There is a place
for you here.
Step through the door.
There is no rush.
You are warmly welcome.
A practice for finding your way back to real connection in uncertain times.
Hello, I’m Julie.
I focus my work on supporting parents in a fast-paced, high-achieving world to hear their own knowing again, so they can meet their child with presence rather than the right script.
For over thirty years I’ve worked alongside children, families and teachers in Hong Kong and the UK. I’ve founded three schools and written two books on childhood and presence. For ten years I led an Ofqual-regulated teacher training, and created four of its units. I raised my own four children between Hong Kong and UK schools, navigating a competitive system, so I know from the inside how hard it can be to trust yourself.
Coming home to your own knowing
What if it isn’t more advice you need, but a pathway back to yourself?
There’s no shortage of advice for parents: how to set boundaries, how to acknowledge feelings, how to find the right words. Most of us have tried a good deal of it, and it’s easy to lose touch with ourselves.
You can learn the gentle words and practise the calm voice. But children see beneath the performance. They can tell when we’re giving the right response, and when we’re truly with them. That’s no reason to feel guilty. Your child isn’t broken, and neither are you. Presence isn’t something to perform or achieve. It’s something you already have.
Through exploring the three phases of childhood, you come to know presence from the inside, not from a script.
When you come back to yourself, something settles. You begin to notice what your child needs right now: not what a book says every child needs, but what this child is asking of you today. Being present isn’t a middle ground between pushy and permissive. It’s a new place to begin afresh. Not another script, just you, real and present, and there’s great joy in that.
Ways to work together
The Present Parent Practice – One-to-One
Three months of private mentoring, just the two of us. Together we find the doorway back to your own knowing, where your own childhood meets your child’s today, and balance finds its way into the home.
Find out more →The Present Parent Practice – Group
A three-month journey with a small circle of parents. Return for as many rounds as you like, then continue monthly in The Present Parent Circle.
Find out more →Mini Courses
Short courses to enjoy at home: Healing Stories for Children now, Creative Play coming soon.
Find out more →The Art of Connected Presence for Teachers and Parents
A flexible one-year training, bringing a deeper understanding of childhood and Connected Presence into classrooms and homes.
Find out more →“The sessions feel calm yet powerful. I am beginning to see that it's not always about learning another strategy in order to control the situation. I have come to realize that I know my own child better than anyone else could. I feel as though I am back in a flow and I am so grateful to have a partner walk through this with me, who is dedicated to me hearing my own voice again.”
“Participating in this course, I really experienced the shift of arriving at my own insights and no longer feeling so confused by different and conflicting advice.”
Books
From the Heart of Childhood: Reclaiming Presence for Connection and The Way We Meet.
Letters from Julie
A short letter every two weeks, with stories from family life and childhood, and news of what's coming up. Free to join, and easy to leave whenever you like.
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