Resilience and Mental Health

This is a hands-on, fun and educational workshop for pupils coming into senior school and aims to develop awareness of changing emotions and how we can develop skills to notice when we may need to practice some self-care or when we may need to reach out and ask for support. Much of the workshop is centred around friendships and school pressures that are common as pupils enter into secondary school where friendships and identity are becoming increasingly important and are therefore often a significant source of stress and worry.

The Workshop covers:

· Psychoeducation on stress and emotions - What are emotions? Why do we need them? There is a focus on normalising thoughts & feelings and highlighting how stress impacts on the brain and how we then function or behave. We identify what makes us feel anxious or stressed, how this can be different for everyone and how our behaviour can have a significant impact on the maintenance of our stress and worry (useful for pupils who may be struggling to regulate anger and who maybe getting into trouble through their expression of this through unwanted aggressive behaviour)

· Mindfulness – this is not about mediation, this is about noticing and identifying our emotions and making the connections to our environment - what we feel and when, and the importance of being able to STOP and recognise when we feel negative emotions so that we can do something to help ourselves sooner rather than allowing it to manifest and become a deeper issue

· Skills – We aim to teach lots of practical strategies for managing stress and building resilience

· Self care - how we can look after ourselves - knowing what to do and when to ask for help

Students will be given lots of fun practical exercises alongside videos and psychoeducation. Our approach is more of an active participation than a “lesson” and provides handouts and personal development logs of how pupils can recognise and manage their own personal stress/anxiety and build their resilience.