The Reconnected is the brain child of play therapy and breathwork experts, Eleanor & Emma.
We warmly welcome you to a new paradigm of parenting... a more modern, intuitive and value-aligned approach.
Together, we have built a community of families that are changing the course of their children’s future, co-regulating more effectively, and forming new patterns in their homes.
Our methods are grounded in practical strategies and integrated practice. Between us, we have qualifications in breathwork, play therapy, and counselling. Plus, 10 beautiful children that fuel our mission and inspire a legacy.
Our signature course, Reconnected Parenting, was founded in 2019. It has been broadly recommended and quickly evolved into the global movement that exists today.
Join us, and change your parenting experience forever.
Meet your guides
Hi, I’m Emma (otherwise known as @newearth.mama)
I am a mother of 5 beautiful children; Atlas, Solaris, Venus, Faedra & Halo and stepmother to my partner’s teenage son, Phoenix. Each one of them has pushed me in their own unique ways to expand my awareness of myself.
Each of my children mirrors parts of myself and my relationship to the world over my lifetime. The lessons they provide are the fuel for this community, and for Reconnected Parenting to grow and expand infinitely. To be a safe, fun, connected place for parents that are willing to ‘do the work’ to build a new paradigm of parenting and conscious living. Prior to having kids I was an international model and lived a dramatically different life. Whilst it was fun, I was desperately unhappy, anxious and lost.
When my son Atlas came into being (and even before he was born), I knew I wanted to do things differently, in a way that felt fulfilling to me. This led to a whole lot of soul-searching, and to the discovery of my Breathwork practice.
I did a mastery in Rebirthing Breathwork and it helped me to reflect on my own childhood. While it was far from terrible, I wished that the adults took better responsibility for their own big feelings, and didn’t punish me for mine. I wished for more magic, connection, and presence.
In 2016, as I welcomed my second child, I met Eleanor and she introduced me to the Connected Play methods that she used in her practice. When I combined those methods with breathwork, I found that I was able to show up for my children in a way that had never been modelled for me. It was revolutionary, and I felt disappointed that other parents were missing this knowledge! Together, Eleanor and I decided to change that.
There really is no other program (and community) out there like Reconnected Parenting and we continue to marvel at the transformative power of the tools we teach. It’s a huge blessing to whelp parents create new, healthy patterns for their children.
Hi, I’m Eleanor.
I’m a registered counsellor, breathworker and play therapist, with a BA of Social Science (Counselling), a BA of Psychology (Hons), a Diploma in Breathwork and a Graduate Diploma in Child Centred Play Therapy. I am also a mother of five wonderful children.
My interest in self-development and child psychology was seeded by my parents, who are both early childhood educators and also introduced me to concepts of spirituality at a young age.
Upon graduating from high school, I decided to study psychology. But at the last minute, I withdrew and resolved to travel instead. On that journey, I met my children’s father, and so began an era of travel, coupling and motherhood (that later made my psychology studies all the more meaningful!)
I first discovered Breathwork when my kids grew to an age where I started feeling triggered by them. I felt transformed. I trained with the incredible Alakh Analda, who pioneered gentle parasympathetic breathwork in the 80s (which is so effective when it comes to creative change in one’s life.)
Around this time, I also studied a Social Science Degree with a major in counselling and started working with parents and children at a local charity. This organisation was strongly anchored in Solutions Focused and Strengths-Based Therapies, and it sat beautifully alongside my studies in Breathwork.
Breathwork remained an alternative practice that was separate from my mainstream counselling work. But both practices fuelled my belief in an individual’s capacity to create change in their lives.
In 2014, my counselling team attended the Australian Childhood Trauma Conference and it opened up my world and started to bring what I knew about Breathwork into the Counselling realm. The keynote speakers touched on the Nervous System, the impact of childhood experiences on adult lives, and the role of the body in healing trauma. They were talking about what was happening in Breathwork from a scientific lens! It was thrilling to put the pieces together.
By this stage, my insatiable love of learning had brought me to study two more degrees, one in Psychology and the second in Child Centred Play Therapy, and this combination allowed me to focus on neuroscience, neurobiology and attachment. For my thesis, I looked at the effects that Breathwork on the Nervous System over time. I was thrilled to contribute to the literature on Breathwork from a western science perspective. Yet professionally, I overcommitted, and burnt out.
I wasn’t raising my kids the way that I wanted too. I had been so present for their first five years of life, but I blinked and suddenly my eldest was a teenager. We hit pause on work and decided to take a year off, travel, and reassess. Instantly I knew, there was no going back. And before long, The Reconnected was born!
Our theory, training & practice
The Reconnected is a unique body of work: A mix of esoteric, Eastern practices and alternative therapies, and Western counselling, psychology and science. We have drawn from personal and professional reflections and learnings over 20 years.
The main theories that we teach from are:
- Breathwork Mastery ~ Alakh Analda
- Child Centred Play Therapy ~ Gary Landreth, Virginia Axline, Dr William Nordling
- Poly-Vagal Theory ~ Stephen Porges
- Interpersonal Neurobiology ~ Dr Daniel Siegel, Dr Allan Shore, Dan Hughes, Pat Ogden, and Bonnie Badenoch
When we share a concept directly from a theory base, we reference the author. However, if you are interested in our broad approach, please feel free to research the abovementioned theories.
Eleanor would also like to acknowledge Australian Play Therapists Donna Berry and Kathy O’Conner who, through supervision of her clinical practice in the playroom, helped her to understand and apply these theories.
