Welcome to our Online Training page where we offer the opportunity to engage in further training courses from the comfort of your own home.
This online course will be a series of sessions, which when completed, will enable you to understand and support children and young people who have experienced trauma.
We would suggest that you start with Session One (Mission Possible) as this is an introduction to Trauma-Informed Approaches. After reading session thirteen you can then pick and choose which of the other sessions appear most relevant to you.
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We hope that you find our online content useful.
CPD Sessions
Mission Possible: A Summary of the Key Messages from Neuroscience and Psychology re Supporting Children and Young People in the New Normal
Introduction
I have been asked by colleagues from a significant number of schools to provide a summary of the key evidence-based actions that we can take to support children and young people in the new normal. Staff have asked ideally for an overview which can be read in an hour or less with a favourite beverage. What follows is my attempt to provide a summary of the key messages from neuroscience and psychology re the practical actions that we can take to support children and young people at this extraordinary time. Given that the following article is a summary I hope that you find it useful and, additionally, that it will leave you wanting to find our more. The signposting section at the end of the article is, therefore, designed to point you in the direction of further useful information and resources.
The following summary covers:
- Understanding the impact of trauma
- Providing relational support
- The four cornerstones of a trauma-informed approach
- The transformative power of feeling safe
- Focusing on trust as well as learning
- Taking actions to make stress as predictable, moderate and controllable as we can
- The importance of our own wellbeing
- Conclusion
- Signposting
Understanding the impact of trauma
I am not suggesting that we are all going to be traumatised by the current situation with the pandemic, however, we will all be affected and some of us will be traumatised. It is, therefore, an opportunity for us to review our practices in order to become even more trauma-reducing for everyone and trauma-informed for those who need these approaches the most. The approaches and interventions described in this article are essential practice for children and young people who have been traumatised and they are also good practice for all children and young people.
It is helpful for us to understand that trauma has a physiological impact as well as a psychological impact. The neuroscience is very clear that, when we experience stress which is unpredictable, extreme and prolonged (especially in the absence of relational support) then we are likely to develop a sensitised stress response and a reduced window of tolerance. This results in us being more likely to be involuntarily and subconsciously pushed outside of our open and engaged physiological state into a defensive autonomic nervous state (either fight/flight or freeze/collapse). This is significant as we need to be in our open and engaged physiological state in order to be able to successfully interact pro-socially with others, feel good, stay healthy and to learn. How we perceive and interact with the world depends upon our physiological state:
- Open and engaged (feeling safe) – we are calm and connected and, therefore, able to socialise, reflect, use our problem solving abilities, behave flexibly, be curious, have the capacity to learn and be healthy.
- Fight/flight (defensive mobilisation) – we behave in a way which is chaotic, oppositional, controlling, our cortex is offline, middle ear muscles tighten (limiting our capacity to distinguish the human voice from other background sounds) and we are mobilised with alarm.
- Freeze/collapse (defensive immobilisation) – we behave in a way which is rigid, withdrawn, dissociated, inaccessible, numb and we are immobilised with terror.
Our physiological state underpins how we perceive and interact with the world as represented by the iceberg diagram above from Complete Coherence. We need to support the children and young people in our care to be in their open and engaged state (the green person in the image below) for as much of the time as is possible.
All of us can be pushed outside of our window of tolerance for brief periods of time into a fight/flight or freeze/collapse physiological state, however, people who have been traumatised are more likely to spend their time oscillating between a freeze/collapsed state and a fight/flight state with only limited time in their open and engaged state.
The following short video explains the window of tolerance through the metaphor of Panda’s river of life.
Source: You Tube
The good news is that repeated experiences of predictable, moderate and controllable stress alongside relational support will not only help the child or young person at the time of stress but will, over time, support him/her to re-expand his/her window of tolerance, to return from a sensitised stress response to a more neurotypical stress response and to build resilience.
Providing relational support
The most important ingredient to being trauma-informed and trauma-reducing is relational support. Once again psychology and neuroscience help to inform us how we can be most effective in providing this relational support. In order to support children and young people to avoid and/or recover from trauma we need to provide what Psychiatrist and Neuroscientist Bruce Perry calls ‘Relational Buffering’ to the stressful situation. In particular, we need to provide relational support that helps children and young people to feel safe and that builds trust. This relational support needs to be proactive, as well as reactive at times of difficulty, so that the protective factors of connection, belonging and community are in place. As represented in the picture below if we do not focus on the relational elements of trust and safety then learning simply will not be able to take place. The messages from neuroscience are very clear: it is not a choice between focusing on relationships (in particular trust and safety) or learning. Our pupils will need us to focus on trust, safety and learning. Trust and safety are two of the cornerstones of a trauma-informed approach. I will, therefore, explore these in more detail below.
Being trauma-informed and trauma-reducing really is about: Relationships, Relationships, Relationships!
We need to focus on relationships as well as focusing on learning and, in particular, we need to provide experiences of trust and safety through relational support.
The transformative power of feeling safe
Feeling safe transforms how we perceive and interact with the world. As summarised in the earlier section of this article, when we are able to remain in our open and engaged physiological state (i.e. feeling safe and not defensive) then we are able to socialise, reflect, use our problem solving abilities, behave flexibly, be curious, have the capacity to learn and be healthy.
The question, therefore, becomes – how do we support children and young people to feel safe? Once again neuroscience has the answers. Children and young people who have experienced trauma will have a much narrower window of tolerance which, like all of us, will reduce even further when we are in stressful situations. We can support a child or young person to remain within their window of tolerance by creating an environment which feels as safe as possible for them. Children and young people who have experienced trauma have a higher threshold for feeling safe and we need to intentionally provide cues of safety through our interactions with them.
The research of Neuroscientist Stephen Porges (The Polyvagal Theory) demonstrates that a significant element of feeling safe comes from the interactions with the people around us. Porges’ research identifies that one of the most significant factors in feeling safe is scanning the people around us for signs of safety or threat (Neuroception). We all subconsciously scan (this is a function of our Amygdala in the Limbic System of our brain) the other people in our environment to identify cues of threat or cues of safety. We, therefore, need to be aware of the cues that we are transmitting and make a conscious effort to intentionally increase the cues of safety and, most powerfully of all, the non-verbal elements of our communication i.e.
- Smiling faces as opposed to flat facial expression.
- Prosody (‘sing song’ intonation) in our voices rather than monotone.
- Large, welcoming and open gestures and body language.
The idea of smiling, having prosody in our voice and welcoming gestures sounds simple, however, achieving this requires self-awareness and practice. These important non-verbal communications of safety to others become even more difficult to achieve in such uncertain and extraordinary times of the ‘new normal.’ We will, therefore, return to this later in this article when we consider the importance of our own wellbeing.
Providing cues of safety through our interactions – especially the nonverbal elements of our communication (smiling, prosody in our tone of voice and open gestures) has a significant impact on supporting others to feel safe. When we feel safe we are able to remain within our window of tolerance (in an open and engaged physiological state) where we can behave flexibly, interact socially and learn.
We also need to have a plan of what we are going to do and how we are going to do it for when things go wrong for a child or young person and he/she starts to feel unsafe (defensive) i.e. our reactive relational support. Psychiatrist and Neuroscientist Bruce Perry reminds us that in these situations we need to support a child or young person to physiologically regulate, then to relate and only then to reflect and possibly engage in repair to the situation (The Neurosequential Model or 4Rs Approach). We need to provide our reactive relational support in the following order:
- Regulate
- Relate
- Reflect
- Repair
If we try to engage a child or young person to reflect or repair when they are not yet physiologically regulated or feeling safe through relational connection then he/she will not have the capacity to engage positively in the process and this is when incidents can escalate. Until he/she is physiologically regulated the areas of the brain required to engage in reflecting, reasoning and problem solving (the Cortex) are effectively offline as represented below.
We need to learn to recognise if a child or young person is not yet physiologically regulated and to support them to regulate before moving to the next stages of our planned support. When we feel unsafe and are triggered into a defensive state (fight/flight or freeze/collapse) then one of the most effective ways of returning to our open and engaged state (felt safety) is to spend ‘time-in’ co-regulating with a trusted adult. This involves time in the presence of a regulated (calm) person.
On some occasions, supporting a child to move from physiological dysregulation to regulation will require more than simply the presence of a regulated and trusted adult. On these occasions either breathing and/or somatosensory activities with the trusted adult will be required. The most effective ways to support someone to regulate are ‘bottom up’ brain activities which calm the lower areas of our brains (the Brainstem and Limbic System). As referenced in the earlier section of this article research demonstrates that the three following actions are the most effective interventions to calm someone’s physiological regulation (ideally these will have been practised prior to this reactive / emergency use of these approaches):
- Breathing – deep and even breathing and, in particular, a slower/elongated outbreath (e.g. 7-11 breathing. Breathing in to the count of 7 and out to the count of 11).
- Somatosensory activities – rhythmic physical and sensory activities to calm, sooth and ground our bodies (e.g. tensing and relaxing our muscles, repeated rhythmic movements or ‘grounding’ by focusing on what we can see and hear in the present moment).
- Social connection – relational regulation (e.g. a check-in / ‘time-in’ with a trusted adult).
I’ll return to these physiological regulating activities later in this article.
Trainer and Therapist Louise Bomber, in her latest book Know me to teach me, represents this staged 4Rs approach (Regulate, Relate, Reflect and Repair) in the picture below and suggests that we attune our support to the needs of the child or young person in that moment of interaction with them – moving backwards and forwards through the 4Rs as necessary.
It is these experiences of feeling safe in social interactions and co-regulating to return to an open and engaged state that, when experienced repeatedly over time, support children and young people who have experienced trauma to return to a neurotypical stress response (as opposed to a sensitised stress response). Children and young people learn to self-regulate through these repeated experiences of co-regulation.
We can support a child or young person to expand their window of tolerance (increase resilience and reduce vulnerability) by:
- Providing repeated experiences of ‘relational buffering’ (co-regulation with a trusted adult) in response to situations that the child or young person finds stressful.
- Providing experiences of joy/play in a safe relationship (safe mobilisation) and experiences of comfort in a safe relationship (safe immobilisation).
Once we have supported the child or young person to be regulated and they are feeling the safe connection to us (relate) we may need to support him/her to reflect and possibly even repair the damage done to any relationships as a result of the incident. Psychologists Ross Greene and Stuart Ablon have developed an approach called the Collaborative Problem Solving Approach (CPSA) which is particularly useful for the reflect and repair stages of the 4Rs Approach. This is another approach which appears deceptively simple, however, is enormously powerful. There are three steps to a Collaborative Problem Solving conversation these three steps are (in the necessary order):
- The empathy step – in this step we use questioning and active listening to identify the child or young person’s concern with them (curiosity and acceptance).
- The define the problem step – in this step we restate/summarise the child’s concern providing them with the opportunity to correct us or add further detail if needed. Then, once it is agreed that we have understood his/her concern, we state our concern. Our concern does not trump the child or young person’s concern. Instead it sits alongside the child or young person’s concern to define the two aspects of the problem that requires solving.
- The invitation step – in this step the child/young person and the supportive adult explore possible solutions to the problem together and agree what action will be taken to solve the problem. Ideally a range of possible actions to solve the problem are suggested and evaluated to choose the one that best meets everyone’s needs. The step is described as being an invitation step as we encourage the child or young person to contribute possible ways forward as well as the adult. The way forward may include sanctions (ideally ones that are educative), relational repair (drawing on Mediation from Restorative Approaches) and/or teaching the social and emotional skills not yet learned (in order to support the child or young person to be able to respond differently when a similar situation occurs again in the future).
Use of CPSA overtime solves problems with the child or young person, builds relationships and teaches him/her how to solve problems in a prosocial way. As represented in the illustration below it models the use of power with pupils rather than doing things to or for them (which is especially important for many children and young people who have experienced trauma). What’s not to love.
Before I move on from my summary of CPSA I would like to emphasise that the first step of the collaborative problem solving conversation is the most important and children and young people may need us to actively listen to them repeatedly in order to process (Integrate) and make sense of their difficult experience. In addition to working with the child or young person to agree the best way forward to solve the problem we are also looking to support the child or young person to process and integrate his/her experience as part of the reason/reflection stage of the sequence of support. Integrating an experience makes it less likely to become overwhelming. Processing and integration also has three stages that we need to support the child or young person to:
- Acknowledge and express the concern or difficulty. Experience being listened to (curiosity without comparison or judgement). Psychiatrist Dan Siegel describes this as supporting the child or young person to ‘name it to tame it.’
- Have the concern or difficulty witnessed/validated by someone that he/she trusts. Experience being heard and understood (acceptance and empathy).
- Continue to be kept in mind and supported. Integration does not happen as a one off event. We will need to continue to keep connecting and offering the opportunity for more sharing. Ongoing check-ins e.g. “How are you doing? How are you really doing?” or “What’s been happening with you?”
Supporting children and young to feel safe, to be physiologically regulated and to integrate difficult experiences are essential to support them to learn. If a child or young person does not feel safe, is dysregulated or overwhelmed by a difficult experience then the areas of his/her brain required for learning will be offline and he/she will not be able to learn. We need to focus on supporting children and young people to feel safe in order to avoid the development of an achievement gap as a result of them not being able to access the learning available to them.
Focusing on trust as well as learning
Trusting relationships with key adults make an enormous difference to the effectiveness of each of the interventions highlighted above. As I’m sure we all know from our personal experience we are significantly more able to support a child or young person if we have established a trusting relationship with them. For children and young people who have experienced trauma the most effective help that we can provide is through a relational approach. However, an additional challenge for children and young people who have experienced trauma is that they are likely to develop Blocked Trust. Blocked Trust is a term used by Psychologist Dan Hughes. He describes Blocked Trust as ‘When children block the pain of rejection and the capacity to delight in order to survive in a world without comfort and joy.’ We need to take actions to support a traumatised child or young person to rebuild trust so that he/she is open to accepting the relational support that he/she needs.
Children and young people develop Blocked Trust due to the lack of good enough care and, in particular, the lack of ‘relational buffering’ in response to stressful situations (both of which are far more likely under a prolonged period of stress in the family). It is a sad reality that children and young people who develop Blocked Trust continue to block interactions with adults who are able to provide this good enough care. As Dan Hughes observes in his work with adopted children and young people: Even when good care is readily available to these children in a new home, school and/or therapy they continue to mistrust and block reciprocal relational interactions.
When a child or young person has Blocked Trust he/she will:
- Mistrust the intention of other peoples’ behaviour towards him/her
- Block reciprocal interactions (serve and return) and, therefore, not allow others to have influence on him/her
- Try to be self-reliant
- Seek to control and manipulate the behaviours of others in order to get his/her needs met and to feel safe
- Not seek joy or comfort from relational connection and interactions
- Not learn social and emotional skills, as relational skills are learned in relationships
- Have a limited capacity to learn
Effectively children and young people who have experienced trauma build a defensive wall around themselves to protect them from further harm. Sadly, the wall that they build also blocks them from the relational interactions which are necessary for them to heal.
Children and young people who have developed Blocked Trust are likely to try to control our behaviour towards them in order to feel safe rather than be open to our influence on them. We need to support these children and young people to overcome Blocked Trust, rebuild their trust in authority figures and allow us to have some influence on them.
The good news is that Psychologist Dan Hughes has developed the PACE Approach as a way of interacting with children and young people to build trust and overcome Blocked Trust. Those of you who know me will have listened to one (or possibly many!) of my monologues about the power of the PACE Approach in building trusting relationships with children and young people who have had difficult relational experiences in the past. Like many approaches for children and young people with additional needs, the PACE Approach is essential practice and also works well with all children and young people. PACE stands for Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy. A brief introduction to PACE is:
- Playfulness: Light, hopeful, open and spontaneous. Especially the non-verbal elements to communicate safety – e.g. “Hey, it’s good to see you. I thought of you the other day when I saw…”
- Acceptance: Listening to understand. Respecting the individual experience of the other person. Finding ways of demonstrating that he/she is worthwhile and wanted including correction being carried out while maintaining connection – e.g. “We will work this out together. Help me to understand so that I can help.”
- Curiosity: Non-judgemental, not-knowing, active interest in the others’ experience. Curiosity leads to reflection and learning – solving problems collaboratively – e.g. “Are you ok? I’m worried about you. What’s going on?”
- Empathy: Felt sense of the other; actively experienced and communicated with compassion / care. When someone understands you it creates a strong connection – e.g. “Thank you so much for telling me. That sounds really stressful.”
Being PACEful in our interactions with children and young people, where it is possible and appropriate, builds relationships. Researcher Brené Brown uses the metaphor of marbles in a jar to illustrate the building of trust over time through multiple investments of marbles into the jar. PACEful interactions are a great way of making these investments into a trusting relationship. As illustrated in the picture below it is connection to a key individual that leads to a sense of belonging and community.
Using the PACE Approach in our interactions with others builds trust. Use of PACEful interactions over time wears down children and young people’s mistrust and re-engages them in reciprocal (serve and return) interactions i.e. enables them to be open to influence from us rather than trying to control us.
Before I move on from this brief introduction to the PACE Approach I want to add a little bit more detail about empathy. Dan Hughes emphasises the importance of empathy as a key part of the PACE Approach. He states, ‘I can’t overstate the importance of empathy. Empathy is not just the start of our helping it is the most important and effective part of our help.’
One of many lessons that I have learned from Dan Hughes is to spend longer on the empathy element of my support with children and young people and not to rush on to either reassurance or problem solving too quickly.
The following short video from Shame and Vulnerability Researcher Brené Brown provides a useful summary of the elements of empathy.
“Rarely can a response make something better. What makes something better is connection… Empathy fuels connection.”
Taking actions to make stress as predictable, moderate and controllable as we can
A third cornerstone of a trauma-informed approach is to take actions to make the stress for the children and young people in our care as predictable, moderate and controllable as we can. Remember if we can take actions to make the stress for others as predictable, moderate and controllable as possible alongside providing the relational support described above then we are being trauma reducing and, at the same time, supporting others to build resilience (as represented in the diagram below from Psychiatrist and Neuroscientist Bruce Perry).
Although it is clearly not fully within our control to make the stress for our pupils predictable, moderate and controllable there are a number of actions that we can take to help to achieve this:
- Clear structure to the day and routines for key tasks (consistency without rigidity)
- Increase the regularity and clarity of communication re changes and also what is remaining the same (e.g. use of visual timetables)
- Minimise the pace of further changes as far as possible
- Break big changes / transitions into a series of smaller changes / transitions where we can
- Calendars of key dates including any significant changes or events
- Managing each transition within the day including the use of physiological regulation breaks (see 3-part transitions below)
- Have fun – playfulness is a very effective way of reducing defensiveness
- Consider the cognitive demand of tasks – our stretch zone for learning is likely to be narrower too and we will feel overwhelmed more easily
- Maintain connection with key staff – even though we may need to be creative in how we do this due to social distancing measures
Additionally we can make use of 3-part transitions. Further useful messages from neuroscience:
- Transitions are stressors for all of us
- We can manage each transition within the day to be more predictable, moderate and controllable by having 3-parts to each transition i.e.
- Pre-transition phase – countdowns, markers and communications
- Transition phase – an opportunity to build in brief physiological regulation breaks (see below)
- Post-transition phase – routine to resettle to learning and follow up with brief relational check-ins
- Effective physiological regulation breaks with the children and young people help to make the stress more manageable (these only need to be brief e.g. a couple of minutes). As referenced earlier in this summary the research shows that the most effective physiological regulation breaks can be summarised in the three following categories:
- Calming breathing activities – for example 7-11 breathing (slow, deep and even breathing in to the count of 7 and out to the count of 11) or box breathing (breathing in to the count of 4, holding our breath for the count of 4, breathing out to the count of 4 and holding our breath for the count of 4).
- Somatosensory activities – physical and sensory activities to calm, sooth and ground our bodies and minds (e.g. age appropriate repetitive rhythmic movements: alongside rhyming books, music or group yoga positions or muscle tensing and relaxing, grounding ourselves: 5-4-3-2-1 using our senses to notice 5 things in our environment that we can see, 4 that we can touch etc or a soothing activity: hand massage). Use slower and heavier movements to calm and faster and lighter movements to re-energise. I’m sure you’ll find something that works for you with your pupils.
- Social connection – relational regulation (e.g. a two minute check-in with a clam/regulated person).
A fabulous resource for teaching physiological regulation breaks is Psychologist Karen Treisman’s Treasure Deck of Grounding, Soothing, Coping and Regulating Cards (see signposting section at the end of this article for more details).
Making use of these regular, brief physiological regulation breaks throughout the day help us to manage stress, stay within our window of tolerance (open and engaged physiological state) and reduce the likelihood of becoming overwhelmed (into fight/flight or freeze/collapse) by the cumulative effect of stressors throughout the day. Bruce Perry represents this on the following graphs. The first graph represents regular, brief physiological regulation breaks throughout the day and the second graph the absence of these except for a break at lunchtime and toward the end of the day. In each of the graphs the y axis represents the level of physiological arousal and the x axis time throughout the day.
Proactively building regular, brief physiological regulation breaks into the daily routines with our pupils (e.g. as part of 3 part transitions) makes it far more likely for them to remain open and engaged and far less likely for them to become disengaged or disrupted by being pushed outside of their open and engaged physiological state (window of tolerance) into a defensive / overwhelmed state of fight/flight or freeze/collapse. In addition, this also provides our pupils with the opportunity for practising these self-regulation skills in preparation for difficult times that they need to use them to return to a regulated state within their window of tolerance.
The importance of our own wellbeing
If we are going to continue to be the secure base that our school communities need us to be, including enacting the trauma-informed approaches summarised in this article, then we need to take action to look after our own wellbeing. Our own wellbeing, therefore, is the fourth cornerstone of a trauma-informed approach.
The research regarding our own wellbeing can be separated into two groups of findings:
- Actions that we probably know that we should take but that we may not do.
- Actions that we may not know about and that we definitely need to do.
I will take each of these in turn. Firstly, then, actions that we probably know that we should take but that we may not do. Over a decade ago now a meta-analysis of hundreds of studies identified the five most effective actions that we can take in order to impact positively on our emotional wellbeing. This top five, in no particular order, are as follows:
- Be physically active
- Connect with others
- Keep learning
- Give to others
- Take notice – press pause and be curious
Other evidence-based actions that we can take for our emotional wellbeing that are worthy of an honourable mention include:
- Connect with nature
- Be creative
- Play – have fun, do things you enjoy and that make you laugh
- Sing or play a wind instrument
- Yoga (especially Pranayama Yoga)
- Have some ‘me time’ – self-care (Hygge)
- Be grateful – remind yourself of the things in your life that mean the most to you and the things that you are grateful for
- Get your basic needs met (eat, drink and sleep)
- Avoid unhealthy habits – don’t rely on alcohol, smoking or caffeine as ways of coping
- Take a break from the stressors but don’t avoid them completely
- Reflect or talk it through with someone you trust (or journal) and make a plan
- Regular (brief) activities to calm, sooth and ground our bodies (see below)
NB – There isn’t one size fits all. We need to find what works best for us.
I have been fortunate to work with thousands of wonderful colleagues throughout my career in education and almost without exception they have been brilliant at looking after the needs of others. They have not, however, always been as brilliant at looking after their own needs. My question to you, therefore, is do you make the time to prioritise actions from the lists above in order to look after your own emotional wellbeing? And I’m not only talking about actions that you take in the school holidays. In addition, at this extraordinary time, when we are not able to engage in some of our usual actions for our own wellbeing we need to redouble our efforts with those actions that we can take and, perhaps, try out some new self-care actions too.
Secondly, then, the actions that we may not know about and that we definitely need to do. For these we are returning to a theme from earlier in this article: Physiological regulation breaks. In exactly the same way as for our pupils we need to build regular, brief physiological regulation breaks into our daily routine.
The regular (brief) activities to calm, sooth and ground our bodies through calming breathing activities, somatosensory activities and social connection are just as important for us to use proactively in order to remain within our own window of tolerance. Just like the children and young people we need regular (brief) physiological breaks to help us to remain within our own open and engaged physiological state. The research encourages us to build regular, brief physiological regulation breaks into our daily routine. Again this is about trying these out to see what works best for you. Perhaps you could try:
- Calming breathing. Calming breathing, in particular, slow, deep breathing with our diaphragm at six breaths a minute (i.e. coherent or resonant breathing in for 5 seconds and out for 5 seconds) and/or an elongated exhale (e.g. 7-11 breathing) help us to manage stress by calming our physiology. They have been utilised for centuries by Buddhist Monks and Yogis and are now used widely by all sorts of people including the American Special Forces i.e. Navy SEALs. These breathing techniques are scientifically proven physiological hacks that we all need to learn to utilise as they are the most effective way of regulating our physiological state. Research demonstrates that even a couple of minutes of these types of deep, slow, diaphragmatic breathing that are relaxed and not strained will have a significant calming impact upon us (centring us into an open and engaged physiological state). We can also using breathing techniques to re-energise (a couple of minutes of breathing in for 6 seconds and out quickly for 2 seconds) and to assist us in getting to sleep (a couple of minutes of breathing in deeply for 4 seconds, holding our breath for 7 seconds and breathing out slowly for 8 seconds). Once again you need to find what works best for you. There are a couple of fabulous Apps to teach these breathing techniques which you may like to try (see signposting section below). These are a really quick and effective way to impact on our physiological regulation. I’d encourage you to learn to make use of them and then, when you’ve learned about them, teach them to the children and young people. We need to remember to breathe!
- Somatosensory activities. We need to build these into our daily routine e.g. joining in with these as part of our 3 part transitions with pupils (see earlier section of this article), massaging our hands after our frequent washing regime, progressively tensing and relaxing the muscles throughout our bodies and/or combining a walk with a grounding activity by pausing and noticing with all of our senses. Remember to use slower and heavier rhythmical movements to calm yourself and faster paced and lighter rhythmical movements if you need to re-energise. Mindfulness is another grounding technique that many people find very effective (see an online session entitled Mindfulness is a Superpower as one of the free online staff CPD sessions available at the Sigma Teaching School in the signposting section below).
- Social connection. We can use PACEful interactions with our colleagues too. PACE works equally as well with colleagues, friends, partners and our own children as it does with our pupils. Spending time with people who are in an open and engaged physiological state supports us to remain in our own open and engaged state. Remember physiological states are contagious and we need to use this in a good way. We need to spend time with the people who recharge our batteries.
As Psychiatrist and Neuroscientist Bruce Perry states, “A dysregulated person can never calm anyone.” Physiological states are contagious. We need to be stress regulators for our children and young people i.e. looking after our own wellbeing so that we can provide interactions that are represented in the picture below.
And not interactions that are represented in the following picture:
I’ll end this section on the importance of our own wellbeing with three quotes. One from Teacher and Psychologist Haim Ginott, ‘I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess tremendous power to make a student’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humour, hurt or heal. In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a student humanised or de-humanised.’
A second from Researcher Brené Brown, “I’m here to get it right, not to be right.”
And a third from Trainer and Therapist Louise Bomber that in order to be the decisive element in our classrooms (in a good way) “We need to put on our own emotional oxygen masks first.”
Physiological states are contagious. We need to use this in a good way. We need to be the secure base for the children and young people in our care, therefore, we need to take actions for our own self-care.
Conclusion
The good news at this extraordinary time is that there are clear messages from the research in neuroscience and psychology as to how we can best help the children and young people in our care. This includes taking action to:
- Utilise the transformative power of feeling safe
- Focus on building trust as well as on learning
- Make stress as predictable, moderate and controllable as possible
- Look after our own wellbeing
I’d like to end with two final quotes. Firstly, a quote from Neuroscientist and Psychiatrist Bruce Perry that, “What traumatised children need most is a healthy community to buffer the pain, distress and loss caused by the earlier trauma. What works to heal them is anything that increases the number and quality of the child’s relationships. What helps is consistent, patient, repetitive loving care.”
And a quote from Psychologist Karen Treisman’s TED Talk (see signposting section below) that, “Relationships are the most powerful mental health intervention known to mankind.”
We have an opportunity to become even more caring and inclusive communities by further developing our trauma-informed approaches and interventions. We need to be trauma-reducing rather than trauma inducing.
I hope that you have found this summary both reassuring and that it has provided you with at least one additional approach or intervention to add to your toolkit. As I stated in the introduction, I also hope that this summary will leave you wanting to find out more – hence the signposting section below.
If you have any feedback, questions or other comments then please email me on [email protected].
Signposting
If you are reading this document on the Sigma website or in a pdf format then the hyperlinks in the signposting section below should work. If you are having any difficulties with the links then please go to the online training at the Sigma Teaching School website (www.sigmateachingschool.org.uk/online-training/) and select the tab on the left hand side of the page for the 13th session.
As you will see the signposting covers a range of links to further information and resources. I would like to take the opportunity to highlight the PACE+ Approaches Course (6 x 1.5hr live webinars) as something for you to consider for yourself and/or your colleagues. The course comes highly recommended with average rating of 6.9 out of 7 from the hundreds of staff who have attended to date, with 100% reporting learning approaches and interventions which have made a difference for children and young people and with feedback including “The best training ever!” See the link in the PACE+ Approaches Course bullet point below for more details.
The PACE+ Approaches course which in addition to going into further details regarding the four cornerstones of a trauma-informed approach also builds upon these with other evidence-based actions that we can take to support children and young people who have experienced trauma including:
- Teaching the social and emotional skills not yet learned
- What about when it goes wrong?
- Behaviour as communication
- We need to talk about shame
- Repairing relationships
- Supporting children and young people to integrate experiences
- Being a reflective practitioner
- Working as a team
- Keeping the focus on self-care and organisational-care
- The right intervention at the right time
- Building on successes
- If you would like to listen to a short podcast summarising these trauma-informed messages then please click here.
- If you would like to watch a series of YouTube videos re making use of trauma-informed approaches then click on the following:
- If you would like to access free online CPD sessions to understand and support children and young people who have experienced trauma then please scroll back to the top of this article and choose from the tabs on the left hand side of the screen to select the session that you would like to read.
- If you would like to attend an online training course re using trauma-informed approaches and interventions in schools then click on the CPD & Leadership tab at the top of the screen and follow the links for the PACE+ Approach courses in the current courses section of the web page.
- If you would like to join an online Pastoral Network which meets three times a year to continue your professional development and keep up to with the latest research and resource publications then click on the CPD & Leadership tab at the top of the screen and follow the links for the Pastoral Network in the Current Courses section of the web page.
- If you would like to learn more about Karen Treisman’s Therapeutic Treasure Deck of Regulating Cards then click here.
- If you would like to watch Karen Treisman’s TED Talk then click here.
- The breathing App from Eddie Stern is simply called The Breathing App. You can find out more about it here.
- A second fabulous breathing App is called Breathwrk: Breathing Exercises. You can find out more about it here.
- You may also find the evidence-based resources from the Anna Freud Centre You can access these here.
- If you would like to contact me with any questions or to commission any specific work for your school, service or authority then please email me on i.hunki[email protected].
Yoga for Emotional Wellbeing
Welcome to this free resource of recorded videos by Yoga Teacher Melanie Lovegrove (Lovegrove Fitness). The aim is to teach yoga in schools with particular focus on emotional wellbeing.
Yoga for Emotional Wellbeing: Yoga Techniques for Children and Young People
The following series of technique videos are intended to be used with the children and young people in your schools to support their emotional wellbeing.
These technique videos are one part of three sets of videos which have been produced by fabulous Yoga Teacher Melanie Lovegrove (Lovegrove Fitness) for Sigma Teaching School with funding from Sport England.
The three sets of videos:
- Yoga technique videos – see below for a series of videos for staff to learn specific yoga techniques to use for themselves and/or with children and young people in schools.
- Yoga for children and young people – a series of videos which can be used as lessons for children and young people to learn to make effective use of yoga for their emotional wellbeing.
- Yoga for staff wellbeing – a series of yoga sessions for our own emotional wellbeing. for a series of videos of yoga sessions for our own emotional wellbeing.
Why yoga?
The reason we chose to commission this series of yoga resources is because yoga is proven to be a very effective way of supporting our emotional wellbeing. Yoga combines so many of the scientifically proven actions that we can take for our own wellbeing:
- Rhythmical movement
- Breathing approaches
- Deep relaxation including our psoas muscles (core muscles in our lower back) which hold a lot of stress and tension and that many relaxation techniques simply do not impact upon
- Awareness: Pausing, being curious (checking in with our bodies) and taking the action that our body needs
Practicing yoga is also proven to build resilience and reduce the impact of trauma. Psychiatrist and trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk reminds us that “Research shows us that yoga practice for a traumatised person is more effective than medication.”
Please remember that yoga can involve a half hour session (which is great) but that yoga movements and breathing can also be used effectively as a brief physiological regulation activity for a couple of minutes as part of our daily self-care routine too.
I hope that you enjoy the following videos from Melanie as much as I have.
You will get the maximum benefit from Melanie’s sessions if you join in with the movements so before you click on the videos below please:
- Clear some space in which you can move safely whilst still being able to see your screen and hear your audio.
- Wear clothes that are comfortable for you to move in.
- Have a yoga mat or similar on the floor if you have one (not essential).
- Ensure that you do not over stretch throughout the session. Stay within what feels comfortable for you and, as with any physical activity, be mindful of the condition of your own health.
- Pause, check in with your body and give it what it needs e.g. to relax or re-energise.
- Enjoy!
If using this technique classes for the purpose of structuring your own classes, please structure them using the following format:
- 4 x Seated mobility
- 2x Sun salutations
- 2 x Standing poses
- 1 x Balance pose
- 2 X Seated poses
- Breathing technique (from the Calming flow videos) Bhramari Breath, Nadi Shodhana or Yogic breath.
Watch the first yoga technique video. This video focuses on Seated Mobility.
Watch the second yoga technique video. This video focuses on Standing Poses.
Watch the third yoga technique video. This video focuses on Balance.
Watch the fourth yoga technique video. This video focuses on Sun Salutations.
Watch the fifth yoga technique video. This video focuses on Seated Poses.
Watch the sixth yoga technique video. This video focuses on Nadi Shodhana Breathing.
Watch the seventh yoga technique video. This video focuses on Bhramari Breathing.
Watch the eighth yoga technique video. This video focuses on Yogic Breath.
Please remember that the above series of videos is one of three sets of videos. The other sets are also freely available:
- Yoga for children and young people – a series of videos which can be used as lessons for children and young people to learn to make effective use of yoga for their emotional wellbeing.
- Yoga for staff wellbeing – a series of videos of yoga sessions for our own emotional wellbeing.
Learn more about Melanie’s Yoga (Lovegrove Fitness).
Yoga for Emotional Wellbeing: Yoga for Children and Young People
The following series of videos are intended to be used with the children and young people in your schools to support their emotional wellbeing. As you will see below there are two sets of videos for children and young people:
- Videos designed to be used as lessons with young people aged 11 to 18.
- Videos designed to be used as lessons with children aged 5 to 11.
These videos are one part of three sets of videos which have been produced by fabulous Yoga Teacher Melanie Lovegrove (Lovegrove Fitness) for Sigma Teaching School with funding from Sport England.
The three sets of videos:
- Yoga for children and young people – see below for a series of videos which can be used as lessons for children and young people to learn to make effective use of yoga for their emotional wellbeing.
- Yoga technique videos – a series of videos for staff to learn about specific yoga techniques to use for themselves and/or with children and young people in schools.
- Yoga for staff wellbeing – a series of videos of yoga sessions for our own emotional wellbeing.
Why yoga?
The reason we chose to commission this series of yoga resources is because yoga is proven to be a very effective way of supporting our emotional wellbeing. Yoga combines so many of the scientifically proven actions that we can take for our own wellbeing:
- Rhythmical movement
- Breathing approaches
- Deep relaxation including our psoas muscles (core muscles in our lower back) which hold a lot of stress and tension and that many relaxation techniques simply do not impact upon
- Awareness: Pausing, being curious (checking in with our bodies) and taking the action that our body needs
Practicing yoga is also proven to build resilience and reduce the impact of trauma. Psychiatrist and trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk reminds us that “Research shows us that yoga practice for a traumatised person is more effective than medication.”
Please remember that yoga can involve a half hour session (which is great) but that yoga movements and breathing can also be used effectively as a brief physiological regulation activity for a couple of minutes as part of our daily self-care routine too.
I hope that you enjoy the following videos from Melanie as much as I have and, as always, we would welcome your feedback, suggestions and questions. Please either use the feedback form at the end of this webpage or email me at [email protected].
Melanie’s sessions involve children, young people and adults actively participating with yoga movements so before you make use of the videos below please:
- Clear some space in which everyone can move safely whilst still being able to see the screen and hear the audio.
- Wear clothes that are comfortable to move in.
- Have a yoga mat or similar on the floor if you have these (not essential).
- Ensure that no-one over stretches throughout the sessions. Stays within what feels comfortable for them and, as with any physical activity, be mindful of the condition of your own as well as everyone else’s health.
- Encourage everyone to pause, check in with their body and give it what it needs e.g. to relax or re-energise.
- Enjoy!
Videos designed to be used as lessons with young people aged 11 to 18:
Watch the first yoga video for young people. This video focuses on Hips.
Watch the second yoga video for young people. This video focuses on Twisting.
Watch the third yoga video for young people. This video focuses on Backs & Heart Openers.
Watch the fourth yoga video for young people, which is a progression video. This video focuses on Hips Progression.
Watch the fifth yoga video for young people, which is a progression video. This video focuses on Twists Progression.
Watch the sixth yoga video for young people, which is a progression video. This video focuses on Back & Heart Openers Progression.
Videos designed to be used as lessons with children aged 5 to 11:
Watch the first yoga video for children. This video focuses on a Calming Flow.
Watch the second yoga video for children. This video focuses on an Energising Flow.
Watch the third yoga video for children. This video focuses on a Confidence Flow.
Please remember that the above series of videos are one of three sets of videos. The other sets are also freely available:
- Yoga technique videos – a series of videos for staff to learn about specific yoga techniques to use for themselves and/or with children and young people in schools.
- Yoga for staff wellbeing – a series of videos of yoga sessions for our own emotional wellbeing.
Learn more about Melanie’s Yoga (Lovegrove Fitness).
Yoga for Staff Wellbeing
The following series of videos are intended to be used to support your own emotional wellbeing.
These videos are one part of three sets of videos which have been produced by fabulous Yoga Teacher Melanie Lovegrove (Lovegrove Fitness) for Sigma Teaching School with funding from Sport England.
The three sets of videos:
- Yoga for children and young people– a series of videos which can be used as lessons for children and young people to learn to make effective use of yoga for their emotional wellbeing.
- Yoga technique videos– a series of videos for staff to learn about specific yoga techniques to use for themselves and/or with children and young people in schools.
- Yoga for staff wellbeing– see below for a series of videos of yoga sessions for our own emotional wellbeing.
Why yoga?
The reason we chose to commission this series of yoga resources is because yoga is proven to be a very effective way of supporting our emotional wellbeing. Yoga combines so many of the scientifically proven actions that we can take for our own wellbeing:
- Rhythmical movement
- Breathing approaches
- Deep relaxation including our psoas muscles (core muscles in our lower back) which hold a lot of stress and tension and that many relaxation techniques simply do not impact upon
- Awareness: Pausing, being curious (checking in with our bodies) and taking the action that our body needs
Practicing yoga is also proven to build resilience and reduce the impact of trauma. Psychiatrist and trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk reminds us that “Research shows us that yoga practice for a traumatised person is more effective than medication.”
Please remember that yoga can involve a half hour session (which is great) but that yoga movements and breathing can also be used effectively as a brief physiological regulation activity for a couple of minutes as part of our daily self-care routine too.
I hope that you enjoy the following videos from Melanie as much as I have.
Melanie’s sessions involve children, young people and adults actively participating with yoga movements so before you make use of the videos below please:
- Clear some space in which everyone can move safely whilst still being able to see the screen and hear the audio.
- Wear clothes that are comfortable to move in.
- Have a yoga mat or similar on the floor if you have these (not essential).
- Ensure that no-one over stretches throughout the sessions. Stays within what feels comfortable for them and, as with any physical activity, be mindful of the condition of your own as well as everyone else’s health.
- Encourage everyone to pause, check in with their body and give it what it needs e.g. to relax or re-energise.
Watch the video for Energising Morning Flow.
Watch the video for Healthy Hips and Back.
Watch the video for Balance.
Watch the video for Core Strength Vinyasa Flow.
Watch the video for Heart Openers Flow
Watch the video for Calming Bedtime Flow
Supporting Emotional Wellbeing and Building Resilience through Sport
Welcome to our free online staff CPD course to support emotional wellbeing and build resilience through sport. The course consists of 3 x 1.5hr recorded webinars plus signposting and links to further information and resources referenced in the webinars.
The aims of the course are as follows:
• To provide a brief overview of the key messages from research regarding what works for supporting emotional wellbeing and building resilience through sport.
• Provide an opportunity for you to start to reflect on your own practice with regard to these key messages (providing both reassurance and ideally identifying actions to further develop your practice).
• Signposting to other information.
The three sessions will cover the following:
1. Session 1
- Building emotional resilience through sport
- Our physiology: Regulation, regulation, regulation
2. Session 2
- Teaching social and emotional skills through sport
- Promoting a Growth Mindset through a coaching approach
3. Session 3
- Vulnerable children and young people with a high number of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the unique opportunities that sport can provide to help
A big thank you to Sport England who have provided the funding for this course. We hope that you find it useful.
Session 1: Building Emotional Resilience through Sport and Our physiology: Regulation, regulation, regulation.
Watch the first session here.
The resources and signposting referenced in the first session are as follows:
• A self-review of the content covered in the first session can be found here.
• Free online yoga for emotional wellbeing videos from Melanie Lovegrove (also funded by a Sport England grant) are below:
Yoga videos to be used with children and young people
Yoga videos for staff wellbeing
- Seth Porges, Nerd Nite Talk The Polyvagal Theory is here
- Pooky Knightsmith, The Window of Tolerance is here
- Dan Siegel, Flipping Your Lid – a scientific explanation is here and here
- Bruce Perry, Sport in healing and resilience building is here
- The breathing app from Eddie Stern is simply called The Breathing App
- A second fabulous breathing app is called Breathwrk: Breathing Exercises
- Richie Bostock’s book is Exhale
- A summary of our 3 x Autonomic Nervous System States (The Polyvagal Theory) is here.
- A simple but useful resource is available here.
We hope that you found this first session in the course useful.
Session 2: Teaching social and emotional skills through sport and promoting a growth mindset through a coaching approach.
Watch the second session here.
The resources and signposting referenced in the second session are as follows:
- A self-review of the content covered in the second session can be found here.
- Free online yoga for emotional wellbeing videos from Melanie Lovegrove (also funded by a Sport England grant). www.sigmateachingschool.org.uk/online-training
Yoga videos to be used with children and young people
Yoga videos for staff wellbeing
- The don’t tell me the score podcast re deliberate practice with Anders Ericsson is at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08hwh62
- Matthew Syed’s book is called Bounce and he introduces it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1K6bOG8mj8
- The great book on evidence-based teaching and learning is by Andy Tharby and is called Making every lesson count
- Carol Dweck’s RSA Animate video re Growth Mindset is at https://www.thersa.org/video/animates/2015/how-to-help-every-child-fulfil-their-potential
- The website with a range of resources for teaching a growth mindset is at www.mindsetkit.org
- The video using the metaphor of traversing a crevasse to explain the link between practice and learning is at https://vimeo.com/142378753
- The don’t tell me the score podcast with Daniel Goleman re Emotional Intelligence is at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p098l75m
- The 2 x Emotional Literacy skills (aka Emotional Intelligence or social and emotional skills) assessment tools are: higher level and lower level .
Session 3: Vulnerable children and young people with a high number of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the unique opportunities that sport can provide to help
Watch the third session here.
The resources and signposting referenced in the third session are as follows:
- A self-review of the content covered in the third session can be found here.
- Free online staff CPD sessions re Trauma-Informed Approaches. www.sigmateachingschool.org.uk/online-training including:
o Yoga for emotional wellbeing
- Dan Hughes’ PACE website is at https://ddpnetwork.org/about-ddp/meant-pace/
- Dan Hughes’ video The child who mistrusts good care is at https://vimeo.com/153934150
- Sigma Teaching School PACE+ (Trauma-Informed) Approaches Course is at https://www.sigmateachingschool.org.uk/cpd-leadership/
- Karen Treisman’s TED Talk: Good relationships are the key to healing trauma is at https://www.ted.com/talks/karen_treisman_good_relationships_are_the_key_to_healing_trauma
- Polyvagal Institute Trauma and the nervous system a Polyvagal perspective is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdIQRxwT1I0
- Claire Wilson’s TED Talk The missing piece in our children’s mental health crisis is at https://chew.mykajabi.com/tedx
- Ian Wright’s BBC documentary Home Truths is at https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000vt7g/ian-wright-home-truths
- You can sign up to attend our free online Pastoral Network sessions at https://www.sigmateachingschool.org.uk/cpd-leadership/
We hope that you found this course useful. We would welcome your feedback (positive and negative), comments, recommendations of other resources, questions or just to let us know how you’re getting on with the wellbeing actions.
Thanks again to Sport England for funding this online staff CPD course.
Welcome to our Pastoral Network, a network where we understand the value of meeting with colleagues to share ideas and keep up to date with developments in your area of work. The aim of our network is to give you the opportunity to come together online that will give the opportunity for anyone who works within Pastoral Support.
Pastoral Network Special Guest – Louise Bombèr
We were lucky enough to welcome leading Clinical Lead, Teacher and Therapist Louise Bombèr to our Pastoral Network on 29th June.
Louise Michelle Bombèr is qualified as both a specialist teacher, a therapist and a DDP certified practitioner. She is the Clinical Lead and the Director of TouchBase Centre CiC in Brighton. The aims of TouchBase are to support those who have experienced adverse childhood experiences to function well at home, in their schools and out in community. Louise and her team offer a range of support services for children and young adults (5 to 25) who have experienced significant
relational traumas and losses to move towards learned security and recovery. They also support family, friends and professionals around these children.
Thriving – Not Surviving Post Lockdown
What can we do in order to facilitate the best contexts for children and young people so that they can thrive, not merely survive in home, school and community contexts. Those who have experienced relational traumas and losses are often misunderstood and misinterpreted by those who could offer them
the best opportunities for second chance learning so that they can learn security. Trauma responsive practice is even more important than ever before. For such a time as this.
To view the recorded session please click here
For more information about TouchBase click on the link: Restoring dignity in children and young people who have experienced relational trauma and losses. – Touchbase
In this 3 x webinar course Dr Pooky Knightsmith and Ian Hunkin provide evidence-based actions that we can take for everyone’s wellbeing, including our own as leaders. Together we’ll explore a range of practical ideas that enable us to be empowering and authentic leaders. We’ll consider why and how leaders who care must care for themselves first. You’ll have a chance to reflect, as well as take your pick from a range of simple but highly impactful ideas that can be put into practice right away.
The webinars are freely available below and can be watched in order as a leadership staff CPD course or you may choose to select the webinar which appears most relevant to you as a stand-alone session. Simply click on the links below to watch each webinar. Each webinar is followed by links to the documents referenced in the session.
We hope that you will find the sessions useful.
1. Leadership Wellbeing: Essential Maintenance
To view the session please click here.
The resources referenced in this webinar include:
- The Self-Care / Essential Maintenance Action Plan
- The Window of Tolerance represented as 3 x concentric circles
- The Window of Tolerance represented as a series of concentric circles
- Pooky Knightsmith’s Emotional Regulation: Window of Tolerance video
- The Action for Happiness website including the wellbeing calendars
- Seth Porges’ Nerd Nite talk re The Polyvagal Theory
- Dr Mike Evans’ What can you do to get through a crap week?
- Brene Brown’s Unlocking us interview with the Nagoski sisters: Burnout and how to complete the stress cycle
- Dan Harris’ Ten percent happier interview with Deb Dana: Become an active operator of your own nervous system
- Michael Mosley’s Just one thing: Take a breath
- The What’s good app
- Simon Sinek’s Most leaders don’t even know the game they’re in
- The legend of the two wolves
- The breathwrk app
- Pooky Knightsmith’s 6 steps to effective co-regulation
- The Anna Freud Centre staff wellbeing resource
- The Education Support website
- The Burnout Workbook: Advice and exercises to help you unlock the stress cycle by Emily and Amelia Nagoski (2023)
2. Leadership Wellbeing: Leading Well, Staying Well
To view the session please click here.
The accompanying blog for this session is available here.
3.Leadership Wellbeing: Trauma-Informed Leadership
To view the session please click here.
The accompanying blog for this session is available here.
Pooky Knightsmith has a PhD in child mental health from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. She is the author of several books, and is a former chair of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition and she has had the privilege of working with and learning from hundreds of schools and settings across the UK and around the world.
Ian Hunkin is the Director of South Central Teaching School Hub. He has previously worked as a Headteacher of a large special school, Director of Multi-Agency Services, Teacher Advisor, Educational Psychologist, Teacher, Teaching Assistant, Residential Youth Worker and Security Guard. So you’re in relatively safe hands.
Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA)
In response to EBSA being identified as a priority by schools in our designated area we commissioned Dr Pooky Knightsmith to provide a series of 4 webinars as staff CPD. The webinars are freely available below and can be watched in order as a staff CPD course re EBSA or you may choose to select the webinar which appears most relevant to you as a stand-alone session. Simply click on the links below to watch each webinar. Each webinar is followed by a link to a blog which includes the documents referenced in the session.
We hope that you will find the sessions useful.
- EBSA: Prevention
To view the session please click here.
The accompanying blog for this session is available here.
- EBSA: Early Intervention
To view the session please click here.
The accompanying blog for this session is available here.
- EBSA: Reintegration
To view the session please click here.
The accompanying blog for this session is available here.
- EBSA: Autism and ADHD.
To view the session please click here.
The accompanying blog for this session is available here.
Pooky Knightsmith has a PhD in child mental health from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. She is the author of several books, and is a former chair of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition and she has had the privilege of working with and learning from hundreds of schools and settings across the UK and around the world.
Mindfulness is a Superpower
Introduction
What we’ll cover in this session:
- What is Mindfulness?
- Why should you give Mindfulness a go?
- Let’s do some Mindfulness.
The main focus of this session will be trying out some Mindful activities, after all, if we are to achieve the benefits of Mindfulness then we need to do it.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the quality of being fully present and engaged with whatever we are doing at that moment – free from distraction or judgement and aware of our thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them.
The skill of Mindfulness allows us to step back and be in the present moment in any situation. It doesn’t eliminate stress or other difficulties; instead, by becoming more aware of our thoughts and emotions, we have more choice of how to handle them and a better chance of reacting calmly and empathetically.
Meditation allows us to build the skill of Mindfulness so that we can then apply it to our everyday life. It involves taking a few minutes a day to practise some Mindful activities and is often described as making time for a workout for our mind.
Psychologist Daniel Goleman describes Mindfulness meditation as a method of ‘Training for your brain. Training your attention so that you can bring it to where you want and keep it where you want.’
Andy Puddicombe (the Co-founder of Headspace) writes, ‘Meditation is the training ground for learning Mindfulness. At first, we meditate to become familiar with the here and now for a limited period of time. Over time, however, regularly practicing Mindfulness helps to develop the ability to be present throughout the day, every day.’
Why should you give Mindfulness a go?
The answer to the question of why we should give Mindfulness a go is simple: It works!
Research demonstrates that practising Mindfulness regularly, even for a few weeks, is demonstrated to:
- Reduce mind wandering – increase our ability to focus and improve our working memory.
- Increase calmness – reduce our reaction to stress.
- Increase resilience – increase the speed at which we recover from adversity.
In addition, becoming more aware of the present moment can help us enjoy the world around us more and understand ourselves better. People who regularly meditate rate themselves as happier and as having more fulfilling relationships.
The good news is that these benefits occur even after a few weeks of practising Mindful activity regularly and that these benefits extend into every aspect of our lives.
The research also demonstrates that the more we practise Mindfulness the greater the benefit. It can be the difference between being mind full or Mindful (pun intended)
It’s all about our Uncinate Fasciculus (but you already knew that). In session two of this course I introduced the concept of Neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is how the brain develops through the repeated use of neural pathways. The neural pathways that are repeatedly used become stronger while the pathways that are rarely used become weaker or disappear completely through a process called pruning. Mindfulness practice strengthens the connections in the brain between the emotional centre (Amygdala) and the rational decision making part of the brain (the Prefrontal Cortex) i.e. The Uncinate Fasciculus. Strengthening the connection between these areas of the brain gives us greater emotional awareness and impulse control.
If you would like to know more about the science behind Mindfulness then please see the links in the signposting section at the end of this article.
Despite the proven benefits many people are still wary of the term meditation. So before we continue it might be helpful to dispel some myths:
- Meditation is not a religion. It is simply a method of mental training.
- You don’t have to sit cross legged on the floor, wear a special uniform or listen to whale music. You can mediate anywhere and at any time.
- It will not deaden the mind or trick you into a false Pollyanna attitude to life. It is about learning to see the world with greater clarity so that you can take wiser and more considered action to change those things which need to be changed.
It is time to watch our first video of this session. (source: YouTube)
“Mindfulness is a superpower and one that is accessible by you.”
Let’s do some Mindfulness
Who couldn’t benefit from reduced mind wandering, increased calmness and increased resilience?
As I said in the introduction: in order to achieve the benefits of Mindfulness then we need to do it. Let’s get started.
Time to watch our second video. (Source: YouTube)
If you’re not convinced to give Mindfulness a try by the video with the cartoon rodent in a lab coat then that’s all I’ve got.
In this section I am going to invite you to have a go at a few of Mindful activities and, in doing so, introduce you to some of the foundation techniques involved in Mindful activity.
The last video started to introduce the technique of focusing attention in meditation. This doesn’t have to involve focusing on the breath, however, it is a useful place to start to learn this technique. Not least because we have always got our breath with us as an anchor for our mind to return our focus to and maintain awareness. When you notice your mind wandering then simply return your focus to your breath.
This is different from the breathing exercises that I shared in previous sessions of this course as physiological regulation breaks. In focused attention meditation we are not attempting to change our breathing instead we are using our breath as a focus and simply accepting it as it is. Often you will find, however, that working with the mind in meditation the breath actually starts to slow down as part of the release of tension in our body.
You may find that adding an additional element to the focusing attention such as silently counting the breaths (1 on the in-breath and 2 on the out-breath up to 10 and then returning again to 1) or simply silently thinking ‘in’ and ‘out’ with the breaths will help you to increase your attention and achieve the right balance of focus alongside relaxation.
The following meditation is Andy Puddicombe’s first session on the Headspace basics programme (see signposting section below to access all 20 meditations ‘basics’ for free as part of the ‘weathering the storm’ section of Andy’s website and App).
It is time to do our first meditation. Please follow the instructions in the following meditation (Source: YouTube)
So how was it?
Maybe that was your first time meditating. Maybe you’ve been meditating for years. Either way pausing at the end in order to reflect on how it was for you is important.
It is helpful to approach meditation with what is known as a beginners’ mind. (Source: YouTube)
It is also important to remember that meditation is not about trying to change our thinking. (Source: YouTube)
“Training our mind is about changing our relationship with the passing thoughts and feelings. Learning how to view them with a little more perspective. And when we do this we naturally find a place of calm.”
A second foundation technique is the body scan. Often our body is the doing one thing while our mind is elsewhere. The body scan technique (which was briefly touched upon in the first meditation) helps to sync the body and mind by performing a mental scan from the top of your head to the bottom of your toes. Imagine a photocopier light slowly moving over your body, bringing attention to any sensations, discomfort, tensions or aches that exist. Again, you are not trying to change these sensations in anyway. You are simply focusing your attention on being aware of the sensations in your body.
Sometimes when we are in a busy state of mind then a slow scan can be difficult to achieve. In this situation you can use multiple body scans. Allow your mind to complete the scan of your body more quickly and then simply begin the scan again and this time attempt to slow down the pace of your scan.
Time for our second meditation. This one comes from the Mark Williams and Danny Penman’s book Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world (see signposting section below for more details). Please follow the instructions in the following meditation. (Source: YouTube)
A third foundation technique in Mindfulness meditation is visualisation. This type of meditation invites you to picture something or someone in your mind. Essentially this is a focusing attention meditation which replaces the focus on the breath with the mental image as the object. (Source: YouTube)
A fourth foundation technique is noting. This technique involves mentally noting what is distracting the mind (Source: YouTube).
We simply note the thought or feeling that arises without judgement and then let it go (without needing to “turn away and slam the door!” – If you have to google that reference then you probably haven’t got young children). Having noted the thought or feeling then return to the focus of our attention (e.g. the breath or our visualisation). Noting helps us to become more self-aware by learning more about our thought patterns, tendencies and conditioning.
Meditation can also focus on the happiness of others. In this ‘loving kindness’ form of meditation we direct goodwill to ourselves, then to others whilst paying attention to the sensations arising from the heart.
If you would like to complete a loving kindness meditation then see the second link in the signposting section below entitled Andy Puddicombe re back to basics with Mindfulness meditations at this challenging time.
Mindful activity can also take a variety of forms e.g. You can take a Mindful walk. (Source: YouTube)
Mindful activities could simply involve pausing for a moment from time to time and taking the time to notice your surroundings. These experiences involve us fully focusing on the present moment to take in the detail. This only needs to be for a brief moment and can be enhanced by focusing on one of our senses at a time (e.g. closing your eyes, taking a few deep breaths and naming five separate sounds that you can hear).
A number of techniques can be combined in a single meditation e.g. the following meditation taking 10 minutes to ‘decompress’ your body and ‘reset’ your mind. (Source: YouTube)
Meditations don’t have to be lengthy
To get the benefit, however, you do need to commit to practising Mindfulness activities on a fairly regular basis (ideally for a few minutes on most days). However, even taking a minute to meditate on the breath at some point in the day will be beneficial.
Here is a short mediation focusing on the breath. (Source: YouTube)
And a 3 minute breathing space. (Source: YouTube)
As with any skill we will get better at Mindful meditation the more we practise
One aspect that we will need to train our brains to be able to do overtime is letting go of effort in meditation. (Source: YouTube)
And to practise Mindfulness with a sense of playfulness and curiosity (Source: YouTube)
And remember it is all about regular consistent practise. Be more elephant. (Source: YouTube)
Finally
Getting started:
- Commit to a short mindful activity each day – a few minutes regularly (even a couple of minutes a day) is more effective than a longer session less frequently.
- Build it into your routine – you are twice as likely to follow up on your plan if commit to a specific time and place when you will carry out your action each day
- Decide if guided or non-guided (DIY) is best for you – perhaps try both and see which activities work best for you (see the signposting section below for some places to find guided meditations).
- Decide when you will review how this is working for you – reviewing whether you’ve been able to keep to your plan, whether it is making a difference and which aspects are working best for you. In particular, reviewing which aspects of your Mindfulness practice are most frequently cultivating the core elements of calm and clarity.
- If you get this right then it should be a part of your routine that you look forward to rather than another chore that you feel guilty about when you don’t do.
- Initially you should feel the benefit of taking time to pause to find a relaxed and focused space within your day.
- Overtime, you should start to feel the benefits throughout your day.
If you’re not sure where to start then I’d suggest trying the free sessions available from Headspace or the free guided meditations from Dan Harris’ Ten Percent Happier (see the links to the website in the signposting section below or download the Apps).
An ancient Japanese quote to end on, ‘You should meditate for 20 minutes a day, unless you’re too busy; then you should sit for an hour.’
Remember ‘Mindfulness is a superpower and one that is accessible by you.’
I hope that you found this useful. If you have any feedback, questions or suggestions, please use the form at the bottom of this page
Ian Hunkin, Delta Education Trust
I’ll leave you to choose between which of the following two videos you would prefer to end with.
I’d suggest that you choose Does Mindfulness really work? by Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson if you are more likely to be motivated to commit to trying Mindfulness by listening to the science behind it. (Source: YouTube)
OR
All it takes is 10 Mindful minutes (TED Talk) by Andy Puddicombe if you are more likely to be motivated by watching Andy use juggling as a metaphor for learning to be Mindful.
“Even though it only takes 10 minutes a day it impacts our whole life.”
Signposting
Guided meditations:
- Andy Puddicombe’s Headspace App or website: www.headspace.com
- Dan Harris’ Ten Percent Happier: Free guided meditations
- Andy Puddicombe’s back to basics with Mindfulness meditation at this challenging time.
- Sam Harris’ Waking Up App includes five free guided meditations including this one. (Source:YouTube)
- Danny Penman’s website includes a number of free guided meditations including a chocolate meditation (really, I’m not kidding, what’s not to love)
- Danny Penman and Mark Williams’ book: Mindfulness a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world includes guided meditations as part of a structured course.
The science:
- Daniel Goleman talks about the science of Mindfulness (Source: Youtube)
- Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson’s book Altered Traits includes a meta-analysis of Mindfulness research