Articles & Resources

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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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activities: Monster Feelings

Empathy It is thought that children develop empathy around 2 years old. At this stage, children begin to show an understanding of how other people feel and recognise that they don’t feel the same way themselves. However, empathy continues to develop throughout life and as children’s brains continue to develop until around 25 years old,

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Adult Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

When compassion fatigue strikes

When we are supporting the emotional needs and mental health of others, we can find that caring for ourselves can fall by the wayside. When the balance of self-care and working practice is not well managed and monitored, it can quickly fall out of balance and cause a wide number of implications. The nature of supporting

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Therapeutic Colouring

Sometimes, we just need an activity that allows us to switch off and zone out, to process our thoughts, feelings and experiences. Colouring has many benefits: Develops fine motor skills Supports concentration skills Develops colour recognition Strengthens handwriting skills Encourages relaxation Develops focus Creates a focus on the present Calms a restless mind Develops inner

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Behaviour
Nicky Edwards

Tantrum or Meltdown?

When children become dysregulated, it can frequently be seen that they are referred to as having a ‘tantrum’. On face value, tantrums and meltdowns can often look similar, but their role is different. A tantrum A tantrum is usually associated with wanting something. It will normally come to an end once the child has what

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: What is good about me?

Taking some time to recognise what is good about us is a vital skill for: Increasing our self-esteem Developing our confidence Growing our self-belief Making decisions about our next steps However, so many children that I meet in coaching struggle to tell me what is good about them. Many spend so much time looking at

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Child Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

How does your nervous system affect you?

Inside your body, you have two nervous systems, which make up our central nervous system: Sympathetic Nervous System Parasympathetic Nervous System Sympathetic Nervous System Our Sympathetic nervous system is our Fight-Flight-Freeze-Fawn reaction. Our Sympathetic nervous system is activated when our AMYGDALA in our brain believes that it is under threat. This can be from something

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Gratitude

Gratitude In recent years, research into the power of gratitude has identified the importance that this practice has 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,

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Child Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

7 Types of Disordered Eating

An eating disorder is a mental health disorder which affects people’s behaviours, attitudes and thoughts around food and exercise.Eating disorders are a way of managing feelings and coping with difficult situations through the micromanagement of food intake. Eating disorders can change and develop new symptoms and behaviours over time. Beat (2020) believe ‘approximately 1.25 million

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Flower Feelings

Feelings  A step of emotional literacy development is being able to recognise what our emotions are. Many children can find it challenging to be able to recognise, identify and respond to their emotions, particularly the more subtle feelings. A great first step, is to encourage children to reflect on their feelings, so that they can

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Adult Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

Why do children need routines?

We often hear about the ‘importance of routines’ for children, and their positive impact on child mental health, but why do we say this? Our brains are a complex set of highways, created through millions of neural pathways. The vast array of pathways throughout our brains are connected by neurons which pass signals from one

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: What can I control?

Sometimes, we can all get caught in spirals of thoughts surrounding things that are not in our control. So, how do we support children to begin conversations about what they are in control of, versus what they are not? Anxiety frequently exists where we attempt to control things that are uncontrollable. Ever noticed that we

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Child Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

What’s the emotional literacy gap?

Since the 2020 pandemic, there has been an increasing gap in the emotional literacy of children. One of my greatest observations from the last three years in my therapy and coaching work, is that whilst children are catching up academically: Behaviour issues are increasing Dysregulation is happening more frequently Expressing feelings is less comfortable There

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: How to solve my problem?

Ever find that some worries cause a lot of stress? Yet, we never take purposeful action towards reducing them? Many of us spend a lot of time in our own minds when we have a worry, and this causes it to keep growing. Therefore, if we can instead support children to express their feelings and

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Adult Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

The Online Safety Bill 2022

A conversation that I have seen more of over the last few weeks resolves around the new Online Safety Bill. The Online Safety Bill is a new set of laws to protect children and adults online. The bill will make social media companies legally responsible for keeping users safe online. The bill is related to:

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Calm Colouring

Sometimes, we just need an activity that allows us to switch off and zone out, to process our thoughts, feelings and experiences. Colouring has many benefits: Develops fine motor skills Supports concentration skills Develops colour recognition Strengthens handwriting skills Encourages relaxation Develops focus Creates a focus on the present Calms a restless mind Develops inner

Read More »
Adult Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

Are children struggling more, post-pandemic?

Over recent weeks I have had a huge number of conversations about children’s mental health and the increase that parents and professionals are seeing in: Anxiety Health anxiety Separation Anxiety Phobias Emotionally Based School Avoidance Low mood Worries and fears For many, the question is ‘why?’ You may have also noticed that adults are less

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