New mental well-being course offers hope for teens

By Jill Dando News

As September approaches, a new mental wellbeing course for 14-18 year olds in Worle in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset is set to provide much-needed support for students struggling with back-to-school anxiety.

Alongside this exciting initiative, local mental health expert Wendy Griffin, CEO of Wellspring Counselling has shared valuable advice for coping with the return to school.

• It’s not nice but it’s normal to feel anxious in new situations or situations where you think people are looking at you.  Everyone feels like that!
• Your physical feelings of anxiety (heart racing, stomach churning, feeling shaky, hot etc.) are your body going into fight and flight mode because you THINK you are under threat in some way
• Remember you are not really under threat, you don’t need to run or fight for your life even though your body might be telling you this, just as a cave man would have had the same response in their body to adrenaline when an animal was about to attack them
• Use deep, slowed down breathing to calm you body down and reduce these physical sensations throughout the day (no-one will notice!)
• Question or challenge your thoughts,  e.g. “no one will like me”, “I’ll look stupid” – these are worries not facts and they will make you feel anxious even though they are not true.  Thoughts are not facts!
• Worries that start with “What if…” are usually completely out of perspective, think of a more likely scenario than the extreme ones that cause you to get anxious and try and focus on this instead
• Remember that anything which does not go well on your first day at school, will not matter in a year’s time or even a week

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The upcoming mental wellbeing course in Worle aims to build on these strategies, offering a comprehensive approach to emotional management.

For more information on managing back-to-school anxiety or to enrol in the upcoming wellbeing course visit https://wellspringcounselling.org.uk or email reception@wellspringcounselling.org.uk or call 01275 810879.

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