Articles & Resources

Parenting
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Back to School Plan

Back to School The return to school is always met with a mixture of excitement, nerves and uncertainty. This can mean that we become caught in our fight or flight mode, and struggle to think logically. Having a plan can help children to feel back in control, as well as validate their feelings and support

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Neurodiversity
Nicky Edwards

Autism and its links to anorexia

Please note the information in this article is not medical advice and should not be taken as such. If you have a concern about a child’s eating behaviours please ensure that you speak with a medical professional  Autism In my therapy work, I frequently work with young people with anorexia. Many, but not all clients

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Regulation Strategies

What is regulation When we think about emotional regulation, we are also looking at children’s emotional literacy we are considering: How we acknowledge our feelings Our ability to label our feelings Our skills to be able to regulate ourselves Learning strategies, and supporting children to practice these as part of their daily routines, allows them

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Adult Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

Why self-care is our first priority

We so often hear about ‘self-care’ and its importance. However, frequently this is attached to images of beaches, bubble baths and extravagance, which is not viable day to day. The reality is that self-care is a consistent practice that needs commitment and very often – scheduling. But, why do we need it? Supporting regulation When

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Mandala Colouring

Sometimes, we just need an activity that allows us to switch off and zone out, to process our thoughts, feelings and experiences.   Free Downloadable Colouring Sheet 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

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Child Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

7 Reasons girls are not recognised as having autism

We frequently find that parents of girls with autism report their daughters being missed for significant periods of time. In my own therapy and coaching practice, I invariably meet a large number of girls aged 14 and above who have not been referred for assessment, and who have had significant challenges emotionally, socially and with

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: All about me

When we think about self-esteem, we want to consider how easily children can identify their strengths, areas of development and their abilities. So, this week we have a reflection task to support those conversations and reflections. All About Me Download here    Next steps Download the sheet here (download) Collect pens and pencils Read through

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Adult Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

The Dangers of Victim Blaming

Have you ever noticed that when we see or hear tragedies, challenges or bad news on the news, internet or social media that so many people will leap to comment: “They should have done XYZ and it would have stopped that”  “In my day, they wouldn’t have been allowed to do that”  “Where were their

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Art Board Prompts

Exploring our identities can feel tricky when working with children. Asking questions such as ‘who am I?’ can feel challenging, after all, how many of us understood ourselves when we were younger? So, this week we are sharing a board of 12 activity prompts you can use to learn more about children and encourage some

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Child Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

Sensory Seeking or Sensory Avoiding?

Sensory Behaviours Our brains work 24 hours a day. Every day, our brains are taking in information from the world around us. For many of us, we give this little thought, perhaps even taking for granted the inputs and stimuli we receive from the environment. For others, the world around them offers a constant stream

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Calm and Colour

Sometimes, we just need an activity that allows us to switch off and zone out, to process our thoughts, feelings and experiences. When we have something to focus on, we can often find it easier to talk as well. So, having therapeutic colouring sheets to work on, whilst having conversations about our challenges or feelings

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Adult Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

ADHD, Boredom and Sensory Seeking

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition. This means that the brain structure is different in those with ADHD in comparison to someone who is neurotypical. ADHD is associated with a dysregulated dopamine system. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with feelings of pleasure, satisfaction and motivation. Dopamine is linked with movement, memory, pleasurable reward and motivation, behaviour

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Draw my faces

In surveys completed by Brene Brown and her team, they found that of  7,000 people over a period of five years, on average people can identify only three emotions as they are actually feeling them: happiness, sadness and anger. If you have followed Dandelion for any length of time, you will know that we are

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Adult Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

Are you stopping a speeding train?

Are you someone who sees the challenges that others are getting into and finds yourself involved in their worlds, trying to stop them?  Are you someone who, when you see someone struggling, you feel an overwhelming need to relieve their struggles? Who shortly afterwards finds yourself exhausted and the other person feeling irritated with you? 

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Where are your feelings?

Identifying that our feelings are fluid, and ever moving supports children to understand that they do not need to always feel ‘happy’. For so many children and adults, there is a pressure to always be ‘happy’, when in reality our feelings move continually throughout the day. Learning to differentiate between different feelings is an important

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Adult Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

Why we need to stop blaming social media for diagnosis

Something that has become more prevalent over recent years is the number of professionals that I speak to who blame social media for individuals (adolescents and adults) seeking a diagnosis. Often, this surrounds needs such as autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit disorder, but can branch out to a number of different diagnoses. This might

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Feelings Planner

So often, we find that children (and some adults) struggle to identify their feelings, and are unsure or do not know how to respond to them. A frequent struggle I see in my coaching work, is the challenge of differentiating boredom from sadness and stress from anger. Being able to recognise our warning signs of

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Child Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

5 Ways to Boost Child Self-esteem

We talk a lot about self-esteem, and supporting children to recognise their own value. However, many of our systems have not yet adapted to support children to develop this vital skill. We hear a number of people talk about the influence of ‘social media’ and ‘influencers’ making children feel bad about themselves, and whilst they

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