Building parent and family resilience through free expert‑led online learning and on‑demand resources.
Resilience Sessions
Our resilience sessions provide free, expert‑led online learning designed to strengthen your wellbeing, build resilience, and enhance your parenting skills. Each session offers practical, interactive guidance to help you navigate the unique pressures of parenting and service life – supporting not only your own confidence and wellbeing, but also your child’s emotional needs and development.
Whether you’re looking for strategies to manage stress, understand behaviour, or feel more supported as a parent, our programme is here to help.
Resilience Resources
Our resilience resources offer practical, trusted guidance to support early years parents.
Here, you’ll find expert‑informed articles, tools and webinar recordings designed to help you navigate the unique challenges of parenting and service life.
From managing stress and building resilience to understanding children’s behaviour and supporting their development, these resources are easy to access whenever you need them. Each piece is created to empower you with strategies that strengthen your own wellbeing as well as your child’s confidence, stability and growth.
Whether you’re looking for quick tips, deeper learning or follow‑up materials from our webinars, this hub gives you a central place to explore, learn and feel supported.
Upcoming Resilience Sessions
Age-Appropriate Conversations for our Difficult World
In this practical webinar, research psychologist and parenting expert Dr Amanda Gummer will explore how children understand complex topics at different ages and stages and share simple strategies to help parents and carers have open, honest and age-appropriate conversations. You’ll leave with greater confidence in supporting your child through questions, worries and uncertainty, while helping them feel safe, reassured and understood.
About the speaker:
Dr. Amanda Gummer is a psychologist and play expert, passionate about helping families raise happy, confident children. She founded the Good Play Guide to give parents independent advice on toys, games, and activities, ensuring children enjoy a healthy “play diet.” Amanda is regularly featured in the media sharing practical parenting tips and insights, and she has written the best-selling book Play. With over 20 years’ experience, Amanda is committed to helping families navigate modern childhood and keep play at the heart of family life.
Understanding Family Dynamics: Navigating Communication During Stressful Times
In this session, Breakup and Divorce Coach Chris Paterson-Deacon will explore how stress can affect the way we communicate with those around us and why people often respond differently under pressure. By understanding common communication patterns and family dynamics, parents and carers can become more aware of their own responses, better understand the reactions of others, and develop practical strategies to navigate difficult conversations more effectively. Through greater self-awareness and understanding, this session will help families build stronger connections, reduce conflict, and maintain healthier communication during life’s inevitable ups and downs.
About the speaker:
Born in Lebanon and raised across the Middle East, Christine began her career in the arts before joining the RAF in 1995. Training as a Provost Officer, she served on multiple UK and overseas tours—including the Falkland Islands, Germany and Cyprus—gaining firsthand insight into the pressures of service life and its impact on families.
After leaving the military in 2011 and settling in Devon, she volunteered as a RAF Association Caseworker and worked with charities supporting wellbeing and mental health. Drawing on her lived experience of divorce and recovery, she is now an accredited Breakup and Divorce Coach, helping individuals navigate separation with clarity, confidence and dignity, as well as a McKenzie Friend and Future Vision Practitioner.
When Mealtimes Feel Hard: Fussy Eating, Food Refusal and Changing Routines
Specialist Paediatric Dietitian Lucy Upton will explore why fussy eating happens, what’s typical development and what may warrant further support. She’ll share practical strategies for responding to food refusal, introducing variety without creating conflict, and maintaining positive mealtime experiences during periods of change and uncertainty.
You’ll leave with realistic, evidence-based tools to help navigate mealtime challenges and greater confidence in supporting your child’s relationship with food.
About the speaker:
Lucy Upton is a leading UK paediatric dietitian, feeding therapist, and founder of The Children’s Dietitian. With over 16 years of clinical experience across the NHS and private practice, she specialises in early years nutrition, fussy eating, food allergy, and complex feeding challenges.
Known for her evidence-based yet highly practical approach, Lucy supports families in building positive, stress-free relationships with food. Her work spans one-to-one consultations, feeding therapy, digital education, and scalable resources for parents. She is also the author of The Ultimate Guide to Children’s Nutrition, published in 2025.
A trusted voice in children’s nutrition, Lucy has collaborated with major brands and appeared across national media. She translates complex nutritional science into clear, relatable advice, and with a warm, engaging style and strong on-camera presence, is well positioned across broadcast, digital content, and brand partnerships in the parenting, health, and lifestyle space.
Previous Resilience Sessions
Staying steady: Looking after yourself so you can look after them with Carola Becker
This session is about you. Not just you as a parent, but you as a person — because the two are more connected than we often acknowledge.
Research confirms that a parent’s emotional state is one of the most important influences on a young child’s sense of safety. When you’re steadier, they feel it. When you’re running on empty, they feel that too. But this isn’t about adding pressure — it’s about reframing self-care not as a luxury, but as one of the most practical parenting tools available to you. Because if you look after yourself, you have something left to give to your child.
Carola Becker is an award-winning wellbeing consultant with over a decade of experience supporting individuals to better understand their mental health and cognitive performance. She is passionate about helping people feel more steady, resilient, and better equipped to navigate the demands of modern life – including the challenges that come with caring for others.
Through her work, she is particularly passionate about the brain and how we can look after our wellbeing in the context of everyday life.
As a speaker, Carola delivers sessions across the UK and internationally, focusing on practical, accessible ways to support wellbeing and productivity, especially during times of stress and uncertainty. Her work helps people build greater awareness of how their thoughts, habits and lifestyle choices can impact how they feel and function.
Healthy sleep for parents and guardians: Supporting wellbeing with Dr Iuliana Hartescu
This session introduces the foundations of healthy sleep, helping parents and guardians understand key factors that influence sleep quality and overall wellbeing. It will briefly explore common challenges that can affect sleep in a family context.
Building on this, the session suggests practical ways to support and improve sleep within everyday family life. This includes simple, realistic approaches to routines, environment, and lifestyle factors that may help enhance overall sleep quality while managing the demands of caring for others.
Dr Iuliana Hartescu is one of the world’s leading sleep experts. A Senior Lecturer in Psychology, specialising in sleep health and behavioural medicine, her research focuses on insomnia, lifestyle interventions, and the impact of sleep on health and performance. Dr Hartescu leads research across laboratory, epidemiological, and clinical settings to better understand sleep duration, metabolic health, and wellbeing in complex populations. Drawing on extensive academic, clinical, and applied experience, Dr Hartescu brings an evidence-based, accessible approach to improving sleep and long-term health outcomes.
Raising rested children: Empowering families to build healthy sleep habits
This is a child focused session offering practical guidance on promoting healthy sleep habits in children through routines, environment, and daytime behaviours.
Dr Iuliana Hartescu is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology, specialising in sleep health and behavioural medicine. Their research focuses on insomnia, lifestyle interventions, and the impact of sleep on health and performance, including clinical trials examining how physical activity and behavioural strategies improve sleep quality. Dr Hartescu leads research across laboratory, epidemiological, and clinical settings to better understand sleep duration, metabolic health, and wellbeing in complex populations. Drawing on extensive academic, clinical, and applied experience, Dr Hartescu brings an evidence based, accessible approach to improving sleep and long term health outcomes.
Coping with Stress and Change
Change is part of family and service life, but it can also bring stress and uncertainty for both adults and children. This practical resilience session explores why change feels challenging, how stress affects our thoughts and behaviour, and simple, evidence‑based ways to stay emotionally steady and support children through times of transition. You’ll leave with practical tools you can use in everyday life to build resilience for yourself and your family.
In this session, you will:
- Understand why change triggers stress
- Learn how adults and children respond to stress and change
- Explore how stress affects the brain and body
- Discover practical ways to manage stress as a parent
- Gain strategies to support children through change
With over two decades of experience supporting families, Sara has built her career around empowering others through knowledge, compassion, and practical expertise. She has delivered parent training and led workshops across the UK for childcare professionals, with a particular passion for strengthening support for fathers and helping families navigate the challenges of everyday life.
For the past nine years, Sara has brought this commitment to the Royal Air Forces Association, where she manages the Association’s Training Team. In this role, she oversees the initial training and ongoing professional development of approximately 1,700 welfare and wellbeing volunteers—ensuring they have the skills, confidence, and understanding needed to support the RAF community.
Sara also leads the development and delivery of the Association’s accredited programmes, Finding it Tough? and Navigating Dementia, both designed to offer accessible, practical tools to members of the RAF family.
Her extensive background working with families, combined with her deep understanding of the military environment, gives Sara a unique insight into the pressures faced by serving personnel, veterans, and their loved ones. Her sessions are grounded in real-life experience, always aiming to provide meaningful, helpful strategies that make a difference in daily life.
Keeping Routines When Life Feels Uncertain
Deployment disrupts everything. Schedules, sleep, the shape of the day — and with it, children’s sense of security. This session can help you reclaiming a little of that ground, in a way that’s genuinely manageable.
Predictability is one of the things young children need most. Not certainty — life can’t offer that — but a reliable sequence that tells their developing brain: I know this world. I am safe here. The good news is that routine doesn’t have to be perfect to be powerful. Consistency is key. A warm, consistent sequence — even a loose one — is far more valuable than a strict timetable that falls apart under pressure.
We’ll look at which routines carry the most weight for young children, how to build the absent parent meaningfully into the day, and what to do when things inevitably go sideways. Because they will — and that’s okay too.
We will share a simple, practical approach to structure you can implement immediately, even when so much feels out of your control.
Carola Becker is an award-winning wellbeing consultant with over a decade of experience supporting individuals to better understand their mental health and cognitive performance. She is passionate about helping people feel more steady, resilient, and better equipped to navigate the demands of modern life – including the challenges that come with caring for others.
Through her work, she is particularly passionate about the brain and how we can look after our wellbeing in the context of everyday life.
As a speaker, Carola delivers sessions across the UK and internationally, focusing on practical, accessible ways to support wellbeing and productivity, especially during times of stress and uncertainty. Her work helps people build greater awareness of how their thoughts, habits and lifestyle choices can impact how they feel and function.
Staying Steady Together: Co-Regulating With Your Child
Young children cannot manage their emotions independently. Their brains simply aren’t developed enough yet. What they can do is borrow calm from the adults around them. This is co-regulation — and understanding it can completely change how you experience your child’s difficult moments.
We will cover what’s actually happening in your child’s brain during an outburst, and what you can do in the moment to help them through it — using your voice, your breath, your presence. We’ll also talk about what happens when you lose your own composure, because that’s not failure. That’s being human!
And we’ll look at the remarkable power of repair — why coming back after a hard moment might be one of the most important things you ever do as a parent.
You will leave understanding that you don’t have to be perfect to be exactly what your child needs.
Carola Becker is an award-winning wellbeing consultant with over a decade of experience supporting individuals to better understand their mental health and cognitive performance. She is passionate about helping people feel more steady, resilient, and better equipped to navigate the demands of modern life – including the challenges that come with caring for others.
Through her work, she is particularly passionate about the brain and how we can look after our wellbeing in the context of everyday life.
As a speaker, Carola delivers sessions across the UK and internationally, focusing on practical, accessible ways to support wellbeing and productivity, especially during times of stress and uncertainty. Her work helps people build greater awareness of how their thoughts, habits and lifestyle choices can impact how they feel and function.
Social Connections Part 1: Understanding your Social World with Dr Jamie Barker
Social connection plays a key role in protecting our mental health and wellbeing, particularly when life feels busy, unsettled, or isolating. This webinar explores why togetherness matters and how changes in our social world over time can affect how supported we feel.
Dr Jamie Barker will introduce the ideas behind social connection, belonging, and identity, helping parents and guardians reflect on their own social maps and capacity for connection. Drawing on experience from business, sport, and military settings, the session highlights how strengthening connection can reduce isolation and support wellbeing. You’ll leave with simple strategies you can use in everyday life to strengthen connection and improve your wellbeing.
Dr Jamie Barker is a Reader in Applied Sport and Performance Psychology at Loughborough University, and a Registered Practitioner Sport and Exercise Psychologist.
He is a world leading expert in stress, group dynamics, wellbeing and mental health across sport, business, and military contexts. With over 25 years of applied practice, Jamie has extensive experience translating psychological science into real-world performance and wellbeing outcomes.
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Frequently Asked Questions
The RAFAKidz Resilience Hub is a free online space offering trusted guidance, practical tools and expert‑led support to help parents and families build resilience and wellbeing.
The Resilience Hub supports parents of young children, alongside anyone involved in early years wellbeing. It reflects the unique challenges of RAF and service life, while offering practical guidance that is relevant to families everywhere.
You’ll find a mix of:
- Expert‑led online resilience sessions
- On‑demand session recordings
- Articles, tools and downloadable resources
- Practical guidance on topics such as sleep, stress, attachment, behaviour and parenting confidence.
All content is designed to fit around busy family life.
We offer both live sessions, where you can join expert speakers and submit questions, and on demand recordings so you can watch sessions again or catch up at a time that suits you.
Not at all. While live sessions offer the opportunity to submit questions, all resilience sessions are recorded and made available in the Hub so you can access the guidance whenever you need it.
Yes, all RAFAKidz Resilience Hub content is completely free to access.
Our sessions are led by trusted professionals and industry‑leading experts with experience supporting parents, children and family wellbeing. All content is carefully selected to ensure it is practical, evidence‑based and supportive.
Most resilience sessions last around 30 minutes, making them easy to fit into your day while still offering meaningful, practical takeaways.
Yes. During live sessions, you’ll have the opportunity to submit questions to the speaker. Some sessions may also include questions submitted by parents in advance.
No. Webinars are hosted online via Microsoft Teams and can be accessed via a standard web browser. You’ll receive joining details one day the resilience session you have registered for.
Yes. The Hub and session recordings are mobile-friendly, so you can access content on a phone, tablet or computer.
Our guidance focuses on supporting parents with practical, reassuring advice, while recognising the additional challenges that RAF and service life can sometimes bring.
The Hub offers guidance, tools and reassurance but is not a replacement for medical or professional care. If you’re concerned about your child’s health or your own wellbeing, we encourage you to seek advice from a qualified professional.
We regularly update the Hub with new resilience session and resources, so there’s always something new to explore.
We’d love to hear your feedback. After each resilience session, you’ll receive a short survey within 48 hours to share your thoughts. If you’d like to suggest future topics or give feedback at any time, you’re always welcome to email us at [email protected].
