Circle of Security
This relationship-based, attachment-informed 8-module program offers tools to strengthen bonds with your children and supports them in feeling more secure.
Grounded in attachment, development, and neuroscience research, you'll discover ways to develop your child's self-esteem, meet their emotional and relational needs, and support their ability to forge healthy relationships both within and outside of the family.
Delivery: Online
Program: Eight two-hour sessions, over eight weeks.
Price: $599 (Individual) or $170 per member (Group)
(Circle of Security Internation, 2025)
Who is COS-P for
What to expect
How it helps
Circle of Security is for parents and carers of children aged 0 to 12 years old who would like to strengthen secure relationship bonds with their children to help them thrive.
The program will help you identity the ways children signal their need for greater connection and emotional support, and how you can meet those needs effectively.
You will attend weekly workshops online for eight weeks. Through information, discussions, self-reflection, and goal settings, you'll gain insight into how your child's behaviour reflects their needs, and build skills to support those needs, whether its enjoyable or challenging.
Gain confidence in parenting, and enhances caregiver sensitivity, responsiveness, reflection, and awareness of attachment dynamics and needs.
What you'll learn
Week 1: Welcome to Circle of Security Parenting
Learn the foundations of secure attachment and gain greater confidence, sensitivity, and awareness in your parenting.
Week 2: Exploring Children's Needs Around the Circle
Learn to recognise your child's attachment needs, identify behavioural cues, and respond in ways that promote security and connection.
Week 3: 'Being With' on the Circle
Develop skills to support your child's emotional development by helping them understand, express, and manage their feelings.
Week 4: 'Being with' Infants
Learn how early responsive caregiving supports your infant's emotional wellbeing, confidence, and emerging sense of self.
Week 5: The Path to Security
Understand how secure relationships help children navigate challenges, manage change, and build resilience.
Week 6: Exploring our Struggles
Increase self-awareness by exploring how your own experiences can influence parenting, while strengthening compassion for yourself and your child.
Week 7: Rupture and Repair of Relationships
Learn practical ways to repair disconnection, rebuild trust, and strengthen your relationship after difficult moments.
Week 8: Summary and Celebration
Reflect on your learning, celebrate your growth as a caregiver, and leave feeling more confident, connected, and equipped to support your child. Participants receive a Certificate of Completion.
Circle of Security Key Concepts
Understanding Attachment
The Circle of Security is a visual map of attachment to help caregivers better understand and meet children's attachment needs. It depicts the interplay between a child's need for exploration (going out) and their need for comfort and safety (coming in), with the caregiver being both a Secure Base and a Safe Haven for landing.
The Importance of Attachment
Attachment theory, developed by John Bowlby, highlights that close relationships are central to human wellbeing throughout life. From childhood to old age, secure connections provide comfort, resilience, and a sense of belonging. Drawing strength and enjoyment from life and giving it to others.
The Circle of Security: A Visual "Map" of Caregiver-Child Attachment
The Circle of Security is a visual framework that helps caregivers understand and respond to children's attachment needs. It encourages reflection on how children seek both support and independence, helping build secure and trusting relationships.
The myth of the Perfect Parent
Many parents believe they should always be patient, attentive, and emotionally available, never lose your patience or say the wrong thing, or have endless amounts of energy. In reality, secure attachment is not built through perfection.
Research shows that strong parent-child relationships are formed through a cycle of connection, disconnection, and reconnection - referred to as rupture and repair or otherwise the rhythem of the relationship. Mistakes and misunderstandings are a normal part of every relationship.
What's important is HOW we repair and that we do.
You Don't Have to Get It Right — You Just Have to Come Back
One of the most important findings in attachment research is that security grows through repair, not perfection.
What Rupture and Repair Looks Like
A rupture is any moment of disconnection, such as:
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Losing patience
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Being distracted or unavailable
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Saying something hurtful and you didn't mean
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Misunderstanding a child's feelings
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Responding in a way that isn't helpful
Repair is the act of reconnecting. It might involve:
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Offering comfort
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Acknowledging a mistake or something unfair said
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Recognising we got it wrong and listening more closely
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Trying a different approach rather than dismissing or avoiding
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Getting close
Even small moments of returning and reconnecting help children feel safe and understood.
Children are watching for the return. What they need to know and experience consistently is their parent after a rupture returns and tries again to get it right.
Why Repair Matters
Through repeated experiences of rupture and repair, children learn that relationships can withstand challenges. They discover disconnection isn't permanent and that difficult feelings are manageable and that trusted adults remain available and still love them even after hard moments.
This builds resilience, emotional security, and confidence in seeking support in the future when needed, so they don't have to carry difficulties alone.
A message for Parents
If you're thinking about a moment you wish had gone differently, remember that what matters most is your willingness to return. This discomfort or guilt serves as a guide driving you to act from your values - that the relationship matters and is worth healing.
You don't need perfect words or a perfect plan. Reaching out, reconnecting, and trying again can be incredibly meaningful for a child. You know your child best.
If there is a conversation you've been putting off, today is a good day to begin.
Summary of Key Priniciples
The Circle of Security model is based on several key ideas:
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Early attachment relationships strongly influence later wellbeing.
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Secure attachments are protective factors, and support social competence, emotional regulation, resilience, and healthy development. Forming healthy stress response systems.
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Attachment relationships can change and strengthen over time.
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Growth and healing happen within safe, trusting relationships (secure bases).
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Lasting change comes from developing relationship skills, not simply learning techniques to manage behaviour.
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All caregivers want the best for their children.