Strength from the Inside Out
Learn once, use forever with
SPLASH-Counselling - De-Stress Coaching
Focusing on You
It is possible to change and enrich a young person’s life by using a personalised formula of listening, of acceptance and of helping them to observe and understand their feelings, thereby identifying and reducing stress and providing them with the strength from within to build self-belief, self-confidence and achieve happiness.
Doing this hugely improves their general feeling of wellbeing and ability to cope, rather than struggle, with the challenging and demanding situations they may be facing in their everyday lives.
Common stress situations include:
impending exams and tests - whether it’s the 11+, Common Entrance, GCSEs, A-Levels, or a driving test (the list goes on)
Primary schools have Year 6 SATs to prepare for and get through. The impending stress of changing schools on top of this academic expectation is an unhealthy load for 11 year-old children.
The recent reform of GCSEs and A-Levels has not only added an incredible amount of content for students to get their heads around, but also dramatically increased stress levels for each individual.
Accompanying one of my own boys through this phase also flagged up the stress this adds to family life and particularly to the parents who might not actually know how to deal with the situation either and would therefore benefit from some help and / or stress relief themselves.
Exam revision block / stress
Explore goal setting and various revision methods in a De-Stress Coaching session.
Feeling powerless to change a situation
As adults we know how frustrating and limiting it feels to come up against blocks, where these are within us or elsewhere. For learners in younger years, becoming aware of, and learning how to deal with their blocks is an invaluable tool for overcoming a feeling of powerlessness.
In those times when we feel like a cork floating on the ocean, thrown about with no control over the situation, it is important to develop a sense of letting go, as well as uncovering the source of these feelings and dealing with them adequately.
Facing new situations and people
We all know the feeling of insecurity around facing unknowns. They are among the most uncomfortable situations to deal with as we can’t mentally prepare for, or rehearse, a specific outcome. We feel a distinct lack of control, which feeds back into feeling powerless.
A positive, well-rounded attitude can help with maintaining confidence when facing daunting scenarios. More importantly, having a sense of trust and optimism born from a relaxed mindset, are prerequisites that are important to achieve before facing a challenging new situation.
Struggling with peer group pressure
Having an unshakeable sense of self-worth and the strength to go against the collective are things even most adults struggle with. This is why the pressure of needing to feel adequate and worthy are so strong. Humans are wired for connection, it’s what makes us feel that we belong.
Building self-confidence and positive outlook on ourselves are the best tools against being pressured into behaving in a certain way or thinking we must endlessly adapt to be likeable. Exploring the qualities we harbour and building up inner strength are invaluable things to address at a young age.
Stress reduction helps individuals to:
Move forward from perceived challenges and stressful situations
Worries and stress build up over time and become these entities in our mind that take over how we feel, live, interact and connect with others and expect our future to unfold. It’s as if one is stuck in a hamster wheel, the thoughts go around and around in circles, without any productive outcome.
It is possible to actively influence out thinking and feeling with the practise of learnable tools. I am particularly interested in helping children to learn at an early age how to do this by providing them with exercises, methods and techniques they can use themselves.
The ideal outcome of my coaching and counselling sessions is that my clients learn things they can put into practise, whenever needed. With the guidance I offer they will come to the point of being content and focused enough within themselves to move on from challenging or stressful situations.
Remain focused
Being able to actively interrupt and redirect negative, limiting thoughts and feelings helps us to stay focused and motivated. Having a strong intent connected to a positive feeling or outcome is the foundation of clarity. Going off track is a normal occurrence. Knowing how to get back on the right path towards what we are aiming for is the important thing.
Get things done more easily
Sometimes a challenge can be made easier to overcome by saying out loud what it is that you are struggling with.
Stress is a complex emotion which, if experienced ongoingly, has a very negative effect on our bodies. Stress causes our so-called fight or flight response to set in, which influences not only our physical health negatively, but also our mental and emotional fortitude.
Learning and exploring methods and techniques to reduce stress levels helps students to feel more balanced, improve their feeling of wellbeing, and allow them to feel more in control. When you feel back in charge, you will be able to assess, plan and see through tasks at hand with greater ease.
Feel self-empowered, more in control of emotions, confident in yourself and your abilities
At the core of my work is my aim to help children and young adults gain and insight into their stress triggers (i.e. what actually causes them to feel stressed), teach them how to balance out their stress levels, and allow them to feel for themselves that it is possible to influence their emotions positively in a direction they choose, and to overcome limiting and blocking emotions (for good). Acknowledging that we are the creators and not the victims of our own feelings is empowering and completely liberating.
Build self-confidence, self-esteem and strengthen self-belief
I offer children and young adults an environment in which they can just be themselves, where they are taught how to explore themselves further. Learning to reflect on and deal with their individual inner landscape boosts trust in their abilities. If we feel more in control of where we are going and what we are dealing with, we feel stronger, less exposed and less vulnerable. This leads to trusting our abilities, skills and resources more readily and with a bit of practise completely.
The biggest challenge is always taking the first step.
