 We wanted to talk to you about something a little different today, so you may notice a format change!
We have spoken to a few clients recently who are autistic and ADHD, some of them referring to themselves as AuDHD, about which therapeutic approach might be best for them, and what person-centred counselling is. Each of these conversations were very helpful, so we felt that sharing more on our blog could make a difference, too! So... Is person-centred counselling helpful for neurodivergent people? In our experience, person-centred counselling is particularly well-suited to individuals who are neurodivergent, including those with ADHD and autism, because it honours each person’s unique experience and perspective. In fact, more than half of our current clients are neurodivergent!
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How are you feeling this week? What have been your biggest wins? What hasn't gone so well? What lessons have you taken away from these experiences? Are you ready to let them go now? Today, I am going to be answering more of our most commonly asked client questions. Let’s start with the most frequently asked, “how can I be more confident?” Of course, there are many ways to answer this question. However, if this is asked by a young person, we would break our response down to what it is, why some people seem to have more of it than others and what they can do to be more confident… So, what can you do if you want to be more confident? Firstly, learn to understand who you are… Then, accept that version of yourself. Here’s a quick tip on how to do this! You could journal daily, reflecting on the things you have done well and the things you wish to improve. You can then finish this daily reflection task with a repeated mantra, such as, “I accept myself as I am”. Practice this for 30-days and see how you feel! Next, I wanted to answer a question on one of the biggest reasons why clients come to HappiMe... How can I feel less anxious? If I was discussing this with a young person, I would break this down into a few stages…
Would you like to know one of those helpful strategies? Mindfulness! Working to take back control of your mind starts with being mindful of your current thoughts and feelings, and not being frightened of them. Mindfulness is a great way to work on this. When you’re next brushing your teeth, zone in on your senses. How does it feel? How does the toothpaste taste? What actions are you doing? When you’re next in the shower, do the same thing. How does the water feel? Is your sponge soft or rough? Do you like or dislike the smell of your soap? The more you practice mindfulness throughout the day, the better you’ll be able to manage any anxious spells. Lastly, and this is also a big one… How are therapy and coaching so different? Well, let’s start with coaching… HappiMe’s coaching sessions are goals-driven, short-term, activity-based and super informative. Clients can expect fun sessions where they will set goals, learn new strategies to help them get to where they want to go, and open discussions about what might get in their way. They will also have things to do between sessions! What about therapy? HappiMe’s therapy sessions are client-driven and longer-term. Clients can expect to feel in control of these sessions, where they can share as much or as little as they wish, focusing on whatever issues they want to explore. A strategy may be offered at the end of the session, but only when this is appropriate. And... That's it from me for another week! If you’d like a supportive ear, some advice and a chance to talk to someone, feel free to get in touch for a free, no-obligation chat today. I aim to post every Tuesday, but don't worry - if you're following us on our socials, you will get a reminder there. Follow us Instagram. Like us on Facebook. Check us out on Twitter. If you aren't already, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn too, for more on children's mental health. Take care, Abby and the HappiMe Team x  Good morning!
How are you this week? What have been your biggest wins? Think of 3, if you can... What hasn't gone so well? What lessons have you taken away from these experiences? Let's have a chat about why children tell lies (or "fibs"). As a children’s therapist and coach, parents/carers frequently tell me that their child has been “fibbing” or telling lies, and they don’t know why, or what to do about it. This is a tough one for many families, so I wanted to share some resources and tips for talking to your children about lying. The first thing to remember is that most children learn how to tell “white lies” or “fibs” as young as 2/3 years old – so, you aren’t doing anything wrong! They might learn how to “bend the truth” in order to escape being told off, or learn to manipulate fellow pre-school friends in order to play with the toy they wish to play with. The truth is, the way you deal with the “fib” is far more important than how they learned to do it. In society, most of adults tell ‘innocent’ lies to those around them too. For example, have you ever eaten a meal at a restaurant that wasn’t up to scratch, but lied to waiting staff when they ask how your meal was? How about telling your boss you have almost finished a project that is due at 5pm, when you have barely started it? Sometimes, it may feel like lying is necessary, which children may pick up on… In this Psychology Today article, you will find some great conversation topics for children who have started to tell lies, or for those whose lies have grown into something bigger. I also thought it might be helpful to explore some of the reasons why children may tell lies or “fibs” in the first place. In my experience, these are some key reasons: - Low confidence – Children may exaggerate their skills or experience in something to “fit in” or to feel better about themselves. This is, of course, about the opinions of those around them more than whether what they’re saying is true or not. - Low self-worth – Children may tell friends they have more toys, electronics or friends than what they actually have. This is sometimes because they don’t feel “worthy” as they are. - Low self-esteem – Children sometimes lie to others in order to make people like or respect them to compensate for not liking themselves. This could be by saying they like to dance, when they don’t, or that they love a TV show that they actually find really boring. As you can probably see, these 3 reasons can intertwine. If you’d like some useful tips for building confidence, self-esteem and self-worth in your children, please feel free to contact me here. I hope this blog helped you in some way. If you liked this post... Follow us Instagram. Like us on Facebook. Check us out on Twitter. If you aren't already, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn too, for more on children's mental health. Take care, Abby and the HappiMe Team x  Hi there!
How are you feeling this week? What have been your biggest wins? What hasn't gone so well? What lessons have you taken away from these experiences? Are you ready to let them go now? This week, I wanted to have a little chat with you about how to build resilience in your children. So, what is resilience? According to Public Health England: "Resilience is described as the capacity to ‘bounce back’ from adverse experiences, and succeed despite adversity.” Those adverse experiences could be anything from falling out with friends to the loss of a family member (and anywhere in between). Some children are “born resilient”, in that they are able to bounce back from adversity quickly and naturally, whilst others find it much harder. This can even vary from sibling to sibling. Here are some of my top tips for raising resilient kids! Tip 1: Start a Daily Positivity Practice… At the end of each day, as your child to reflect on anything they did well, or “bounced back” from. Aim for 2-3 things, if they can. This helps to strengthen the neuropathways relating to resilience and self-love in their brains. The more they practice this, the strong the pathway, and the more resilient they will become. Tip 2: The Positivity Jar… At the start of each week, give your child 10 coins. Every time you notice them speak positively about themselves, ask them to add a coin to their Positivity Jar. Every time you notice them speak negatively about themselves, ask them to give you a coin and chat to them about why the comment wasn’t helpful. At the end of the week, count up the coins and see if they can beat the number of coins in the jar the following week. If they get all 10 coins in the jar, you could offer them a prize! Give them a go and let me know what you think. Check out ParentKind's useful article on resilience here. Oh, and here's a great children's book. And... That's it from me for another week! If you’d like a supportive ear, some advice and a chance to talk to someone, feel free to get in touch for a free, no-obligation chat today. If you like this post... Follow us Instagram. Like us on Facebook. Check us out on Twitter. If you aren't already, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn too, for more on children's mental health. Take care, Abby and the HappiMe Team x  Hi, lovelies!
How are you feeling this week? What have been your biggest wins? What hasn't gone so well? What lessons have you taken away from these experiences? Are you ready to let them go now? If you can, spend some time journalling your answers to the questions above. “Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.” – Chinese Proverb⠀ In this month's post, I'd love for you to join me on an adventure, exploring the DiSC Personality Model for kids! But wait, what is DiSC?⠀ ⠀⠀ DiSC is the best-selling, non-judgmental personality and behavioural assessment used by more than one million people every year to improve teamwork, communication, and productivity… And at HappiMe, we share it with our young people to help them with very similar challenges! ⠀ Why is DiSC just a powerful for children to learn? ⠀ …Because DiSC gives them the power of understanding themselves and others, helping them to communicate more confidently, build rapport and improve their emotional intelligence skills.⠀ ⠀ So, what does it stand for? ⠀ D – Dominant or Driver – Leader, blunt, driven, loud, work and goal-focused. I – Influencer – Friendly, loud, outgoing, talker rather than listener, people-focused. S – Steady – Quiet, supportive, listener rather than talker, loyal, people-focused. C – Controlled or Conscientious – Detail-oriented, blunt, quiet, perfectionist, work and goal-focused. ⠀ We are often a combination of all 4 profiles, but generally there are 1 or 2 primary/secondary profiles that are obviously much stronger. If someone is a clear D and I combination, but their D traits are more prominent, we might call them a “high D/I profile”…⠀ What are HappiMe’s DiSC Personality Profile animals?⠀ ⠀ Here are HappiMe’s cheeky DiSC animals, great for teaching under-8s about this fab method…⠀ ⠀ D or 🦁 - The passionate lion is the leader. Someone who is generally goal-focused.⠀ ⠀ I or 🦓 - The friendly zebra is the motivator. Someone who is generally people-focused.⠀ ⠀ S or 🐼 – The steady panda is the loyal listener. Someone who is also people-focused.⠀ ⠀ C or 🦉 – The wise owl is master of detail. Someone who is generally work-focused. ⠀ As I said earlier, we are often a combination of all 4 profiles, but generally, there are 1 or 2 profiles that are obviously much stronger. With the HappiMe animal model, that would simply change to a focus on the primary animal profile. Have you found this helpful? Do you have any questions? If you've enjoyed this post, please... Follow us Instagram. Like us on Facebook. Check us out on Twitter. If you aren't already, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn too, for more on children's mental health. Take care, Abby and the HappiMe Team x A Conversation About HappiMe's Most Common Client Questions Hey, hey!
How are you feeling this week? What have been your biggest wins? What hasn't gone so well? What lessons have you taken away from these experiences? Are you ready to let them go now? Today, I am going to be answering more of our most commonly asked client questions. Let’s start with the most frequently asked, “how can I be more confident?” Of course, there are many ways to answer this question. However, if this is asked by a young person, we would break our response down to what it is, why some people seem to have more of it than others and what they can do to be more confident… So, what can you do if you want to be more confident? Firstly, learn to understand who you are… Then, accept that version of yourself. Here’s a quick tip on how to do this! You could journal daily, reflecting on the things you have done well and the things you wish to improve. You can then finish this daily reflection task with a repeated mantra, such as, “I accept myself as I am”. Practice this for 30-days and see how you feel! Next, I wanted to answer a question on one of the biggest reasons behind why clients come to HappiMe.... How can I feel less anxious? If I was discussing this with a young person, I would break this down into a few stages…
Would you like to know one of those helpful strategies? Mindfulness! Working to take back control of your mind starts with being mindful of your current thoughts and feelings, and not being frightened of them. Mindfulness is a great way to work on this. When you’re next brushing your teeth, zone in on your senses. How does it feel? How does the toothpaste taste? What actions are you doing? When you’re next in the shower, do the same thing. How does the water feel? Is your sponge soft or rough? Do you like or dislike the smell of your soap? The more you practice mindfulness throughout the day, the better you’ll be able to manage any anxious spells. Lastly, and this is also a big one… How are therapy and coaching so different? Well, let’s start with coaching… HappiMe’s coaching sessions are goals-driven, short-term, activity-based and super informative. Clients can expect fun sessions where they will set goals, learn new strategies to help them get there and open discussions about what might get in there way. They will also have things to do between sessions! What about therapy? HappiMe’s therapy sessions are client-driven and longer-term. Clients can expect to feel in control of these sessions, where they can share as much or as little as they wish, focusing on whatever issues they want to explore. A strategy may be offered at the end of the session, but only when this is appropriate. And... That's it from me! If you’d like a supportive ear, some advice and a chance to talk to someone, feel free to get in touch for a free, no-obligation chat today. I aim to post every Tuesday, but don't worry - if you're following us on our socials, you will get a reminder there. Follow us Instagram. Like us on Facebook. Check us out on Twitter. If you aren't already, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn too, for more on children's mental health. Take care, Abby and the HappiMe Team x A Conversation About HappiMe Hey, hey!
How are you feeling this week? What have been your biggest wins? What hasn't gone so well? What lessons have you taken away from these experiences? Are you ready to let them go now? If you can, spend some time journalling your answers to the questions above. Today, I wanted to share more about what we do here at HappiMe. HappiMe is a mental health service offering coaching, therapy, workshops and training to children, families and the professionals who work with them. Why do we do what we do? For a start, 1 in 6 children in the UK have a mental health disorder, and our goal is to change this. Delving deeper, each member of the HappiMe team has experienced some kind of mental health issue as a child, so feel immensely passionate about supporting others through similar journeys. In the long-term, we wish to share the HappiMe tools (shared in our coaching sessions and staff training workshops) to young people everywhere, with an aim to PREVENT and not just TREAT mental health disorders. What mental health disorders can we help with? Our HappiMe coaches and therapists can support clients with anxiety, depression (and other mood disorders), eating disorders, OCD and pretty much anything in between. If our interventions are appropriate, we can also refer you to a better suited service. We also support young people with lower-level issues, including low-confidence and self-esteem. The HappiMe trainers can also teach professionals how to manage the aforementioned disorders better, with useful advice, tools and strategies, along with longer-term supervisory services. What interventions do we offer? Coaching:
Therapy:
Bespoke Training:
Oh, and I haven’t yet mentioned the books we offer! We have 2 children’s books, ‘Oscar Meets His Worry Chimp’ and ‘How to Stop Worrying’. Check ‘Oscar Meets His Worry Chimp’ out here. Check ‘How to Stop Worrying’ out here. If you’d like a supportive ear, some advice and a chance to talk to someone, feel free to get in touch for a free, no-obligation chat today. I aim to post every Tuesday, but don't worry - if you're following us on our socials, you will get a reminder there. Follow us Instagram. Like us on Facebook. Check us out on Twitter. If you aren't already, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn too, for more on children's mental health. Take care, Abby and the HappiMe Team x A Conversation About Why Children Tell Lies Hey.
How are you this week? What have been your biggest wins? Think of 3, if you can... What hasn't gone so well? What lessons have you taken away from these experiences? Let's have a chat about why children tell lies (or "fibs"). As a children’s therapist and coach, parents/carers frequently tell me that their child has been “fibbing” or telling lies, and they don’t know why, or what to do about it. This is a tough one for many families, so I wanted to share some resources and tips for talking to your children about lying. The first thing to remember is that most children learn how to tell “white lies” or “fibs” as young as 2/3 years old – so, you aren’t doing anything wrong! They might learn how to “bend the truth” in order to escape being told off, or learn to manipulate fellow pre-school friends in order to play with the toy they wish to play with. The truth is, the way you deal with the “fib” is far more important than how they learned to do it. In society, most of adults tell ‘innocent’ lies to those around them too. For example, have you ever eaten a meal at a restaurant that wasn’t up to scratch, but lied to waiting staff when they ask how your meal was? How about telling your boss you have almost finished a project that is due at 5pm, when you have barely started it? Sometimes, it may feel like lying is necessary, which children may pick up on… In this Psychology Today article, you will find some great conversation topics for children who have started to tell lies, or for those whose lies have grown into something bigger. I also thought it might be helpful to explore some of the reasons why children may tell lies or “fibs” in the first place. In my experience, these are some key reasons: - Low confidence – Children may exaggerate their skills or experience in something to “fit in” or to feel better about themselves. This is, of course, about the opinions of those around them more than whether what they’re saying is true or not. - Low self-worth – Children may tell friends they have more toys, electronics or friends than what they actually have. This is sometimes because they don’t feel “worthy” as they are. - Low self-esteem – Children sometimes lie to others in order to make people like or respect them to compensate for not liking themselves. This could be by saying they like to dance, when they don’t, or that they love a TV show that they actually find really boring. As you can probably see, these 3 reasons can intertwine. If you’d like some useful tips for building confidence, self-esteem and self-worth in your children, please feel free to contact me here. I hope this blog helped you in some way. I aim to post every Tuesday, but don't worry - if you're following us on our socials, you will get a reminder there. Follow us Instagram. Like us on Facebook. Check us out on Twitter. If you aren't already, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn too, for more on children's mental health. Take care, Abby and the HappiMe Team x |
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