Our Story
Our Story
RelateFirst™ was founded after more than a decade of professional work with individuals, couples, parents and families.
Across years of counselling practice, people came with many different concerns — emotional difficulties, relationship conflict, parenting challenges, marriage difficulties, family tensions, workplace stress and difficulties managing emotions. Yet beneath many of these different experiences, one theme appeared repeatedly: relationships matter.
The founder
About the Founder
Sam Roberts
Founder, RelateFirst™
Registered Clinical Counsellor and Executive Director of Olive Branch Psychology, Sam has extensive clinical experience supporting children, teens, adults, couples and families, as well as providing clinical supervision to counsellors in training. He has accumulated more than 12,000 clinical hours, working with clients from over 28 nationalities.
Alongside his clinical work, Sam serves as a Regional HR Director in a multinational organisation and has held leadership roles across workplace, community and faith-based organisations for more than three decades. He is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Psychology, with research focused on childhood attachment, emotional regulation and adult relationship functioning.
What years of practice revealed
Different concerns. A recurring theme.
People often seek help because of what is happening on the surface — conflict, emotional distress, parenting challenges, difficulties at work, communication problems or strained relationships.
Over time, Sam became increasingly interested in what connected many of these concerns.
How we relate affects how we live.
How we understand ourselves influences how we respond to others. How we manage emotions affects marriage, parenting, friendships, leadership and work. The quality of the relationships around us can contribute to stability and growth — or become significant sources of distress.
- Self
- Family
- Relationships
- Work
- Community
The question
What if we focused on relationships earlier?
“What if we helped people understand and strengthen relationships before difficulties became crises?”
RelateFirst™ grew from this question.
Rather than focusing only on problems after they become severe, RelateFirst™ aims to help people develop the awareness, emotional capacities, relational skills and leadership practices that strengthen everyday life — in self-leadership, relationships, marriage, parenting, family, work and community.
Across life
Relationships do not stay in one part of life.
Self
How we understand and regulate ourselves affects how we respond to others.
Relationships
Communication, trust, conflict, connection and repair influence relational wellbeing.
Family
Parents and caregivers shape relational environments in which children develop.
Work
Emotional regulation and relational capacity influence leadership, teamwork and organisational life.
Community
Healthy communities depend on people who can relate, take responsibility and use influence constructively.
This became the basis for the RelateFirst™ understanding that leadership extends far beyond organisational position.
The leadership idea
Leadership beyond position.
Leadership is the capacity to influence ourselves, our relationships and the environments for which we carry responsibility.
Lead Self
Lead Family
Lead Relationships
Lead Work
Lead Community
RelateFirst™ therefore approaches parenting as leadership, marriage as relational leadership, professional work as organisational leadership, and community involvement as an opportunity to strengthen others.
From practice to research
From professional experience to deeper inquiry.
Sam's professional experience increasingly led him to explore the relationship between early caregiving experiences, emotional regulation and later relationship functioning.
Doctoral research
The Impact of Childhood Attachment on Adult Emotional Regulation and Relationship Functioning
The doctoral project explores the lived experiences of adults and examines how childhood caregiving and attachment experiences may be connected with later emotional regulation and close relationships.
This research contributed to the development of the thinking behind RelateFirst™'s relational and developmental approach.
Framework development
Connecting development, regulation and relationships.
This professional and research journey also contributed to the development of the NeuroRelational Framework — an integrative way of considering how nervous-system processes, emotional regulation, relationships, development and behaviour interact across the lifespan.
The framework helps RelateFirst™ consider why relational patterns matter, while the five-pillar RelateFirst™ Leadership Framework provides the practical structure for where growth and healthy influence can be developed.
Our purpose
Taking these ideas beyond the counselling room.
RelateFirst™ was created to take relational understanding beyond professional counselling and translate it into practical learning for everyday life.
Its purpose is not only to respond when relationships are already in difficulty, but to help people develop the capacities that support healthier relationships, families, workplaces and communities.
Develop People
Build self-awareness, regulation, responsibility and relational capacity.
Strengthen Relationships
Develop communication, connection, boundaries and repair.
Support Families
Equip parents, couples, children and teens across different stages of life.
Develop Leaders
Prepare people to influence their workplaces and communities responsibly.
Our philosophy
Because relationships come first.
Our first relationships begin early. Relationships continue to shape how we experience ourselves and others. And the way we relate influences how we parent, partner, work, lead and participate in community.
Relate first. Relationships first. First relationships. First years.
Because relationships come first.
Continue
Where to go next.
Explore RelateFirst Programmes
Practical learning for individuals, couples, parents, families and organisations.
