Contigo Child and Family

08/04/2026

I’ll be speaking this Monday with the Mental Health Professionals’ Network as part of the Online PMDD Network.

REGISTER HERE https://mhpn.org.au/members/ #/Meeting/27237

📅 Monday, 13 April 2026
🕕 6:00 PM AEST (90 minutes)
💻 Free online event

This will be the first opportunity to see me present Mummy’s Inside Weather, along with the parent resources developed to support families where a parent is living with a mental illness.
Planning for the Storm: Attachment-Focused Support for Parents with PMDD

In this session, I’ll introduce a children’s picture book and practical resources designed to help parents talk with their children about cyclical mood changes in a way that feels safe and understandable.
Using simple metaphors — sunny days, stormy days, seasons, and rhythms — Mummy’s Inside Weather supports families to build a shared language for emotional experiences.

We’ll also explore attachment-informed ways to:

• plan ahead for harder days
• increase predictability and felt safety
• strengthen co-regulation
• navigate rupture and repair

While the focus is on PMDD, these ideas are relevant for clinicians supporting families where a parent is living with a mental illness.

If you work alongside parents living with a mental illness, or support children and families in your practice, you’re very welcome to join this free event.

29/03/2026

https://youtu.be/vPGPY1Hy26M?si=YzqyvRknnYKU1w27

This video introduces the New Beginnings Integrated Core Needs Framework. This framework was created by Symon Oliveri, Founder of Contigo Child and Family. The Integrated Core Needs approach is an attachment-informed approach for supporting mental health and wellbeing in the perinatal period.

The New Beginnings framework integrates key concepts from:

Circle of Security
Schema Therapy
Attachment Theory

with a shared focus on understanding and responding to core emotional needs.

Using a composite case example, this presentation demonstrates how the framework can be used as a standalone 10 session intervention for perinatal depression.

For more information visit
contigochildandfamily.com.au

Or to book into training https://events.humanitix.com/integrated-core-needs-approach-in-the-perinatal-period

This video introduces the New Beginnings Integrated Core Needs Framework. This framework was created by Symon Oliveri, Founder of Contigo Child and Family. T...

15/03/2026

Symon is a perinatal mental health clinician. She was diagnosed with ADHD as a child, before it faded into the background of her life.

Once mentioning it to a doctor while she was studying, she was told "ADHD doesn’t really exist in adults", and so she moved on. She figured out how to manage on her own, and that was enough - until it wasn’t.

If you are navigating parenthood with ADHD, here’s what Symon wants you to know: https://ap1.hubs.ly/y0GLQP0

11/03/2026

Help me finish my children’s book for children living with a parent or important grown up with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder or other mental health difficulties.

10/03/2026

VOTE NOW. Let me know in the comments what version of this page you like best for this soon to be released children's book.

10/03/2026

I’m in the final stages of writing my children’s book My Mummy’s Inside Weather: Sunny Days, Stormy Days, and Love That Stays.
The story was inspired by my lived experience with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD), and by the parents I’ve worked with who live with PMDD and other mental health difficulties.
The book helps children understand that feelings can change like the weather, and that children are never responsible for a grown-up’s storm.
I’m currently stuck on one final page and would love your help deciding.
This page focuses on an important message for children . That they did not cause the storm, and it is not their job to take care of it.
I’ve written three different versions of this page and can’t decide which fits best.
Which one do you think works best? Comment 1, 2 or 3 to vote.
I’ll be taking votes until Friday before making the final decision.

08/03/2026

Today’s sneak peek of the New Beginnings resource.

New Beginnings is a framework that brings together schema therapy, attachment theory, and concepts from Circle of Security to support therapeutic work with parents during the perinatal period.

The framework translates these ideas into practical, parent-friendly language that clinicians can use directly with the families they support.

If you are a perinatal clinician interested in using this resource with the parents you work with, you can join one of the upcoming workshops here:
https://humanitix.com/au/search/online/Contigo%20child?dates=all

05/03/2026

Over the past four years I’ve been developing a perinatal resource called New Beginnings. The images in this post are a small sneak peek into the parent resource that will also be shared with therapists in the upcoming pilot workshops.

As a perinatal therapist, I often found it difficult to locate resources within Schema Therapy that spoke directly to pregnancy and early parenthood. This led me to begin integrating schema concepts with Circle of Security principles in a way that felt meaningful for the perinatal period.

The transition to parenthood often brings intergenerational patterns into sharper focus. It can also offer a unique window to recognise these patterns and begin to shift how they are carried forward.

New Beginnings has been written for parents and can also be used by therapists in their clinical work. The resource will be launching in April, and I’ll also be running pilot workshops for therapists interested in learning more about this integrative approach.
More information about the workshops is available via the link in my bio.

19/01/2026

Even as a therapist supporting children and families every day, nothing quite prepared me for becoming a mother myself. This journey humbled me, stretched me, and taught me so much. I’ve shared a little of my story in this blog recently published by the Centre of Perinatal Excellence. This blog is about what it was like for me as a neurodivergent parent beginning to raise neurodivergent little people

Thriving in a neurodivergent family often means accommodating differences, learning together, and responding with care to what your family genuinely needs.

31/12/2025

The past year has been a significant one for my family as we welcomed another child, and a quieter period for Contigo Child and Family.

As we move into the year ahead, I’m pleased to announce that I have reopened my practice and am now offering perinatal mental health counselling and trauma therapy via telehealth on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Supervision services are also available for child and family clinicians and early career social workers.

24/10/2025

Here is recent blog I wrote about sensory overload in motherhood

25/08/2025