This week is Children’s Mental Health Awareness week and it has never been so important to acknowledge children’s mental health and recognise how the recent pandemic has impacted on their wellbeing. 

According to Kids Inspire,  an Essex based  children’s charity, they have seen a massive increase in referrals from April 2020 to March 2021, in particular in relation to anxiety and eating  disorders.

During the pandemic, children and teens were confronted with social isolation from their friends and close family members (ie grandparents who they could not see).  They have experienced hardly any face to face education with their teachers and have developed fear of the virus itself and what might happen if they or someone close to them catches it. 

Whatever the feelings the children have been experiencing at this time, it has been made worse by the daily media coverage, reporting frequently the thousands in the UK becoming ill and dying, no wonder anxiety levels are at their peak!  

As we start moving forward to the new normal, it is recognised that there will be a significant fall out in terms of children who will continue to struggle with not only their mental health, but their educational attainment.  

There are long waiting lists for Mental Health organisations such as  CAMHS and EMHWS at a time where more children are also self harming, so it all sounds a bit doom and gloom for our children’s future, right?? 

Well, no, not entire doom and gloom, because there is always hope.  We as parents, grandparents, carers, guardians, teachers and other professionals can lead by example and can show them that there are positive experiences to look forward to and that there are ways that they can safely take control of their superpowers causing them the conflict of functioning in daily life (like their FEAR superpower).

My own experience of how I Empowered my own superpowers not to take over during the pandemic was to find simple strategies to support my own wellbeing.  

I actively listened to what my mind and body were trying to tell me and I supported them by using mindfulness and meditation and just becoming aware of the sensations in my body.  This helped me a lot.  I also kept news to a minimum as it was just getting too much.

Children (and teenagers) don’t have the same ability to think like we do as adults as our brains are fully developed on average by the age of 25 and we can rationalise more about what is going on around us. Although our bodyguard in our brain will always be on alert like it has had to be for millions of years (the fight, freeze and flight response). 

Fundamentally it is up to us as adults to ensure that any fear we may experience from the pandemic is not transferred onto our child and that whilst we all return to some form of normality, that we continue to listen hard to our children and positively address with them how they might be feeling and to look at ways to support them.     

Overall, children can thrive again if they feel loved and safe by those who have responsibility for them.  

If we can give them a positive experience to look forward to (walk in nature, fun in the park, playing family games at home) and remind them of all the positive sensations around them (sounds, images) then we can help them find a superpower within themselves that can help them too (like Brave) 

If we can show them love and security all the way through their young life in particular to help them gain their independence and sense if purpose. 

If we can actively listen to our children and validate their feelings and I really mean listen without interruption. 

If we can reassure them that the emotion causing them conflict does not represent all of them and it can be managed positively. 

If we can empower our children to find ways to be ok with just being themselves.

If we can remember to give our children a big warm squeezy hug.

If we can allow them the growth to become the wonderful humans they will become, without judgement.

Then it will never be too late for them, and they will come back to be the most brilliant children they already are, they just may not know it yet.  

For more information on how children and teenagers can be empowered to manage their emotions (or as I like to call them, Superpowers or Parts), please contact me at jane@rainbowspiritcoaching.co.uk