office of the Guardian for Children and Young People's website.

Our Partners

Polyvagal Practices

Polyvagal practices aim to enhance physiological regulation, restore a sense of safety, and promote engagement through autonomic nervous system regulation.

This enhances social and emotional learning, including recognising and regulating emotions (from a physiological lens) and developing empathy for others.

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PACE

Developed as part of attachment-focused family therapy, PACE is a trauma-informed approach aiming to create safe, trusting, emotionally connected relationships with children and adolescents who have experienced trauma or attachment difficulties. PACE stands for:

Playfulness

  • Approaching with an open, ready, calm, relaxed and engaged attitude.
  • Not taking yourself/situations too seriously.
  • Diffusing difficult/tense situations.

Acceptance

  • Unconditionally accepting the current state/mood/behaviour.
  • Accepting that there are things unseen that lie below behaviour.
  • Acceptance supports feeling secure, safe and loved

Curiosity

  • Understanding the child gently and without judgement.
  • Supporting child to bring awareness to their inner life.
  • Wondering statements.

Empathy

  • A sense of compassion and understanding for young person’s feelings and thoughts.

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Expression of experience when words are not enough

Art Therapy does not rely on verbal language. It is a therapeutic approach that provides many different mediums for communication. It is a useful mechanism when clients may not yet have the language to express their experiences.

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Contain difficult feelings and build tolerance

Art making holds or contains the difficult feelings allowing them to be felt and experienced gradually – building tolerance to discomfort.

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