R is for Resilience

Life is a Rollercoaster!

There are a lot of lumps and bumps in the road that we call life which we must learn to overcome, managing our emotions and even embracing the challenge. The good news is that a plethora of tools have been developed over the past few years equipping us and our children to be better able to deal with these hurdles. What is more, there are some brilliantly super people out there helping to deliver these strategies and here they are…

The World Health Organization describes stress as the “global health epidemic of the 21st century”. […]  Since the pace and intensity of contemporary work culture are not likely to change, it’s more important than ever to build resilience skills to effectively navigate your worklife. Harvard Business Review, June 2016

Pam Cottman

Resilience coach and trainer, Pam Cottman, is a former assistant headteacher, and blogger for Psychologies Magazine. She has 14 years of coaching under her belt, and offers workshops and training for both schools and parents. 

After returning from her first maternity leave she asked the school counsellor what the common thread was when it came to the many issues she had to deal with. Her answer was simple: a lack of resilience! That one conversation changed Pam’s thinking and she immersed herself in research around resilience, learning about the already available programmes, and the practical strategies that had real impact: mindfulness, self-care, and collaboration! Today she uses her knowledge and experience as a leader, a teacher and a trainer; a coach, a colleague and a passionate believer in putting people first, to facilitate positive change in teams, leaders, schools and workplaces building resilience and ultimately mental wellbeing. www.pamcottman.com

Suzy Reading 

Author, psychologist and counsellor specialising in stress and change, it’s not the first time Suzy has made an appearance in our A-Z! We think she’s pretty brilliant and she offers so many valuable skills and coping strategies which can help children to develop a deep, inner resilience! Suzy shares daily tips and practical advice on her Instagram and we highly recommend her book, Stand Tall Like a Mountain, for families. Specifically designed to help parents empower their children with strategies for dealing with everyday emotions, express how they are feeling, develop tools for nourishment and coping with challenges as well as fun and easy yoga poses to promote positive feelings it’s sure to become a wellbeing bible you can’t live without! www.suzyreading.co.uk

Natalie Costa

With over ten years experience in teaching and education, Natalie is all too familiar with the struggles, pressures and demands that children face. She has observed how easily children become disengaged when they are faced with a difficult task; how quickly they feel they CAN’T do something, simply because it’s more challenging to achieve; how anxious and overwhelmed they feel with the ever-increasing demands from the curriculum and from society as a whole, feeling the pressure to conform to what everyone else is doing, the pressure to ‘fit in’. 

She has witnessed children give up too quickly and beat themselves up because they have made a mistake and gotten things wrong. Their confidence and self-worth diminished because they did not get the correct score or they are not part of the ‘in-crowd’. She has seen children play small, unwilling to trust themselves to “have a go”, and as one child stated, “My worries make me feel as if I’m a tortoise stuck in a shell.”

She knows that practical, insightful instruction is needed which is why she developed Power Thoughts specifically to help children arrest their negativity and anxiety when it comes to their academic work and natural growing pains like making friends, their body images, dealing with conflict, moving on and making change. 

Natalie offers a teaching, coaching and mindfulness based service which is aimed at empowering children to tap in to the ‘power’ of their minds. Through her sessions they are taught how to become confident, resilient and robust, focusing upon their strengths and developing a ‘can-do’ attitude that helps them to view their ‘failure’s as a positive experience and allows them to flourish both in and out of the classroom setting. www.powerthoughts.co.uk

Dr Emma Hepburn

Kids aren’t the only ones facing those lumps and bumps! Parenting has a habit of throwing a fair few at us too! Like most things, we first came across Clinical Pyschologist, Dr Emma Hepburn, on Instagram, our hearts and minds pulled in by her trademark illustrations which insightfully depict the inner goings on of our murky brains! Her book, A Toolkit for Modern Life, shares proven and practical tools for taking care of your mental and emotional wellbeing every day while her latest tome, A Toolkit for Happiness, features 55 accessible and easy-to-use tools to boost our moods and help us feel better. She teaches us that happiness is as much about weathering the storms of life, accepting its natural ebbs and flows, as it is about enjoying the sunny weather - and that by implementing small and simple changes we can develop a greater sense of self-compassion which will carry us through our daily lives, come rain or shine! And of course, there’s no reason why you can’t pass these tools on to your children too! www.instagram.com/thepsychologymum