I have worked with children and families for over 35 years. I started out by qualifying as a Nursery Nurse and working in schools and nurseries until I had my two lovely boys- who are now very grown up!
My dream had always been to open my own Nursery, and this I did in 1998; I called it “Rainbows”. I loved my Nursery, and I had 12 very enjoyable years there until deciding to move onto pastures new; a few months after we had an amazing Ofsted inspection and were given an “Outstanding” in all areas!
I continued working with children and families whilst gaining my degree in Early Years. Qualifying as a baby massage and baby yoga teacher, I worked for the Big Lottery with teenage parents and their babies, whilst also running family fun sessions in Children’s Centres. My interest then took me towards helping families and I qualified as a “Triple P” parenting coach and also a Solihull Approach practitioner. I really enjoyed offering support to parents and also working out how to help children struggling with their behaviour. My passion for improving the emotional well-being of children developed and so I completed a diploma in counselling children and adolescents. I also did a course in “understanding a child’s behaviour”, as this often is a big indicator as to how they are feeling. I worked towards several qualifications in child mental health and bereavement support. Parents often asked about support with their child’s sleeping so I undertook training to offer support in this area too.
In 2016 I heard about ELSA training, which is a qualification that supports children with their “Emotional Literacy”. This was a missing link for me in terms of knowledge. I’d always felt that helping children to be literate with their feelings and emotions helped them to be confident and improved their self-esteem. I also knew children that were able to manage and understand their feelings would grow into strong, happy, resilient adults, able to cope with the ups and downs of life. I eagerly completed this training and became an Emotional Literacy Practitioner. I then went on to offer nurture sessions and 1-1 emotional literacy support in the Primary school where I worked.
Finally... I have now qualified as a Relax Kids™ Coach!
Relax Kids™ is amazing.... it brings together everything to help children be happy, resilient and skilled in emotional literacy....... through movement, stretching, games and fun activities, high self esteem and confidence is developed and through gentle breathing, affirmations and relaxation....children become calm and leave with a feeling of high self-worth and inner peace.....”WOW it truly is FANTASTIC!!!!!”