A relational view of the brain.
Much of how we talk about the brain today focuses on individuals: self-regulation, resilience, learning ability, performance.
Yet decades of research across neuroscience, psychology, and developmental science point to a more relational reality.
Human brains do not develop, regulate, or adapt in isolation. They do so through ongoing interaction with other people.
Relational neuroscience brings together evidence from developmental neuroscience, social neuroscience, affective science, stress physiology, and learning sciences to explain how relationships shape brain function across the lifespan.
This provides an integrative lens for understanding how regulation, shared meaning, learning, and resilience emerge through interaction — in families, classrooms, organisations, and broader social systems.
Why a relational lens is needed
Many contemporary approaches to well-being, education, and performance implicitly assume that:
regulation is an individual skill
learning is primarily cognitive
resilience is a personal trait
Neuroscience and developmental research increasingly challenge these assumptions.
Across development, evidence shows that:
regulation emerges through co-regulation with others
learning depends on emotional and relational safety
resilience is supported by relational processes, not individual toughness alone
A relational lens helps explain why individual-focused solutions often have limited or uneven effects — and why context, relationships, and environments matter biologically as well as psychologically.
The Relational Brain™ framework explains how relationships shape brain regulation, alignment, learning, and development across the lifespan.