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About us
We are raising emotional health worldwide through evidence-based training and learning
Togetherness is an NHS emotional health team sharing evidence-based teaching and learning about emotional wellbeing and preventative mental health in the UK and around the world.
Togetherness equips people with lifelong skills that build emotional resilience and wellbeing. We help foster robust relationships and connections that transform how we communicate and interact with others.
Our approach offers practical and accessible support for people across all walks of life.
We want to raise emotional health worldwide for a kinder, happier, and healthier society.
What we do
Togetherness offers a range of accessible learning pathways to help everyone understand more about brain development, emotional wellbeing and parenting for healthier relationships and happier lives.
We support professional practice by delivering training and resources for practitioners and teams who work with children and families. The training builds greater understanding of childhood development and emotional health and equips practitioners with a relational framework to achieve greater impact for families while raising staff satisfaction too. 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. This might include delivering parent learning in the community or embedding reflective practice in systems.
Building on more than 25 years of experience and rich expertise, we respond to evolving beliefs, attitudes, and awareness to deliver results with maximum impact.
The Solihull Approach theoretical model
Togetherness is bringing the Solihull Approach to the world. The Solihull Approach is a recognised and tested foundational, integrative model developed by clinical psychologists and psychotherapists working in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, in collaboration with front-line universal services (Health Visitors and School Nurses).
Developed in Solihull in 1996, the model focuses on emotional health in relationships and is proven to be transformative for family support interventions as well as individual learning.
Extensive research has been published since its creation, and a randomised control trial (RCT) was published demonstrating the impact on child behaviour, parental emotional health and the parent-child relationship in 2019. This led to the programme’s recognition by the Early Intervention Foundation, now Foundations.
In 2025, the team delivering the Solihull Approach training and other services changed their name from the Solihull Approach to Togetherness. Togetherness reflects the essence of the approach and what the team believe underpins great relationships as the key to emotional strength.
“Togetherness gives teams a framework to guide effective practice and a shared language for a consistent and impactful approach to emotional health.”
Dr Hazel Douglas
Director and Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Child Psychotherapist
Our history
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1996 | First ever meeting, which led to the development of the Solihull Approach model. |
| 2001 | First publication of the First Five Years Resource pack to support Health Visitors. |
| 2004 | First publication of the School Years Resource pack. |
| 2013 | The in-person course, Understanding your child, is one of the first courses for parents to receive the Government’s CANparent Award. The online course for parents, Understanding your child, is launched. |
| 2018 | ‘The Solihull Approach in Practice’ is published. |
| 2019 | Research using a Randomised Control Trial demonstrates the impact of parent groups. |
| 2023 | Our 15th online course, Understanding your own trauma, is released on inourplace.co.uk. |
| 2025 | Togetherness is launched to recharge the Solihull Approach for modern times. |
Rooted in the NHS
Born in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Solihull and now based in University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, we are proud to uphold NHS values in all we do.
Part of the Association for Infant Mental Health
As a valued and long-standing partner to AiMH UK sharing expertise and resources, Togetherness is recognised in the AiMH UK Directory and strives to raise awareness about infant mental health through a range of free resources including antenatal and postnatal programmes.
Approved by Foundations
A randomised control trial (RCT) was published in 2019 demonstrating the positive impact on child behaviour, parental emotional health and the parent child relationship in 2019. This programme has since been rated by Foundations.
Square Peg Associate
We support Square Peg’s mission to build inclusive, accessible systems and services to enable every young person to thrive and shine, responding appropriately to children who struggle to attend, access or remain in education.
Association for Video Interaction Guidance UK
We enjoy a close relationship with the Association for Video Interaction Guidance UK, with whom we share values and underpinning theoretical influences. We share the belief that trust is built through recognition and empathy for what challenges people might be facing in their lives.