PositiveTherapy for Staff, Pupils and Families
What Do We Do?
We have been working closely with staff, pupils and parents within schools across Yorkshire for over 7 years. We provide a greater awareness and understanding of mental health and wellbeing, equipping individuals with the tools and techniques to help them move forward in a positive, sustainable and mentally healthy way.
​
We work with staff to identify and understand their individual needs which enables us to work together, devising strategies to help them on their pathway to a more positive future. This also ensures they are able to provide the best possible nurture and education for the children in their care.
​
Through our group workshops and lesson studies, we are able to teach the staff to understand, recognise and utilise the physiological and neuroscientific reasons behind a lot of the behaviours and stress symptoms exhibited within themselves and the pupils. We work collaboratively with staff to devise tailored resources to share with the children in a positive, easy-to-understand format, as well as child-friendly coping strategies to help regulate their emotions.
​
We also work with vulnerable children – and parents – on a one-to-one basis, to offer them a gentle therapy that can make a massive difference to their wellbeing and relationships.
​
From our experience if children can recognise and understand their emotions and why they are experiencing them, and are equipped with an array of techniques to improve their mental health in a positive way, it will give them a better chance of success throughout their education and future life.
One-to_One Sessions
Our one-to-one sessions can be conveniently held at your location, our clinic or online . We have a proven track record of helping staff deal with and better manage their stress; we also work with vulnerable pupils and their parents. LINK
Adult One-to-One Sessions
This is a positive therapy which is Solution-Focused rather than problem-focused. During each session, we replace negative thought habits for positive ones by encouraging the brain to form new positive neuropathways (this is what is meant by rewiring the brain). The benefits – both psychological and physiological – from this simple change can be truly incredible and life changing.
​
Feedback from schools show that following both one-to-one and group sessions, stress-related staff absences have dramatically decreased and the general wellbeing of staff has significantly improved.
​
We have also provided this service successfully to a number of parents of vulnerable children, and helped them to understand and deal with certain behaviours, thus improving family life.​​​​​​​​​​​​
Pupils’ One-to-One Sessions
The one-to-one sessions we hold with pupils are of a relaxed and gentle nature, providing them with a safe and nurturing environment, where they feel comfortable to share their thoughts and feelings.
​​
We teach the child about different emotions and how to recognise them, showing them coping strategies to help them deal with their negative feelings. We develop fun, engaging ways to help the child communicate how they are feeling and why; we introduce neuroscience to the child in a very basic way, using metaphors and activities to help the child understand what they are experiencing and why.
We also incorporate light relaxation hypnosis into the session, as we do with all our clients. The child is encouraged to lie down and relax quietly while we read stories and use guided visualisation to soft music. Some children do not know how to relax - or have the opportunity to do so. Solution Focused hypnotherapy encourages the child's subconscious to make the changes necessary to enable them to process their thoughts, thus reducing their stress levels. The progress made will be organic and subtle as opposed to being forced, allowing the subconscious to make the changes at its own pace, thus ensuring that those changes made feel completely natural to the child.
​
Adapted to the child's age, we use a series of fun techniques and therapeutic tricks to help them overcome the problems and issues they are experiencing, slowly making positive changes to the way they perceive the world, the way they think and the way they behave.
​
We have worked with some of the most vulnerable pupils, including those who have been bereaved, abused, neglected or those who just need a bit of extra help to be able to move forward.
​
Below are some examples of the resources we have designed specifically for our work with pupils of a primary school age. We also have numerous resources for secondary school aged children.
​
​
​​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​​
​
We ensure that our sessions are fun! Children look forward to their sessions and are fully engaged, leaving each session feeling more positive and with a better understanding of their feelings and how to move forward.
Staff Workshops
We have developed and delivered a number of workshops, with topics including Recognising and Reducing Stress, Wellbeing at Work, Creating and Maintaining Resilience within Adults and Children, Recognising Behaviour Types in the Classroom and Neuroscience Behind Happiness. These have been specifically designed with education and young people in mind and can be tailored to suit the needs and wishes of each individual school.
​
The workshops are usually two hours long and include handouts, resources and a short relaxation hypnotherapy session, although this is optional. We also offer a free hypnotherapy relaxation download to everyone attending, to use at their leisure.
​
During the workshop, we explore the neuroscience behind the subject matter and discuss ways in which we can improve our mental wellbeing in a fundamental but positive way.
We have delivered our workshops to a number of schools across the Leeds/Bradford area and have always received positive feedback.
School Testimonials
"Tamara has worked with both the pupils and the staff at our school, her knowledge, understanding and experience is invaluable. She has helped pupils develop a robust mechanism to be able to cope with anxiety or trauma, allowing them a safe space, working with both parents and teaching staff to create a bespoke plan to help them flourish. Many staff have also worked with Tam for personal reasons, to help them to be able to work on any stress, trauma or develop skills to help them in both their professional and personal life. Having someone like Tamara to be able to sign post to is a huge weight off our shoulders, as we know from experience time and time again she will enable the individual to be able to work through any issues and help them to feel lighter and stronger due to her incredible techniques and knowledge. As a senior leader in a busy primary school, it is essential to have bespoke services like Tam to be able to quickly refer individuals in a crisis, I can not recommend Tam highly enough, her positive, friendly yet professional and non-judgemental attitude has been an asset to the school. Thank you."
Katy Sugden, Business Manager, Crossflatts Primary School
“If you look what Tamara says on her website, she confirms that she is a ‘qualified Solution Focused hypnotherapist and psychotherapist’, but she is so much more than that.
We initially contacted Tamara after a member of our staff informed us of the fantastic work that she had done with them and the positive impact it had had on their life. We asked if she would be willing to come and run a session in school with a focus on ‘the difference between having a bad day and stress’. The session was positive, informative and not only did it make staff understand stress more, Tamara also provided us with the knowledge of how to identify what our stress triggers were and gave us the tools to deal with stress should it happen.
This was just the start of our journey with Tamara and she is now ‘one of the family’. She has helped every single member of our school, both staff and children (& even some parents) either via one- one sessions, staff workshops or the fantastic work she had done, in conjunction with school, on delivering Lesson Study sessions on topics such as: -
• Resilience
-
Behaviour is a form of communication.
-
Power of Learning – Links to relationships
-
​Both adults and children in school have a better understanding of their feelings, what triggers these and what they can do to help both themselves and those around them.
The benefits of the work that Tamara has done with us at Riddlesden St Mary’s are vast. We have not had any absence due to work related stress since she started her work with us and whilst the challenges that life throws at us are generally out of our hands, staff all agree that they feel better equipped to deal with these as they arise due to the ‘tools and techniques’ that Tamara has shared with us.
Staff agree that the knowledge and resources that they now have, enable them to better understand children’s feelings, triggers and how to help them to self-regulate. Children also have a better understanding of their own feelings and feel more at ease talking about these and asking for help if they are unable to deal with these themselves, rather than displaying these through negative behaviour.
Tamara is definitely not one of those people that thinks ‘one size fits all’. She tailors everything that she does to the people/groups that she works with. I am confident that she will have a positive impact on any school that she works with.
Get in touch now – don’t just take my word for it, talk to her about what you want and see the benefits for yourself.”
Riddlesden St. Mary’s CE Primary School
“Tamara's sessions are empowering, relaxing and affirming with a
long-lasting positive impact. She can skilfully weave the science of
how the brain works; hypnotherapy; relaxation and coaching into a
single session with the benefits building week by week. Tamara
immediately puts you at ease - everyone who I know who has
participated in sessions with her have reported similar benefits.
Highly recommended.”
Keighley St. Andrew’s C of E Primary School
We are fully insured and DBS checked.
​​
If you have staff or pupils that are struggling, we could make a positive difference*. Call us now on 07975 824378 or contact us using the form here.
​
If you do not see your school's issue or need listed above this does not mean we can not help! Please drop us a line using the contact form here.
*Hypnotherapy is an effective method of treatment, however success is not guaranteed and full client commitment is important. For example, listening to our accompanying therapeutic audio tracks between sessions is a vital element in the process and participation is required. This will be fully explained in the initial consultation. Results may vary from person to person.