Cathy Betoin's I Matter Blog and Podcast

I Matter Training was set up as a company because once the I Matter Framework had came into birth in 2011 there was a need for a supportive structure to take the training out to people who need it.  Long text books didn't seem to fit the bill as the audience we wanted to address was families and the very busy professionals who support them.  Online learning seemed an obvious way forward but in the absence of a obvious structure to support that we had to create something. ...

Leicester to Northampton via Market Harborough

The rain had stopped and the clothes mostly dried out as we prepared to leave Leicester.

The gradients had also flattened and this was to be a days riding along long straight paths with some unexpectedly challlenging off roading across fields of ripening wheat and down paths that were probably not intended for cyclicsts.

So what exactly do you call an old railway line that is now being used as a cycle path?  Surely there should be some sort of...

Derby to Leicester via Loughborough

Today it rained - a lot - with a lot of wind - and so we set off in rain gear and travelled by Route 6 cycle way but we arrived in Loughborough VERY soggy.  We ate a lovely lunch with Loughborough Friends with the room strewn around with drying raincoats and wet puddles gathered under our chairs as shoes and socks continued to drain out.  After lunch there was a bit of a break in the rain and most of us were starting to feel much drier until...

Bakewell to Derby

What a beautiful day's cycling - wonderful canal paths, lanes and railway cuttings.   

Our morning meeting was very quiet - there is a lovely coming together of the group of riders with the local support - this time of Bakewell Quakers - Friends that we have never met any may never meet again yet they have organised themselves to support us?

How is that some human beings want to care for those who they have never met?  

Usually it seems to depend on their...

Sheffield to Bakewell

Today was pitched as a gentle day - just 20 miles but we are in the middle of a heat wave and so the temperatures remain high long into the evening when we generally expect cooler times. 

However there is something very wonderful about zipping up and down hills with such views all around - it feels a tremendous privilege and opportunity to see the country at a different pace and from a different perspective.  

Robert our intrepid 79 year old who managed the...

One of the people who has inspired me most in the autism world is Stephen Gutstein, founder of Relationship Development Intervention.    There are a few others but Stephen is one of the practitioner researchers who has stood up for the message that children with difficulties on the autistic spectrum can be helped when we use an informed developmental approach.

Click here for his recent talk on What we should be aware of in Autism

One of the things that is most shocking in the...

In recent weeks, in the process of submitting the I Matter courses for CPD accreditation via the CPD Standards Office I have had to go through a rigorous process. I have had to supply documentation and evidence to show that the course has been carefully put together and that proper systems are in place to ensure that participants have a good experience.  I have had to demonstrate that feedback on the course is carefully gathered and evaluated.  

In this process I have also been...

Have you ever felt that no-one was looking out for you?
Have you ever felt upset or resentful about that?
Or have you just given up asking for your child and others to take you into account?

Of course you matter!  And because you matter, it is important not to just hope that your children and others will one day take you into account.  

SOMEONE needs to be determined to look out for YOU, and though it would be nice if this was your child or someone else, you mustn't leave it to chance...

Professional or home life with complex or challenging children can be very demanding.   I know because I have worked in this area for nearly 30 years and I have often found myself often feeling helpless in the face of demands that seem to keep increasing year on year working in services that seem poorly adapted and unresponsive to the scale of the needs at hand.  So I developed I Matter Training in response to my own confusion and because I felt that there was something really...

There is a significant crisis in the provision of mental health services for children and families.   The needs are growing and services are being cut.   So maybe there is a need to think laterally?

I think the research evidence is clear:   Strong attachment relationships at home and at school make a profound difference to the way in which a chlld's brain functions and develops and to their ability to understand and work with others to overcome their challenges.   

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