A coherent framework for thinking.
FAB Parents offers a road map and resources for adoptive and foster parents and the professionals who touch their lives.
Want honest answers to tough questions?
Want realistic solutions?
Deep understanding is the key to successful and rewarding parenting. FAB Parents offers a robust, proven framework which allows you to have a more fulfilling parenting experience and honours the child's life experiences.
Resources for every stage of the journey
Trauma Triggered Behaviour Course
A holistic methodology for understanding and parenting adopted and fostered children.
If you are frustrated or bewildered by your child’s behaviour; these resources will provide you with new tools and ways of thinking.
Want To Adopt? Book
How to prepare yourself and continue to grow for decades. Develop skills, understanding and tools for transformation for yourself and the child. You’ll have Helen beside you offering theories, models, route maps and tool kits whilst being an honest mentor and kick ass friend.
Bubble Wrapped Children Book
Written in an accessible conversational style incorporating theory, anecdotes, diagrams, models, neuroscience and case studies, Helen maps out the connection between trauma, child development, empathy, grief, contact, trust, truth-telling and parenting styles.
This is what I wish I'd had 30+ years ago before my (adopted) children arrived from the Care System - Helen Oakwater
Meet Helen Oakwater
International trainer, speaker, coach, author and adoptive parent.
I'm Helen and I'm the founder of FAB parents. I adopted a sibling group (aged 5, 4 and 2) in the early 1990s from the UK Care System. My approach is pragmatic and real. I have lived with children who lie, steal, self-harm and were expelled from schools, amongst many other things.
I have worn many different hats in the adoption and fostering world, including:
Running a local (Adoption UK) support group for adopters for a decade
Membership of the Government Adoption Task Force
Trustee for the charity Adoption UK for 6 years
Member of two Local Authority adoption panels
Delivered training on Trauma Triggered Behaviour to thousands of parents and professionals in the UK, Australia and New Zealand
Conference speaker and lobbyist
Outside of work I'm an avid traveller and adventurer and can often be seen on any of the 4 corners of the world, trying something new and sharing my knowledge.
I'm also a highly qualified and experienced Executive and Personal Coach, mBIT and NLP Trainer, working with clients from various backgrounds to help them create a compelling future and dissolve past traumas.
My first book Bubble Wrapped Children: How Social networking is transforming the face of 21st-century adoption published in 2012, took the issue of how Facebook is enabling birth families to reconnect to their children (who had been removed by the courts) onto the front page of The Times newspaper and national press.
My second book Want to Adopt: How to prepare yourself to parent a child from the care systemis now available to buy worldwide and has reached #4 on Amazon's Bestseller's List.
Qualifications: Coaching related
NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) (over 250 days)
NLP Practitioner (2x 20 days with Ian McDermott: ITS London)
NLP Master Practitioner (2x 20 days with Ian McDermott: ITS London)
NLP Coach (20 days with Ian McDermott & Jan Elfine: ITS London)
NLP Trainer (20 days with Robert Dilts, Judy DeLozier, Suzi Smith: NLPU: Santa Cruz, California)
NLP Coach & Modelling (16 days x2 with Robert Dilts, Judy DeLozier NLPU: Santa Cruz, California)
Success Factor Modelling (15 days with Robert Dilts, Judy DeLozier NLPU: Santa Cruz, California)
Some courses were repeated after being invited to be part of the resource team. Plus various short courses, seminars, conferences, etc.
mBIT (multiple Brain Integration Technique)
mBIT Coach (4 days with Suzanne Henwood: Birmingham)
mBIT Master Coach (6 days with Grant Soosla, Suzanne Henwood, Wilbert Molenaar: Amsterdam)
mBIT Coach Trainer (6 days with Grant Soosla: Melbourne, Australia)
TPN (Thought Pattern Management)
Practitioner (12 days with Fiona Sutherland: Penzance, UK)
Group Mastery Certification (Group Dynamic & Non Verbal Communication Skills)
Fully certified (2x 16 days over 9 months with Michael Grinder: ITS London)
