Root & Flourish

What a great opportunity for parents with lived experience of supporting children with mental health difficulties to use that experience to help others. Please pass on if you know anyone!

We are so excited to be recruiting for some PCPS Lived Experience Partners! This is an exciting opportunity for parents or carers who have experience of supporting a child or young person with mental health difficulties to play a key role in the PCPS programme development.

We are looking for:
• 1 part time freelance Parent Carer Peer Support Lived Experience Partner for 2 days a week (flexible days)
• A number of freelance sessional Parent Carer Peer Support Lived Experience Partners to work on a needs-led basis

📍 Primarily home based (online) with occasional office/event-based activity across the country
💵 Salary of £275 per day

Apply here or find out more about the role and our PCPS programme: https://charliewaller.org/about-us/join-our-team/

I have had a lovely two days teaching mindfulness and relaxation to children with and . All the children are coping with return to school and exam pressure and its so wonderful to see the power of breathing and how empowering psycho education can be for children ❤️🥰😍

We have two sessions to teach teens mindfulness & relaxation techniques via meditation. The classes include stretches & exercise & take place at St Mary’s Church Hall on 31 August.
Find out more & book a place here
www.sevenoaks.gov.uk/youngpeople

Open to all children taking 11+ or other entrance exams.

Is your child finding exam stress difficult to manage? Mindfulness and relaxation techniques can be incredibly useful in managing exam pressure and helping a child to perform to the best of their ability.

In this session we can teach your child techniques to use at every stage including in the exam itself to help them feel more confident and in control. The class involves stretching, mindfulness, breathing techniques and exam visualisations to help your child understand how their brain may be working and find ways to thrive.

On: Thursday 1st September in Sevenoaks from 10am until 11.30am. £25 per child.

I will be running some mindfulness workshops for teenagers as part of this amazing project funded by Sevenoaks District Council for children in the local area! If you have a teen or know a teen that might be interested, you can follow the information on the leaflet. Sessions are in Edenbridge on Friday and Sevenoaks on 31 August.

This resource is fantastic, it covers creativity, mindfulness and encourages children to really think about what they might benefit from.

This self-care plan walks primary-aged children through a series of steps, helping them create a simple self-care plan that works for them. It helps children identify activities that they can use to support their mental health. https://mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/resources/my-self-care-plan-primary/

Parents' Guide to CAMHS | Guide for Parents A guide for parents and carers to CAMHS and CYPMHS mental health support for children and young people including how to access and work with services.

This column by is a great reminder of the tsunami of feelings and challenges stepping into Motherhood can cause. What a challenge it is to resist fixing ourselves in to one form of self- “I am not meant to be a mother”and to allow curiosity about ourselves. Philippa’s book- “the book you wish your parents had read” is fantastic on this, giving us the space and support to be curious about our responses to our children and the difficulties of being a mother. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/apr/03/ask-philippa-perry-i-love-my-husband-and-kids-but-wish-i-wasnt-a-mother?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Saturday morning coffee to go 🌈🏳️‍🌈☀️☀️

What a brilliant idea! I love this idea of creating a memory jar based on the experiences with the person that are special to the child. What a lovely thing to do ❤️❤️❤️

Memory jars can help children and young people to remember important things about the person who died. The different colours represent different memories – it could be their favourite football team, something you used to do together, their favourite meal… Creating these jars gives you the opportunity to talk about the person who died together. ❤️⠀
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You can download the instructions to make a memory jar from our website 👉 https://buff.ly/34XeU14

Loving this image from - it’s so important for mums to not feel that they have to be perfect all the time. It’s ok to have lots of different, even competing, feelings

I love this blog- what a great way to explore attachment!

A story about Attachment — Joe Atkinson Attachment is word that you hear a lot in child development and this pursuit of proximity can be seen everywhere. We can see them in chemistry, in physics and in biology. We are drawn to closeness and to be near and it is beautiful to see how this unfolds in babies, childhood and onto adulthood.