Circle of Security Parenting

A step-by-step map for raising an emotionally secure child

Circle of Security Parenting provides a roadmap for understanding your child’s emotional needs and how to meet them. Through videos, discussions, observing your relationship between the sessions and experimenting with ideas covered in the course, Circle of Security Parenting can help you enhance your ability to respond to your child in a way that deepens their emotional security.

How it works

After 60 years of research we know that the more secure children are, the more they are able to:

Enjoy more happiness with their parents
Feel less anger at their parents
Turn to their parents for help when in trouble
Solve problems on their own
Get along better with friends
Have lasting friendships
Solve problems with friends
Have better relationships with brothers and sisters
Have higher self-esteem
Know that most problems will have an answer
Trust that good things will come their way
Trust the people they love
Know how to be kind to those around them

(Cooper, Hoffman and Powell; Circle of Security International, 2018)

What you will learn

Welcome to Circle of Security Parenting. This module helps discover how we can see the world through our children’s eyes and understand their emotional needs underneath their behaviours.
Exploring Our Children’s Needs All the Way Around the Circle. This module is about noticing the moments when our children are reaching for connection or are ready to go explore, and how we can respond in ways that build trust.
“Being-With” on the Circle. This module is about creating a relationship in which more feelings can be shared.
Being With Infants on the Circle. Even though module 4 focuses on the infants, parents of children of all ages find it helpful. One of the things we explore in this module is delight, and how it nurtures children’s sense of worth and belonging.
The Path to Security. Module 5 is designed to help you explore how your reactions can get in the way of meeting your children’s need for comfort and exploration.
Exploring Our Struggles. In Module 6, we look at how those reactions can get in the way of being the hands you want to be for your children.
Rupture and Repair in Relationships. Module 7 is designed to help us get better at noticing the ruptures when they happen and repairing them
Summary and Celebration. In Module 8, we look back at what we’ve learned, go over anything that needs to be clarified, celebrate your growth, and make a plan for nurturing security going forward.

Circle of Security Parenting builds on over 60 years of attachment research, empowering parents worldwide to nurture emotionally secure children. Now translated into 13 languages, this approach helps parents to understand their children’s emotional needs and build strong, lasting relationships.

How it works

Here's what other parents said about Circle of Security Parenting

"The Circle of Security Parenting course was very supportive. It felt like meeting up with an old friend who helped me to find my own answers to some of my own worries around parenting. I found that it had a good balance of resources and space to think and feel. The course was both reassuring and helpful. I will be thinking about the content far into the future, as it is helping me to be the kind of parent I want to be for my daughter."

Mum of a 9-year-old daughter

"My husband and I joined Una's Circle of Security course when relations with our eldest of three sons became particularly challenging, for me especially. I felt I had read all the books on attachment theory and knew what I ought to be doing as a mother, but couldn't translate that into impactful action in practice. In Una and in the Circle of Security programme, we found a parenting resource that has actually facilitated a shift in consciousness for us both, with all of us benefiting from the greater harmony that has allowed for at home (and elsewhere in our lives). Through the course, we were able to not only identify what particular aspects of parenting we found triggering as individuals, but their root causes as well, enabling healing of those areas and - most importantly - a change in the way we parent our kids. Very simply, the Circle of Security model is profound and Una is a skilled and compassionate guide through the material, asking the right questions to help you look deeper. I am extremely grateful to her for introducing us to a resource that we will continue to use and revisit, for the early years of our boys' lives through to adolescence and beyond."

Franceska Jones

How it works

1:1 Circle of Security Parenting Course

Course length: 8 weekly 90-minute sessions

Support in between the sessions:

Course workbook
Voice message support

Location: online, via Zoom

Course start date: flexible

Fee: £950 (If you need a report after completing the course, there will be an additional charge of £95).

If you would like to explore how Circle of Security can help you, fill in the Getting to Know You form. As soon as you submit the form, you'll receive a link to my calendar to schedule a free no-obligation initial consultation where we can explore if this is the right fit for you. Click the link below to get started.

Open Getting to Know You form

Group Circle of Security Parenting Course

Course length: 24 weekly 50-minute sessions (term time)

Support in between the sessions:

Course workbook

Location: online, via Zoom

Course start date: September 11, 2025

Sessions take place on Thursdays, 10.30 - 11.20 am

Fee: one payment of £525 or 6 monthly payments of £95. (If you need a report after completing the course, there will be an additional charge of £95).

Open Getting to Know You form

Frequently asked questions

What happens during the sessions?

There are three parts to each session:

Checking in about your week, your observations, reflections, wins and challenges.
Studying the course material: each session covers an essential piece of information about developing secure relationships. The content is delivered in a highly interactive and relatable way through videos of parents and their children, graphics and plenty of time for reflection and discussions that will help you to weave your insights into your day-to-day parenting.
End of session reflection offers an opportunity to decide what you would like to take away from the session and explore further during the coming week.

Do I need to do anything between sessions?

The most important thing is to keep your insights from the previous session in your awareness as you go about your day-to-day parenting. It’s not about doing more; it’s about doing differently.

If you would like to explore how Circle of Security Parenting can help you, please fill in my Getting to Know You form.

If you would like to learn more about how Circle of Security Parenting can help navigate parenting after separation, please register to watch the webinar below.