Having worked for many years with vulnerable children and their families, Sarah Bolitho is passionate about building secure foundations for children. She firmly believes that creating a secure attachment in the early days is an emotional advantage that will last a lifetime. Secure Foundations offers training and positive support to parents, carers and professionals related to challenging behaviours, infant and child sleep struggles, positive behaviour support, child development, childhood trauma and attachment focused parenting.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
I had spent the last 10 years working with vulnerable children and families in the Child Protection and Mental Health sector and I had seen the neurological, social, behavioural and biological impact of more complex trauma than I hope anyone not in the sector could begin to imagine.
I believe that a secure attachment is an emotional advantage that will last a lifetime and I believe in and advocate for parenting practices that are evidenced based and are in support of creating and fostering secure attachments. When my first baby was born and by 10 months old it felt like he still hadn’t slept a wink, I knew that there had to be something that I could do to help him towards a more settled night sleep. All the books told me to ‘cry it out’ and I knew that wasn’t right for us. So I researched and researched and researched. Then Secure Foundations was born to help other struggling families understand that there is a caring way to achieve a more settled night sleep that is guided by attachment principles, science and connection. We are now expanding to support parents in more ways than just sleep.
My passion is to share understanding around the neurological drivers of behaviour and how to work with children not against them to best manage their behaviours.
I have a big dream. I dream that one day the world will understand childhood trauma and that we will all play a part to be able to help children heal from it and not experience it.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
This started as a small passion project helping families who came to me via word of mouth whilst studying a Masters of Play Therapy, working part time as a Children’s Safeguarding Consultant and raising my own children at home.
I started a website to streamline some processes and then it has just gone from there.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
I think the breakthrough for me comes every time I get feedback from a family that I’ve worked with. There is no bigger motivation than knowing someone’s life has been transformed through our knowledge, guidance and support. I know that the work we do goes a long way to helping their relationships, building stronger connections with their children, understanding why their children behave the way they do and ultimately giving them the skills to navigate any future stormy waters confidently and independently.
