Young people are regularly labelled, and educational demands often lead them to feel like just a number or a statistic, requiring them to meet a target figure or achieve a ‘grade’ which measures success. As one A* (across the board) student recently told me: “Miss, most teachers know I am an A* student, but probably only a third of them actually knows my name”. This had a profound impact upon me.

​

I have worked in education for over thirty years and have seen the amazing results that good learning and teaching can have in enabling young people to grow and achieve. However, in the last few years, I have also been saddened and disturbed by the growing disaffection, fears, negative behaviours, stresses and anxieties that our students display and communicate. They constantly talk about issues they suffer; how they are ‘failures’; how they are going to disappoint; how they are responsible for the future of our planet; how they feel ‘broken’, ‘depressed’ and how they just need to know that they are loved and cared about.

​

​The philosophy underpinning this approach is that we all have innate wellbeing but that sometimes this gets masked and lost due to experiences and negative or anxious thinking. When we get in touch with clear thinking and are able to notice what is happening to us and where the troubles, stress or anxiety come from, and how we create our own experiences, we are able to reconnect with our true wellbeing.