Articles & Resources
8 ways to reduce overwhelm at Christmas
Christmas and Fear Whilst Christmas is often a magical and exciting time of year, for many children it can quickly become overwhelming. It’s interesting that not all children perceive the sense of excitement as exciting, and for many children I have worked with over the years, excitement is categorised for them as fear or dread.
Children’s Activity: Gratitude
The Power of Gratitude It has been found that practicing gratitude has a positive impact on our sense of happiness and well-being. When we practice gratitude consistently, and over time, we can train our brain to focus on what is going well, and develop a sense of optimism. It has been found, that gratitude boosts
What is interoception?
Interoception is the ability to identify, understand and respond to the state of the inside of our body. It involves the awareness that we have of our internal bodily signals, and whether we can interpret what these mean. This includes aspects such as hunger, thirst, heart rate, body temperature, breathing rate, emotions and our digestive
Children’s Activity: Mandala
Download here Free Activity So, this week, our free activity is a downloadable mandala colouring sheet, so you can unwind together. Why not make it a family affair and all have a go…. Download it here Print it off Grab some colouring pens or pencils Relax and unwind Want to learn more? Are you looking
Motivation is imaginary……
“When I’m motivated, I will get started” “Once that wave of motivation appears, i’m there” “I just need some motivation, and then I will do it” “I’m just not motivated right now” The infamous motivation…..ever noticed that it’s the most elusive feeling in our repertoire? Motivation is defined as – ‘a reason or reasons for
Children’s Activity: Journal Prompts for Anger
Journal Prompts Journalling can help us to calm our minds by structuring our thoughts. Journal prompts help us to explore different aspects of our lives and develop a deeper understanding of them. By taking time to deeply think about different concepts, we can find peace, solutions or identify areas for support. Journal prompts are questions
The Value of Promises
What is a promise? Promises. When we are little we little, we are repeatedly asked ‘do you promise?’, or told ‘I promise we will….’ or ‘I promise we can…’, but what is a promise? In the dictionary, a promise is defined as: (n) a declaration or assurance that one will do something or that a
Children’s Activity: Journal Prompts for Self-esteem
Journal Prompts Journalling can help us to calm our minds by structuring our thoughts. Journal prompts help us to explore different aspects of our lives and develop a deeper understanding of them. By taking time to deeply think about different concepts, we can find peace, solutions or identify areas for support. Journal prompts are questions
8 ways to support children with ADHD in learning
So often, when talking about children with ADHD we hear words such as ‘daydreamer’, ‘distracted’, ‘absent minded’ and in the worst case scenarios words such as ‘lazy’. However, ADHD is, at its heart, an aversion to boredom. Long periods of sitting, listening, with no action create heightened levels of boredom, and in doing so further
Children’s Activity: Reframing Adversity
Adversity: When we experience challenges and adversity we can find ourselves trapped in spirals of limiting beliefs or negative thinking ‘why me?’ ‘nothing even goes right’ ‘the world is against me’ etc etc. If we learn to reframe the adversity to look at what it taught us, as well as what we are grateful for
Why do children lie?
A frequent issue which is presented in my coaching and therapy work surrounds lying. Parents and carers will frequently ask why their child is lying and want to stop it from happening. However, whilst lying is often labelled as a behaviour issue, it most frequently has other causes lying beneath it. So, why do children
Children’s Activity: Safety Circle
Emotional Safety Feeling emotionally safe means that we have the freedom to feel creative, dream and explore. This means that we are in en environment that feels safe physically, emotionally and socially. Including; having people that we can trust, can be open and vulnerable, feel listened to and heard, show kindness to ourselves and others,
Can you stop yourself eating marshmallows?
Over the summer we saw a trend on social media of parents (and some dog parents) placing marshmallows (or dog treats) on a plate in front of their children and leaving the room to see what their child did. The internet was consumed with joy as they watched these videos of small ones looking round
Children’s Activity: Coping Strategies
Finding effective ways to respond to our feelings supports children to develop their confidence, self-esteem and independence skills. When we are able to effectively react when our emotions feel overwhelming, we also build resilience. So, this week we are sharing 16 coping skills, to share and explore with children, to support them to build their
Why ‘Behaviour’ is a set of clues
Behaviour is, in its simplest form, a set of SYMPTOMS. Behaviours are an indicator that something else is happening inside the child, that we need to identify and help them to work through. Behaviour is a response to feelings. Behaviour is a way of communicating needs Feelings come from an inner need in the child
Children’s Activity: My Feelings Diary
My Feelings Diary Learning to recognise the nuances and unique differences in our feelings is an important component of emotional literacy development. So, we are sharing a simple feelings diary which includes some aspects of positive psychology to support children’s emotional skills development. Download here Next steps Download the feelings diary HERE Review each section
5 ways to boost self-esteem
Self-esteem refers to the value that we place on ourselves. This includes our self-worth and levels of self-respect and influences our thoughts, feelings and behaviours, as well as our emotional well-being. When our self-esteem is high we can find that we are more receptive to our connections with others, feel more satisfied in life and
Children’s Activity: Explore with me
Taking time to support children to link their feelings and causes together supports them to recognise what is happening. Many children have a limited repertoire of feelings that they can understand, and therefore we want to start with the simplest and then slowly support them to recognise the nuances between them. So, once we understand