YFL Platform Update

Engaging Insights from Science and Life

John Bowlby rushing home from the Tavistock to move his children's beds downstairs. Christopher and Peter Hitchens locked in decades of ideological combat across their mother's kitchen table. A giraffe's nerve taking a five-metre detour that makes no sense until you understand evolution.

YoungFamilyLife.com offers a growing repository of evidence-based essays spanning workplace psychology, family development, community guides, and parenting science. Each piece starts with something concrete - a moment, a puzzle, a conversation - and follows it wherever the evidence leads. This week, that journey took us through 58,000 words examining why humans resist change so fiercely, and why that resistance might be biologically wise whilst professionally frustrating.

What began just six weeks ago as a simple platform has evolved through a 'following my nose' approach into something unexpectedly substantial. The website has quickly developed into a valuable resource for qualified and trainee social workers, therapists, health visitors, and family support professionals. Graduate students and undergraduates in psychology, social work, and related fields are finding material that bridges academic theory with lived professional reality.

This organic growth reflects the hunger for content that respects professional intelligence whilst acknowledging the complexity of family work. No prescriptions, no oversimplifications - just thorough exploration of why family support is so challenging and what the evidence actually tells us.

And there's much much more to come....!

The "Changing People" Series: Complete

• Part 1: The Reality - Angie's impossible Monday morning - a children's services case study (17,000 words)
• Part 2: Why Trying to Change People Never Works - The psychological barriers that make transformation impossible (6,500 words)
• Part 3: The Evolutionary Roots of Resistance - Why your brain runs from change like an angry hungry polar bear (5,700 words)
• Part 4: When Helping Hurts: The Professional's Dilemma - The ethics of trying to change people who can't change (15,000 words)
• Part 5: Influence and Adaptation - What Darwin actually taught us about environmental design (6,500 words)
• Part 6: The View From Here - Summing up this epic exploration of why enforcing change is near impossible (7,500 words)

Recent New Essay

• When Theory Came Home: A Conversation with Richard Bowlby - How John Bowlby applied attachment research to transform his own parenting mid-stream

Other Recent Essays

• The Victoria Sponge Problem - Why schools can't be everything - the impossible expectations on education
• Brothers in Contrasts - The Hitchens legacy - how siblings from the same family see the world differently
• When the Cat Rules the Dog - Power dynamics and confidence - why size doesn't determine dominance
• The Bungay Family Guide - Comprehensive 4-part series examining community, education, and family life in a Suffolk market town

Foundation Years Course

Starting 22nd September - development from birth to 18 months. Research-based content, your decisions.

The Growing Platform

YoungFamilyLife continues to expand as a comprehensive resource where evidence meets experience. We present research without prescriptions, analysis without agenda, insights without instruction.

• For thoughtful parents: research on child development, attachment, and family dynamics without prescriptive advice
• For reflective professionals: critical analysis of systemic failures and why interventions so often fail
• For interested citizens: exploration of community life, education systems, and institutional impacts on families
• For curious students and minds: evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and the hidden patterns shaping human behaviour

Each essay represents hours of research, reflection, and careful writing - building a platform where complexity is acknowledged rather than simplified away.

Continue Exploring

Visit youngfamilylife.com to explore our full collection of essays, learn about our courses, and discover evidence-based insights for family and professional development.

Steve Young, YoungFamilyLife Ltd
20+ years translating family services experience into accessible insights