Mental Health Workshops:

Healthy stress is a natural part of life, including childhood. We all need to be challenged at some point in our life to develop and grow-Children and adults alike. However, in the modern-day education system, healthy stress is frequently displaced by toxic stress. Toxic stress occurs when life’s demands consistently outpace our ability to cope with those demands. 

My workshops on mental health and mindfulness offer a variety of interactive activities aimed at increasing awareness of mental health. These workshops incorporate informative case studies that specifically address the mental health concerns of young people. We customize our workshops to meet the specific needs of your school, whether you require general mental health awareness sessions or want to focus on a particular topic such as mindfulness or self-harm.

My practical thought-provoking emotional wellbeing workshops and session build staff awareness, confidence and capacity to understand and support the mental health needs of children and young people. We explore the schools’ role in providing early prevention of mental health problems and the promotion of positive mental health and wellbeing, this workshop introduces best practice school mental health and mindfulness approaches.

The guide prices are £150 for an hour session and £250 for a  3 hour session. 

Because the roots of toxic stress lie deep in the nervous system, we need tools that go beyond the conceptual mind to directly target that system. To transform our habitual responses, we need to regularly practise skills where we are not in “fight – flight – freeze” mode.

Mindfulness is not a quick fix, teachers can’t teach it, students, unless they’ve experienced the benefits themselves. It is important for schools to help their teaching staff to understand how they can help themselves and their pupils and students to access behaviours that increase wellbeing. The Acorn therapy School INSET day emotional wellbeing and Mindfulness workshops are designed to meet two of the major needs for teachers in the UK today

Why should your school take part?

• 1 out of every 6 children between the ages of 5 to 16 has been identified as possibly having a mental health disorder, which amounts to approximately 5 children in each class. (Office of National Statistics)
• Pupils who experience mental health problems are more likely to face exclusion from school compared to their peers. (Centre for Mental Health)
• Half of all cases of mental illness that occur throughout a person’s lifetime start before the age of 14. (Mental Health Foundation)
• Over the past three years, there has been a 50% increase in the likelihood of young people experiencing mental health issues. (The Children’s Society)
• In 2019, suicide was the leading cause of death for individuals aged between 5 and 34, both males and females. (Young Minds)

Our workshops aim to:

Increase young people’s understanding of mental health and various mental health issues.
– Reduce the stigma surrounding mental health among young people and encourage them to openly discuss their mental health.
– Support young people in managing their stress levels and developing resilience skills.
– Provide young people with knowledge about where they can seek help if they or someone they know needs it.

Mindfulness

No one should claim that mindfulness is a cure for everything! Nevertheless, there is reasonably strong evidence for the positive impact of mindfulness on a number of social, mental, physical, emotional, learning and cognition and wellbeing conditions among adults. There is also evidence from Neural science and brain imaging that mindfulness and meditation can reliably and significantly change the structure of the brain and how it functions, which can improve how people feel and think.

Mindfulness can contribute directly to the development of cognition and performance skills and function of children.

It can also help children:

• Reducing anxiety, depression and stress
• Improving emotional stability, making it easier to manage difficult emotions
• Improving sleep
• Improving concentration and pay better attention
• Improving learning and memory, be more focused and improve their memory and enhance better problem-solving.
• It can help improve relationships and behaviours throughout the school. 

Emotional wellbeing and mindfulness in schools is not just about children and students; it is also very much about those who care for them like the teachers in this case.

• Attention; Strengthens our “mental muscle” for bringing the focus back where we want it when we want it.
• Compassion; Awareness of our own thoughts, emotions, and senses grows our understanding of what other people are experiencing.
• Emotional Regulation; Observing our emotions helps us recognize when they occur, to see their transient nature, and to change how we respond to them.
• Calming; Breathing and other mindfulness practices relax the body and mind, giving access to peace independent of external circumstances.
• Adaptability; Becoming aware of our patterns enables us to gradually change habitual behaviours wisely.
• Resilience; Seeing things objectively reduces the amount of narrative we add to the world’s natural ups and downs, giving us greater balance.

Our workshops are designed for under-resourced public schools in the UK  facing high turnover rates and toxic stress. We offer teachers practical skills for self-care, facilitation, and connecting with students, providing simple, effective mindfulness practices that can be integrated into the classroom day and adapted for diverse environments.

Our creative mindfulness workshops use innovative techniques to provide Teachers and Students with the tools to practice mindfulness and breathing techniques both at school and at home. We encourage children to talk about their feelings and puts in place tools to help manage stress.

• Explore the concept of mindfulness
• Take part in basic mindfulness exercises that can be used in the classroom
• Explore resilience, and skills and strategies that will help to be resilient
• Explore how to communicate how they are feeling
• Hands-on Practical, inclusive mindful African drumming and music-making
• Have a fun day!

My Mindfulness workshops are designed to maximise participation. This workshop includes props and accessories to aid learning

Are you interested in bringing these benefits to your school community?
Please get in touch today by clicking here to fill in a contact form and take a step towards a happier school.