I MATTER AND RELATIONSHIP HEALTH MATTERS
Training in the I Matter Framework offers you preparation for a relationship health approach to improving adult and child wellbeing at home or work
Watch the very short video!
On this page are more ideas about why it is worth learning more - and information about the next steps you can take.
Have you ever thought there was something missing when it comes to improving child and adult mental health and wellbeing?
What if there were key ideas and skills that you could learn that would help you better manage a full range of common life challenges?
What if these ideas and skills could help you help yourself AND help others, at home and at work, through helping you take action?
What if your own wellbeing and confidence could improve through your own actions, through team work and through respect for brain science?
What if your own actions could help make the world a better place for you and others, especially in these difficult times?
The I Matter Learning Journey: Four Training Steps
Training in the I Matter Framework helps professionals and parents and individuals of all ages to work together to progress positive mental health and wellbeing with a relationship health approach.
You may have wondered why there was so little preparation for relationships or for becoming a parent or for working with children and families, or for figuring out how to address problems when they arise. Our mission is to help bridge that big gap - with your commitment to making a difference.
Improving relationship health isn't simple positive thinking. It's about you learning a clear way of understanding and talking about what is happening in many challenging situations so your own decision making and leadership can become more effective and easier.
Its about having preparation, ideas, resources and tools that support you in progressing important reflection, conversations and actions.
Four Training Steps
![Screenshot 2024-03-01 121347=what's that](https://img.simplerousercontent.net/scaled_image/10215659/173e56916ee744c3865577373e4c4fcfb6fe566d/Screenshot-2024-03-01-121347-what-s-that-176w-247h.png)
STEP 1:
EXPLORE THIS IDEA
GET THE FIRST BOOK
LEARN MORE
![Screenshot 2024-03-17 135747](https://img.simplerousercontent.net/scaled_image/10398766/c2cb95ca8d702f8cd390d795ec459e6152d569c8/Screenshot-2024-03-17-135747-263w-372h.png)
STEP 2:
CHOOSE YOUR
PRIORITY FOCUS
LEARN MORE
![Screenshot 2024-03-17 160052](https://img.simplerousercontent.net/scaled_image/10399191/86e8c38c62b1368411f3ff6891332088f5510d45/Screenshot-2024-03-17-160052-264w-373h.png)
STEP 3:
LEARN THE
I MATTER FRAMEWORK
LEARN MORE
![rhmlogo2](https://img.simplerousercontent.net/scaled_image/8846773/161b8d21782cf8581a9c06f17c46a5351a1308a3/rhmlogo2-348w-347h.jpg)
STEP 4:
PROGRESS YOUR
I MATTER
LEARNING JOURNEY
LEARN MORE
Who Am I?
Hello and Welcome - I'm Cathy, I am a Clinical Psychologist. I am also an I Matter Relationship Health Trainer and Coach.
I have over 25 years of experience working with children and adults first in the classroom and later in child and adult clinical psychology services. However something wasn't sitting right with me. Eventually in the face of huge levels of unmet need, I concluded that there was something really important missing.
Back in 2009 I set out to try to understand what was missing. I revisited a huge amount of research and evidence to try to understand what it was saying. Slowly the pieces start to come together into something really useful. One day it gained the name 'The I Matter Framework', which I started to teach.
What is the I Matter Framework and a Relationship Health Approach?
In 2020 I did a quick search on relationship health and to my astonishment found not one single book. That was when I understood why my own personal and professional journey had often felt so challenging. It seemed that in spite of a great deal of training there was a whole missing idea! Yikes!
I now say that the I Matter Framework offers a careful integration of decades of research evidence on what helps children and adults to thrive. It provides the theoretical foundations for relationship health education. To date, there has been education about healthy relationships but relationship health is more substantial - and of the same if not greater importance than physical health and mental health - because it underpins both.
In I Matter Training we often talk about the Missing Links!
When you get clearer, stronger and more skilled, life is easier and your roles are more rewarding. Everyone has a part to play.
So..
Relationship health, is an overlooked approach to improving adult and child mental health and wellbeing, helping with anxiety and managing difficult behaviour. It is exciting and it will get you thinking!
Relationship ill health, on the other hand can be very difficult - yet it is at the heart of some of our greatest wellbeing challenges. The issue is, we have not been discussing it.
I Matter Training equips adults and young people with insight and skills for relationship health. We help those who want to feel better equipped for well-being and confidence in their important roles with good foundation training and coaching in the I Matter Framework.
However - even when you WANT to help yourself and others with more relationship health - it can sometimes be tricky to know where to start. What we need to understand is both the Theory and how to put Theory into practice.
Initially I just used the I Matter Framework to help myself work with my clients and to help myself at home.
Later I created the I Matter Relationship Health Training and Coaching programme because my practice was filling up with smart, capable individuals, families and professionals who I could see wanted to make a difference at home and at work but were not confident on the foundations needed to support their decision making in difficult times. There was some key preparation missing.
As the ideas became clearer, I started to work with my local community in Kendal - notably with the Kendal Integrated Care Community and the Kendal Primary Care Network. Now we are moving into a new phase again.
So, relationship health is a very powerful idea when it comes to improving wellbeing for yourself and others, that you can use to help you turn things around with children and young people and with adults, and with teams. It happens to also be a key idea when thinking about environment and the planet and about the challenges we are facing there. Learning the I Matter Framework can help this process of change and transformation by offering a shared language that is accessible to professionals, parents and young people.
When you discover the theory and theory to practice of making a difference - you can move past overwhelm and burnout in your important roles - We would love you to join our community of I Matter Action Takers
On an I Matter Learning Journey we take you through a careful learning process:
THERE IS THE THEORY
In an I Matter Relationship Health learning journey first you learn the Theory set out in the I Matter Framework. This helps organise key well-evidenced ideas that are important to support good decision making around wellbeing. These ideas help your lightbulb moments!
THEN THE THEORY TO PRACTICE
Once you have started to understand the theory a next key and vital step is to put the theory ideas you have learned into practice so that you can start to see relationship health results. The learning community is there to help as you commit to making needed changes.
The I Matter Framework and a Relationship Health Approach has a Wide Range of Everyday Applications:
We can then apply the core theory to a very wide range of challenging situations such as the experience of anxiety or depression, the experience of parenting or caring, the experience of varied professional roles.
And Here is the Good News:
1. You Can Do This and 2. It's Not as Difficult as You Think
If you want a home life and a personal, professional or work life that is more rewarding and allows you to feel good about yourself and the contribution you are making, you can have it. It's not a pipe dream. It's possible to feel confident and calm and clear with solid insight and tools in a range of challenging situations. You are capable of showing up with a solid foundations for confidence and a mindset to learn and step up to challenges really well. The keys are your commitment, a good map and well informed support and tools to help you to get your mind and your capabilities on the same page. You have to be ready to work at it.
This work isn't about magic dust or empty affirmations, it's about preparation, and about learning some vitally important ideas, well-tested strategies and deep personal insights. We aren't meant to navigate this alone. So, if you want more relationship health, you need to do commit to it!
Through I Matter training, as an I Matter Action Taker, you gain a map through the maze - as well as help to read the map and then live it!.
Case Studies: Take a look at what others have said about the impact of learning about the I Matter Framework and about how to implement a relationship health approach.
A father taking part in an I Matter parenting focus class commented:
I have to be honest I wasn't at all keen on taking part - I couldn't see the point. However my partner persuaded me. 6 weeks on my relationships with my 3 children are improving, and my relationship with my partner and even my relationships at work feel better - I feel calmer and clearer about is happening and what I can do.
Four Training Steps
![Screenshot 2024-03-01 121347=what's that](https://img.simplerousercontent.net/scaled_image/10215659/173e56916ee744c3865577373e4c4fcfb6fe566d/Screenshot-2024-03-01-121347-what-s-that-176w-247h.png)
STEP 1:
EXPLORE THIS IDEA
GET THE FIRST BOOK
LEARN MORE
![Screenshot 2024-03-17 135747](https://img.simplerousercontent.net/scaled_image/10398766/c2cb95ca8d702f8cd390d795ec459e6152d569c8/Screenshot-2024-03-17-135747-263w-372h.png)
STEP 2:
CHOOSE YOUR
PRIORITY FOCUS
LEARN MORE
STEP 3:
LEARN THE
I MATTER FRAMEWORK
LEARN MORE
![rhmlogo2](https://img.simplerousercontent.net/scaled_image/8846773/161b8d21782cf8581a9c06f17c46a5351a1308a3/rhmlogo2-348w-347h.jpg)
STEP 4:
PROGRESS YOUR I MATTER
LEARNING JOURNEY
LEARN MORE
So While You Think about It - Here is a Free Download...
FREE I MATTER RELATIONSHIP HEALTH PROGRESS CHECKLIST
FREE I MATTER RELATIONSHIP HEALTH FIVE STEPS CHECKLIST
This I Matter Quick Relationship Health FIve Steps Checklist will help you think about your current concerns and situation so that you can clarify:
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What important details are currently working well
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What the gaps that need attention so as to make a difference
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What next priority steps are needed
One Very Important Point.
Studying I Matter does not in itself solve your problems. This is an educational programme only. We know that some situations are genuinely very challenging with no easy solutions. The purpose of studying I Matter and relationship health is to equip yourself with clear understanding and tools to unlock new ways forward in your own situation. Our focus is preparation, prevention, education. and recovery re-education.
More of What Others Say
The Kendal Integrated Care Community has adopted the I Matter Framework as a foundation for our thinking about how to work together in our community to help those who are struggling. Professionals and non-professionals are learning together. It feels good.
Dr Amy Lee
GP Safeguarding Lead Kendal Integrated Care Community
![](https://theme-assets.simplerousercontent.net/themes/24680/assets/7037e3b4b5d4ae7a5ee88fe51bee1beb4caa0e40/avatar.png)
The first time I completed the questions I didn't really understand what they were all about. By the third time I really understood what was being asked. At first we were really stuck. However It has been exciting to see the progress.
Parent
Parent of child with explosive behaviour
The I Matter approach of considering the adults needs alongside those of the children is such a useful way to look at things and has turned the dynamics on its head for me. I have realised my stress levels are having a huge impact on all of us as a family and learning to change this is starting to make a difference.
Parent
parent of teenager with challenges
EVERY teacher and parent would benefit from this programme. Parent carers are a group of people I would like to get this to. This would be a fantastic opportunity to bring a very isolated group of people together to improve the situation they are in.
Carer support professional
Children and adults of all ages
I am a HLTA but also a parent and foster carer. I work with primary aged children, have 3 teenagers, and foster toddlers! This programme has been so valuable for each and every relationship I encounter on a daily basis.
Higher Level Teaching Assistant and Foster Carer
Trained for work and home purposes
This programme has had a big impact on my own well-being which has meant that I have been more able to cope better with the expected and unexpected aspects of life in a calmer rational manner!!
School Leader
Key Stage 4 Leader and Parent
The registration questionnaire really got me thinking. I realised how isolated I had let myself become and that this was not helping me or my child. I took action the next day and phoned a friend. I also made another follow-up appointment to speak with my GP.
Anonymous
Parent
This training has been so much more than I expected it to be. I have learned so many things that have changed my understanding of myself and of my child. I have worked with many services before this but this has really made the difference. Now I know why I Matter
Anonymous
Parent of child with additional needs
Here are the Four Training Steps Again
![Screenshot 2024-03-01 121347=what's that](https://img.simplerousercontent.net/scaled_image/10215659/173e56916ee744c3865577373e4c4fcfb6fe566d/Screenshot-2024-03-01-121347-what-s-that-176w-247h.png)
STEP 1:
EXPLORE THIS IDEA
GET THE FIRST BOOK
LEARN MORE
![Screenshot 2024-03-17 135747](https://img.simplerousercontent.net/scaled_image/10398766/c2cb95ca8d702f8cd390d795ec459e6152d569c8/Screenshot-2024-03-17-135747-263w-372h.png)
STEP 2:
CHOOSE YOUR
PRIORITY FOCUS
LEARN MORE
STEP 3:
LEARN THE
I MATTER FRAMEWORK
LEARN MORE
![rhmlogo2](https://img.simplerousercontent.net/scaled_image/8846773/161b8d21782cf8581a9c06f17c46a5351a1308a3/rhmlogo2-348w-347h.jpg)
STEP 4:
PROGRESS YOUR I MATTER
LEARNING JOURNEY
LEARN MORE
Stay updated
Relationship Health Practice News offers ideas to strengthen you in progressing Relationship Health using I Matter principles.
Nothing presented in the I Matter free or paid course materials creates a client – professional or patient-provider relationship between you and Dr Cathy Betoin or I Matter Training Ltd. The free and paid course materials were developed strictly for educational purposes and should not be considered medical, behavioral, legal, or therapeutic advice. Feedback listed is unpaid and will not represent all participants. Experiences of those who have provided feedback do not guarantee results for others. None included are from current participants. Read full Terms and Disclaimer ClICK HERE