When relationships feel difficult - it helps to have a map
Discover The I Matter® Relationship Health Learning Journey
Designed by a Clinical Psychologist • For professionals, parents and organisations
Equip yourself with practical evidence-informed ideas and skills for living and working with children and other adults that most people were never taught — and build stronger, happier families, relationships and communities.
The I Matter Framework was developed over decades of work with children, families and professionals, I Matter®
helps you build practical understanding and skills through just 15–20 minutes commitment to learning a day.
Choose Your Focus..
Kendal Area Professionals - Explore Funded Kendal places
We have some Council-funded I Matter Fundamentals places available for professionals working in Kendal schools
Relationship health is relevant at every stage of life and in every role. The skills of adults are especially important for the development and resilience of children and young people. Whether you are learning for yourself, preparing for a parenting or caring role, developing your professional understanding, or funding learning for others, everyone starts with the same practical I Matter foundations.
Adult-child and adult-adult relationships of all sorts can be challenging!
As a clinical psychologist working with adults and young people I kept seeing the same five things that were making situations harder than they needed to be, and keeping people stuck.
These issues included
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Not knowing what to focus on.
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Not understanding how healthy relationships develop.
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Teams and families pulling in different directions.
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Feeling uncertain about your role and what makes a difference.
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Finding conflict difficult to navigate constructively.
That's why I created a simple I Matter learning journey that takes just 15–20 minutes a day.
And why I also created Let's Talk Relationship Health to get some conversations started on this topic, particularly in organisations
Here are some real participant results
People just like you who are understanding more and living better at home and at work
Everything is going so much better and my daughter is really blossoming in her own way. She is now venturing out and further afield with friends and feeling a lot more confident. I am forever grateful that you helped me see the wood from the trees!
Parent
We have improved relationships within our family unit hugely and home is a much nicer more, relaxed place to be rather than somewhere where you constantly walk on eggshells.The children are much more settled at home now we are working together better
Parents
The ideas in Cathy’s books and I Matter Programme were not new to me, though the way in which the ideas are brought together to create a kind of map to help navigate life offers a beautiful and accessible way for anybody who is interested in improving their relationship health
Professional
The Relationship Health programme and I Matter have given the GPs, schools and services a shared language and structure to share with parents/carers that helps us understand our own roles and how we can help young people and families struggling with emotions, behaviours, mental health & neurodiversity.
GP
If families could be offered this learning early on before problems have emerged, a lot of more severe problems and CAMHS referrals could more easily be avoided. As a mental health professional I can see how valuable this learning would be for so many families.
Parent & Professional
HOW THE I MATTER RELATIONSHIP HEALTH LEARNING JOURNEY WORKS:
The learning journey supports you through a carefully structured process - you can progress in small bite-sized steps
👉 New to I Matter? Start with an introduction
EXPLORE IT
Dip your toe in
+ Introduction courses
+ Get Started Workshops
+ Review impact
+ Let's Talk RH
+ Organisation Partnership
LEARN IT
Build your understanding of:
+ Relationship Health
+ The I Matter Framework
+ Behaviour, stress and relationships
+ Your role
LIVE IT
Apply the ideas:
in everyday situations
+ in home situations
+ in work or community
+ improve what is happening
+ help yourself, help others
What's inside the Learning Journey?
- I Matter Framework Fundamentals - the core
- I Matter Deep Dive - focussed applications to different interests
- Monthly learning community
- Workshops
- Practical tools
- Videos
- Reflection activities
- Practitioner pathways (optional)
Ways to begin learning about Relationship Health in more depth
To learn more you can choose the route that best fits your situation:
- explore free content, or introduction
- join a workshop
- access the online learning journey
- or access through an organisation
Begin using ideas in real situations straight away, and build confidence over time
👉 Learn more: Choose your path
For Organisations interested in funding staff or families, I Matter Training helps you progress important conversations
Let's Talk Relationship Health
helps you support curiosity about key understanding and skills for everyday life.
Many people believe that difficult relationships, repeated conflict or feeling overwhelmed are something you just have to tolerate. This isn't always true. Things can improve!
If you don't make it a priority to learn about yourself and the skills you need for relationship health, the gap between where you are in relationships and where you want to be can grow wider - whether in adult-adult or in adult-child relationships, at home or at work or in your community.
Conversations that could have been positive don't progress, problems don't get resolved, and confidence can evaporate. More hurt happens that can have long term consequences. Relationship health requires skills across the lifespan that take understanding and practice
The good news: with the better understanding, challenging relationships can get better, respect and confidence can grow, and the consequences can be life changing . That's what I Matter Relationship Health Learning Journey was built to support.
About Dr Cathy Betoin
- Clinical Psychologist with 30+ years with adults and young people of all ages
- Founder of I Matter Training and Relationship Health Matters CIC
- Author of 'Relationship Health, What's That?' and 'Relationship Health, The Missing Link'
- New I Matter Relationship Health YouTube Channel — the first ever on the topic of relationship health
My hope is that the I Matter Relationship Health Learning Journey can support more preparation, prevention and early intervention. The results that people get when they commit to their own learning show it is never too late to turn things around.
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I Matter Training
The Kendal Integrated Care Community has adopted the thinking about relationship health and the I Matter Framework as a foundation for how we work together to support people who are struggling. Professionals and non-professionals are learning together.
Dr Amy Lee , GP Safeguarding Lead Kendal Integrated Care Community
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I Matter Training
We are working with increasingly complex and unmet needs in schools. I Matter helps give structure, shared language, and a foundation for working with families in a more connected way.
School Leader , Pastoral Roles, Class Teacher and Parent
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I Matter Training
Considering adults’ needs alongside children’s needs has been transformative. I realised how much my own stress was affecting my family, and that changing this changes everything.
Parent , Parent of teenager with challenges
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I Matter Training
This training in relationship health and the I Matter Framework has influenced my work and home life in very practical ways — from professional practice to parenting and business decisions. It has changed how I understand myself, and my clients, in relationships under pressure.
Independent Psychotherapist , Parent and Small Business Owner
What is Relationship Health?
What is Relationship Health?
Relationship Health is a new term that invites reflection and discussion. It impacts how we regulate stress and experience wellbeing with others.
The term relationship health invites us to consider whether what is happening between us and others is supportive and respectful or needs adjusting
Relationship Health is both internal and external and a community issue. In a fast changing world it is also a resilience and a maturity issue.
Health starts from a stance of I Matter–You Matter and builds on the skills of Connect-Contribute-Repair, across all life domains, set out in the Wheel.
Like physical health, relationship health can be explored, understood, strengthened, measured and supported.
It is often easier to identify what is not relationship health, but as a lifelong process it can strengthen as we develop new insights and skills.
Relationship health is possible when adults and young people develop awareness so they can see, stay, and respond differently under pressure.
What Relationship Health learning is in practice
Most people don’t need more relationship advice — they need a way to make sense of it and use it in real life.
The I Matter Framework is a simple, visual learning system that helps people understand relationship health and develop skills for confidence
People learn step by step through entry level Get Started workshops and the I Matter Relationship Health Learning Journey, supported by Community Wheel sessions where they reflect, connect with others, and apply ideas in real situations.
It translates research in mental health, child development, resiliency, systems, and communication into practical insights for everyday relationships.
Learning I Matter is like gaining a map for real life relationships.
What this learning helps you do
What an understanding of relationship health and the I Matter Framework will help you do
With an understanding of relationship health and the I Matter Framework you and your teams, families and communities will be better able to:
- Become less reactive and respond more calmly and effectively under pressure,
- Make sense of confusing or repeated patterns and know how to respond more constructively
- Recognise stress responses in behaviour and communication and respond in ways that reduce tension and escalation
- Understand the process of conflict and repair in adult-adult and adult-child relationships
- Build confidence in supporting yourself and others in everyday relationships
People can begin applying ideas immediately in everyday situations, and develop confidence and depth for managing difficult situations over time.
Who will this interest?
This learning tends to appeal to determined people who are curious about relationships and want practical positive options for .
It provides starting points for a shared language between professionals and non-professionals so they can work better together.
It can support preparation, prevention and early intervention as well as offering a way forward for those in current challenging situations.
It can be progressed through self-paced or supported learning so offers an extremely flexible method of building professional and family confidence.
Supporting Relationship Health
This work is part of a wider effort to make relationship health more visible, practical and accessible in everyday life.
You can support this through learning, partnership or contributing to community-based projects.
👉 Support our Fundraising via GoodHub
Help shape the next stages of the I Matter Relationship Health Learning Journey.
This is also an active development project - are you interested in contributing?
Help shape the next stages of the I Matter Relationship Health Learning Journey.
53 Stramongate
Kendal
La94BH
United Kingdom
