THE HAVEN & BASE STORY
Haven & Base was founded by Karen Ditchfield to provide high quality, attachment based support, advice and education to parents, babies and children throughout pregnancy, birth and beyond.
The name Haven & Base is a reflection on a quote by John Bowlby (the attachment theorist) who stated that; parents should provide their children with ‘a safe haven’ and ‘a secure base’ (particularly during the early years) from where a child can grow and develop to reach their true potential in life. Karen's aim is to provide a ‘safe haven’ and a ‘secure base’ for both parents and their children so that they may flourish and thrive together.
Karen understands and values the importance of a positive early years experience for both a child and their parent and her services are built upon this assumption.
For a child, early experience provides the foundation for life and can shape and form the way a child grows and develops, how a child copes with feelings and emotions and how a child forms relationships across their lifespan.
For a parent, early parenting can be a tough job and can impact upon self-identity and the simple joy of being a parent.
Each one of Karen's services have been carefully designed to support parents, babies and young children throughout the perinatal and early years experience with everything from 1:1 parent coaching, educational workshops, online parent courses and family events.
Karen is based in West Sussex but will see clients across Surrey, Sussex and London. She runs parent workshops across Surrey & Sussex.
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KAREN DITCHFIELD'S MISSION
Karen strives to provide high quality, evidenced based services that:
Support a parents transition to parenthood
Strengthen and support early parent-infant relationships
Help parents to develop skills and knowledge about infant and child behaviour and capabilities
Promote mental health well being for the whole family
Empower parents to make their own informed choices about their own child
Encourage sensitive and responsive parenting
Help parents to understand their own child's needs across their development
Help parents to develop resilience and strategies for coping with stress and anxiety.
