Changing Relations

Name: Changing Relations
Address: Studio 18, Ushaw Historic House, Chapel and Gardens, Durham, DH77DW, GB
Telephone: +447815837034

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We are an arts education and training company that provokes thinking around gender equality, gender

30/10/2026

Little video blog from our MD inspired by the feature on new book / concept Persivilience... How do we keep on keeping on when the economic climate the VCSE sector is navigating is so very challenging?

30/10/2026

Fab workshop planning session with a couple of super committed students last week in which we worked through some session plans that Changing Relations had previously co-designed with students from Hild Bede and .

Really chuffed to see our new student cohort confident to step up and co-facilitate the sessions together with our creative facilitator as part of the HB LOVE festival the college is running from November through to February.

The image below is one that was included as stimulus in the "What is a good relationship anyway?" workshop our original students co-designed, chosen to elicit discussion around:

💞 What is s*x for?

💞 Who is s*x for?

💞 Do we have to have s*x?

💞 How important is s*x in relationships?

💞 How clear do we feel about how we define what s*x is?

💞 Is this something people have different understandings of?

The image was created by as part of our Let's Talk About S*x project and originally featured in our What's All the Fuss About newspaper and online exhibition, the link for which is lurking on our website if you have a little scroll -

https://changingrelations.co.uk/how-we-help/projects/lets-talk-about-s*x

28/10/2026

Fascinating webinar last week featuring reporting on his research into trauma-informed practice in schools.

Did you know:

💔 1/3 young people are exposed to traumatic events by 18
💔 1/10 young people will have had 4+ adverse childhood experiences by 18
💔 How much adversity a young person experiences correlates to reduced engagement with education, higher levels of absence & greater likelihood of exclusion

On the flip side, several positive childhood experiences that protect against traumatic events becoming lifelong mental health challenge can be generated in school:

💞 experiencing a sense of belonging
💞 at least 2 non-parent adults taking interest
💞 feeling supported by friends

Alongside Warren's presentation of programme delivery & learning outcomes, we heard from a school leader who had embraced the emphasis on therapeutic skills, reflective practice & protecting the emotional regulation of staff as key to supporting students to be better regulated.

Our key takeaways:

💡Teachers don't always realise the crucial role they play as a safe adult. They can assume that, if they're not a counsellor, they are not playing a mental health role. But the protective factors above indicate showing an interest is important. Listening is important. This is not nothing vis-a-vis wellbeing.

💡Some teachers worry that a trauma-informed approach means diluting discipline & accountability for problematic behaviour. But if discipline takes places in the context of a safe trusting relationship, a young person is more likely to take the message on board, meaning a trauma-informed approach is more likely to enhance behaviour management.

💡Many teachers are in survival mode given school workloads so it's really challenging to have headspace to take on board anything new.

This Navigating Vulnerability image (artist ) feels aligned to the notion that we need to make sure we look after the people looking after others. If a child's emotional health is the strongest predictor of a satisfying adult life, we need an education system that looks after our teachers.

Take a look at the report - YEF.-MGDAS.-RCT-April-2026.pdf

25/10/2026

Absolutely love these pics from our recent A is for Amy training sessions and in particular the fabulous look of delight at Laurel Avenue Community Association's Claire Linfoot getting her hands on the toolkit we have painstakingly designed to enable teachers and youth workers to deliver our healthy relationship-themed content for themselves.

The other pics show our participants proudly presenting their creative efforts as our education lead had them try out our insta-versus-reality activity.

Over the last few weeks we have delivered both theory and practice-oriented sessions, in a mix of online and in person, helping teachers and youth workers to:

🛠️ understand some of the key background knowledge they need to support delivery around our domestic abuse-themed film

🛠️ gain confidence in our creative approach to learning on tricky topics

🛠️ get familiar with the way we have structured our educator toolkit

Here's a taste of the lovely feedback we received from youth workers, some of whom talked about how our training made them realise how far they'd come on their own recovery journeys (which makes us all warm inside) -

💬 "It's impacted how I think about what people go through and how I could help as a youth worker. I think the toolkit is very useful and helped me understand it a lot more."

💬"Last time I did domestic violence training, I got emotional about past experience. This hasn't so I'll be able to talk to young people without my personal history getting in the way."

💬"Taking part has positively impacted on the understanding negative experiences can be used positively to educate others."

We're really looking forward to what emerges as we evaluate how they get on in delivering the programme over the next few months with thanks to for enabling this level of depth to our testing process!!!

23/10/2026

here...

Last week I spoke at .org.uk’s .org.uk conference at .

So much was shared that it feels like writing about it should be easy.

But it isn’t.

I was thinking about why it isn’t easy.

What it comes down to is that every single person who spoke that day had something powerful & emotional to say. Something that truly matters to them personally, for people experiencing domestic abuse & those who love them. Something that truly matters to our society as a whole (whether we know it or not).

It was true of so many in the room too.

How can whatever I say do all those people justice?

So I’m just going to share what I have been thinking about since I was there.

I am reminded afresh how experiencing domestic abuse is truly horrendous - more than those of us who have not had the experience can possibly imagine, even when we are close to people who have been/are being abused.

Domestic abuse affects so many people beyond those officially classified as victims & survivors. These people suffer too. They suffer as they watch the pain of a person they love. They suffer as they sacrifice things in order to help a person they love. In the worst case they suffer because their loved one is killed by their abuser or takes their own life as a result of the abuse. That pain doesn’t end.

It is hard enough for victims to access support. It is almost non-existent for family and friends (hence the importance of the Findaway initiative) – and they really need support, both for themselves & so they can help the person experiencing domestic abuse as best they can.

Education about domestic abuse & (un)healthy relationships matters. Not just in schools, for our young people. Education in its widest sense, for our society to recognise harmful behaviour & stand up & say it isn’t acceptable. Education which makes abuse unacceptable.

How our systems treat people experiencing abuse is critical to them being able to escape. Until we get this right more people will suffer more. Why would you do that to someone already suffering?

I don't have a conclusion – just a lot to think & feel.

Photo credit: Findaway

21/10/2026

here

It's not easy making time to look after yourself but boy does it help when you do...

This term I've come back to both yoga and ADHD coaching and the space and perspective they each afford really helps.

What do you do to look after your well-being amidst the busy, busy, stress and pressure?

19/10/2026

Fab new board induction day on Friday. Completely failed to photo document, so here's a gorgeous ceramic piece from our Stepping Out of the Box exhibition created by our former Artistic Director .turner_21.

We spent the day:

💥 getting to know one another in respect of the relational approach we've learnt to be invaluable;

💥exploring the organisational culture that saw us Highly Commended in last year's awards;

💥establishing the regional, political, economic, societal, sectoral and organisational context in which we're operating as the starting point for determining strategic direction;

💥making our first big directional decision as a new board!!!

It was such a pleasure to come away feeling they get it, they've got us and we're going to work well together.

So thank you enormously to Dale Glenister Dr .sarma and Kimberly Cullen for coming on board, to and for supporting the delivery of a really constructive day and to for once again hosting our activity. 🤩

16/10/2026

here -

I read such an interesting interview with Denise Brown, sister of Nicole Brown Simpson, who was murdered by her ex-husband, the former American football star OJ Simpson.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/oct/05/denise-brown-sister-nicole-brown-simpson-murder-oj-simpson

Her book "For My Sister Nicole" charts her learning about domestic abuse & how to support someone in your life experiencing this, from her recognition that, whilst on some level she knew something wasn't right in Nicole's relationship with OJ, she was "saying all the wrong things".

She references the persistent stereotype that domestic abuse "happens to poor people" as a barrier to recognising the abuse & posits that, if she had known then what she knows now, she "could have saved Nicole's life."

At the same time, I was reading a surprisingly beautiful book about coercive control - "Nesting" by Roisin O'Donnell - a powerful portrait of the "reduced space for action" coined by Evan Stark to describe the impact of coercive control on a victim's capacity to think outside of the immediate need to safety-manage the behaviour of their abusive partner, carefully calibrating their own behaviour to mitigate the risk of escalation.

I have to confess that, as I started reading it & recognised it was going to be a portrayal of domestic abuse, I had a moment of questioning whether I wanted to read something in much-needed "relaxation time" 100% on the theme of my day job. But it was such a beautiful, sensitive portrayal, it wove its spell around me & I couldn't put it down.

I concluded that it's a really important contribution to society's understanding of why it's so incredibly hard for survivors to "just leave." How can you find the space to make a plan when your own voice has been drowned out by the domination of an abusive partner crowding out your thoughts?

For anyone in the domestic abuse sphere looking for books that support understanding, I'd highly recommend.

Both feel very "on message" for the .org.uk conference we're contributing to today - a website focused on supporting family & friends of those affected by domestic abuse.

14/10/2026

Eeeeeeee! A is for Amy toolkits have arrived from the printers!

We are very excited at their general beautifulness!

And incredibly proud of all the work that has gone into getting them there!

👏 Lucy Engelhart 👏

12/10/2026

Always useful to add fuel to the fire of ones motivation to do the work we do at Changing Relations.

A brilliant pair of feminist writers featured at yesterday, expertly hosted by Durham University's Emeritus Professor Jane Macnaughton, drawing out the common threads in the work of the fabulous & .

What stood out to us was:

💡 The way seemingly disparate global issues such as the climate crisis & increasing political instability & violence can also be related to violence against women & girls, which tends to increase in the aftermath of disasters & when heat rises.

💡The idea that the individualist messaging of lean-in-style feminism places pressure on individual women to work harder to be fine / make an impact & obscures the reality that we're facing huge interconnected global crises & systems that require a collective effort.

💡Government emphasis on economic growth as the means to solve social problems is problematic when the unpaid care work that is mostly performed by women is not measured within the standard calculation of a given country's economic growth.

💡The p**n that has become increasingly mainstream privileges male entitlement to s*x & to a large extent, is more about power than pleasure, eroticising women's humiliation & degradation in a twisted reinforcement of old-fashioned patriarchal norms.

💡The frequent s*xual strangulation that is resulting from its normalisation within mainstream p**n has been seen in MRI scans to be giving young women brain damage. At the same time, a significant number of young men are saying that p**n is negatively impacting their lives.

And the one we need to help us not be entirely depressed by this picture:

💡 Patriarchy is not inevitable. If things have changed for the worst, that means it is possible for them to change for the better.

It wasn't easy listening. And we don't imagine it will be easy reading.

But it absolutely underlines the importance of the work we do in promoting healthy relationships, deconstructing gender norms and exploring healthy versus harmful s*xual attitudes and behaviours.

Address

Studio 18, Ushaw Historic House, Chapel And Gardens
Durham
DH77DW

Telephone

+447815837034

Website

http://www.changingrelations.co.uk/contact-us/

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