Integrated Attachment Focused Core Needs Approach in the Perinatal Period July Thursday Morning Group

Facilitator Training Workshops for Perinatal Clinicians
New Beginnings Integrated Core Needs Framework

Structured, Small-Group Online Workshops

New dates

Thursday Morning Group Dates: 9 July, 6 August, 3 September, 1 October 2026-11.30 AEST

This training provides 10 hours of professional development:

• 6 hours face-to-face learning

• 10 hours online learning

All sessions are recorded and available for participants who are unable to attend live.

This four-part workshop series is designed for clinicians working with parents in the perinatal period who are seeking an attachment- and needs-based approach to understanding and supporting mental health.

Across four live sessions, participants will be guided through the framework using a combination of direct teaching and reflective discussion, supporting integration into clinical practice.

The New Beginnings Integrated Core Needs Framework brings together key concepts from Circle of Security, schema therapy, and attachment theory through a shared focus on core emotional needs.

The New Beginnings Core Needs approach combines a clinical framework for perinatal clinicians with parent-facing resources and worksheets to support its application in-session and via telehealth.

Working with parents in the perinatal period involves supporting them through a time of profound transformation. It can stir deep emotions, shift identity, and bring both joy and challenge. It also offers a unique opportunity for healing and for reshaping intergenerational patterns. It is within this space that a clear, attachment- and needs-based way of understanding both parents and infants can support meaningful and lasting change.

The framework offers flexibility. It can be used as a standalone approach supporting assessment, treatment planning, and intervention, or as an adjunct within a clinician’s existing way of working

Participants will receive the New Beginnings parent resource in both PDF and PowerPoint formats, ready for use in-session or via telehealth. New Beginnings is a perinatal-specific resource written for parents and designed to be delivered by clinicians. It provides a structured framework that can be used flexibly to meet the shifting needs of parents during the perinatal period, using accessible, parent-friendly language.

Workshop Structure and Key Learning Outcomes

The workshops are run in small groups for 1.5 hours every four weeks.

This structure allows time for reflection, integration, and practical application between sessions, rather than overwhelming participants with large amounts of information at once.

The small group format also creates space for discussion, case reflection, and support around each participant’s individual learning goals and clinical context.

Following training, clinicians will have the resources and knowledge to begin using the Integrated Core Needs Framework with the parents they support. Specifically, clinicians will be able to:

• Understand how early relational experience shapes implicit memory and why this matters for perinatal intervention

• Recognise how unmet core needs and schemas are transmitted across generations and how the perinatal period creates a unique opportunity to interrupt this

• Use a semi-structured perinatal attachment history assessment to build a shared understanding of the caregiver's attachment history, the core needs that may have gone unmet, and the implicit learnings that developed as a result

• Support reflection on wellbeing in the perinatal period using the Cups of Wellbeing, linking mental health presentations to specific core needs and coping patterns

• Identify core schemas and track patterns using the adapted mode model

• Understand how schema change happens, including the role of subcortical implicit memory and the conditions that support lasting change

• Support parents to notice and respond to their baby's cues through the lens of their own attachment history, core needs, and schemas

• Provide attachment-focused psychoeducation that helps parents make sense of their own needs and the needs of their growing baby

• Integrate wellbeing strategies throughout each stage of the work, linked back to the Cups of Wellbeing and the Map of Wellbeing

• Apply the framework as a standalone intervention or alongside other therapeutic approaches including schema therapy, EMDR, ACT, CBT, and DBT

Facilitator Bio

Symon Oliveri is an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker and founder of Contigo Child and Family.

Symon holds a master’s degree in social work and a bachelor’s degree in social science and has worked across intensive family services, school counselling, child and infant mental health, perinatal mental health, and trauma services. Symon has also worked with children and families across Africa, Europe, and Central and South America, shaping a deep respect for the many ways family's parent, heal, and connect.

Symon has completed extensive training in perinatal and infant mental health and in the treatment of complex trauma for both children and adults. She has also undertaken advanced training in the Circle of Security intervention, Schema Therapy for adults, and Schema Therapy for children and families.

Through her clinical work, she identified a gap in structured schema therapy resources that genuinely fit the perinatal space, particularly within shorter-term therapy models. In response, she developed the New Beginnings framework and parent resources to translate complex attachment and schema concepts into accessible, collaborative tools for perinatal parents.