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About us
We are raising emotional health worldwide through evidence-based training and learning
Togetherness, formerly known as the Solihull Approach, is a framework to support emotional regulation, reflections and autonomous thinking. A world recognised relational approach to optimising relationships.
The Solihull Approach model in Australia
Founded in the UK National Health Service almost thirty years ago, the Solihull Approach model has a long history of transforming lives by strengthening relationships and emotional wellbeing.
Training has been delivered by the Australian licenced centre since 2017. Evaluations and reviews identify the positive influences the model has on both the practitioners and the those around them.
Psychodynamic Underpinnings
The Solihull Approach integrates key psychological and psychoanalytic theories — containment, reciprocity and behaviour — into a simple yet powerful model that supports emotional development and relational health.
It is now offered across the life span, from pregnancy to adolescence, and management to clinical supervision, as a scaffolding to thinking. It is limitless in it’s application.
The Solihull Approach is referenced in the ‘MERTIL’ (Australian) Trauma Informed Learning training.
We want to raise emotional health worldwide for a kinder, happier, and healthier society.
Extensive research has been published since the model’s creation, including a randomised control trial (RCT) published in 2019 demonstrating the positive impact on child behaviour, parental emotional health and the parent-child relationship. This led to the programme’s recognition by the Early Intervention Foundation, now Foundations.
In 2025, the Solihull Approach training teams and other services changed their name to Togetherness to reflect the fundamental essence of the approach and what we believe underpins great relationships as the key to emotional strength and mental wellbeing.
Solihull Approach trained practitioners in Australia work in; perinatal & infant mental health, social work, psychology, pediatrics, general medical practice, perinatal psychiatry, midwifery, maternal child and family health, academia, First Nations health services, refugee and asylum seeker agencies, protective services, adult mental health and first responder organisations, speech pathology and occupational therapy areas, mainstream and specialist schools, the early childhood sector and foster and adoption services. Managers from a range of sectors have also completed the training.
World-renowned UK model
The Solihull Approach supports effective and sensitive interactions by modelling and teaching emotional containment and reciprocity. It aims to increase emotional health and well-being through providing the scaffolding to engage in informed and professional interactions with colleagues and all they are in contact with.
Supported by research
The Solihull Approach model incorporates infant mental health, neurodevelopmental and psychoanalytic concepts and is aimed at increase the emotional health and well being of both service providers and service consumers. It also supports interactions within workplaces and community.
Meet the Australian Team
Togetherness offers a range of accessible learning pathways to support understand brain development, emotional wellbeing to underpin healthier relationships and happier lives.
We support professional practice by delivering training and resources for practitioners and teams who work with children, families and adults. The training builds greater understanding of factors that influence emotional development and health by equipping practitioners with a relational framework to to scaffold their thinking. With raising emotional health for everybody at the heart of our mission, we support practitioners to ‘activate Togetherness’ and embed theory into practice through enhanced learning and tools to see impact at scale.
Building on 30 years of experience and rich expertise, we respond to evolving beliefs, attitudes, and awareness to deliver results with maximum impact.
Helen
Advanced Trainer and Governance Centre Manager responsible for supporting training and activities in Australia, including research, trainer support, and supervision. The go to place with all your questions and ideas.
Vikki
Originally Solihull Approach trained in the UK, and steeped in it at every level. Advanced Trainer, Solihull Approach licencee, and the person who lives and breathes the model, Vikki shows us how incredibly well the Solihull Approach model fits everywhere. It is so exciting to share this space with someone who has experienced a homeland immersed in the Solihull Approach.
Lynne
Advanced Trainer with experience and skill in both training and supporting those who have completed Solihull Approach model in Australia, including research and supervision. Lynne practices and supports others in the integration of the Solihull Approach model into thinking frameworks. With her extensive experience, Lynne is the go to person for all things including questions and ideas.
Chris
Advanced Trainer and Solihull Approach Licencee with both adult and infant mental health training and skills. Working in the acute adult, and perinatal space, Chris embodies how, without exception, the approach is beneficial to all. Chris knows how to keep this thinking framework front of mind, even in the most challenging situations, and shows us how it is done. She also offers supervision, support and coaching to mental health professionals who are trained in the Solihull Approach.
Lian
Advanced Trainer, Cascade Trainer and Parent Group Facilitator. The experience and skill developed through working with families from policy to home visiting, is the perfect base for Lian to be able to compare and contrast trainings, interventions and ways of being with infants, children and adults. Through this lens she blends her passion, compassion, and skill with her special way of connecting so that those around her are unknowingly immersed in the Solihull Approach experience.
Megan
Experienced Solihull Approach Cascade Trainer and Parent Group Facilitator. Megan comes with an array of experiences gained from working in early parenting centres, early childhood education and care, and local government family support services. Megan combines her years of embedding the Solihull Approach with her special interests in infant and early childhood sleep. Her gentle, sensitive and compassionate approach together with her Solihull Approach way of thinking, fosters positive experiences for exhausted families. Megan shines when it comes to considering the experiences of the baby or child, and parents, in her informed and respectful approach to sleep.
Susan
Passionate, experienced and skilled Perinatal Mental health practitioner. As a Cascade trainer, Susan provides training and support across her workplace. Her ability to guide and support trainees is evident in the way the model is adopted and maintained by those who experience Susan’s knowledge and follow-up support. If every workplace had her ability to embody the model, we would be see more reflective, informed workplaces that provide experiences for others that promote emotional regulation and autonomous thinking.
Barbara
Solihull Approach Trainer and one of our two early childhood sector specialists. Barbara’s extensive experience in the sector supports her ability to apply the approach within the Early Years Framework, particularly working with childhood trauma. Barbara also brings her unique experience from seeing how the approach can be infused into everything from the staff thinking framework, to the physical environments, as witnessed at the Dunbeth Family Learning Centre in Scotland. A true asset to our team.
Juanita
Solihull Approach Trainer, and early childhood specialist. Juanita brings knowledge, experience and skills from management, educational leadership and working directly with families. Her passion and big-picture thinking together with awareness of the changes within the early years and early childhood sector, fuels her understanding of how pertinent the Solihull Approach is right now. Juanita is also acutely aware of the different facets of the industry, and the need to safeguard early childhood practitioners.
