Parent-toddler groups constitute a primary intervention programme whose target is to support and encourage the parent-toddler relationship. Toddlerhood is a developmental period when major, crucial changes take place regarding how children function, as well as their relationship to their parents (especially to their mother). The present paper introduces a particular model of parent-toddler groups that was developed at the Anna Freud Centre, in London, and which has been adapted for a community health setting in Athens, Greece. We describe the model of the groups and examine them in terms of the meaning of the experience of separation "per se", and the way it is experienced (by both the parent and the toddler) in relation to the developmental phase that the participants are going through. (Contains 2 notes.)