Here at Demeter House, we are able to offer a range of therapeutic services through our Wellbeing Team. We currently have BACP registered qualified counsellors and Life Coaches as part of our team and we are on a journey to becoming a Thrive accredited school as well as having staffed trained as ELSA’s (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant).

BACP Registered Counsellors

Abigail Denny and Kerry Brant are both qualified, experienced counsellors, registered with the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). They work with students across all year groups for regular 50 minute individual sessions and can help support students to better understand and cope with mental health and wellbeing issues such as low self esteem, anxiety and other difficulties.

Life Coaches

Life Coaching is different to counselling or psychotherapy in that it helps students to understand how they think and how they can take actions to achieve their goals. This can help to overcome short term difficulties such as managing changes or achieving personal outcomes. Our Life Coaches often work with students who need extra support to understand their behaviour and support them to make stepped changes. Simon Chudley and Gaz Blackbourn are both qualified and experienced Life Coaches with experience of working with a wide range of students across all age groups.

Thrive

The Thrive Approach is a nationally recognised method of supporting young people to develop better resilience and emotional development strategies. We have two licensed Thrive Practitioners, Dawn England and Becky Smith, who are working to embed the Thrive Approach within the Hera House site. You can learn more about the Thrive Approach here: https://www.thriveapproach.com/ 

ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant)

Developed by educational psychologist, Sheila Burton, the ELSA intervention was designed to build the capacity of schools to support the emotional needs of their pupils from within their own resources. Using trained teaching assistants, we develop and deliver individualised support programmes to meet the emotional needs of children and teenagers in our care. We  recognise that children learn better and are happier in school if their emotional needs are also addressed. We are currently training a number of ELSA’s across both school sites.