Over the course of Monday 29th April 2019 and Tuesday 30th April 2019 I led a total of 8 hours of training for The Academy students at South West Youth Ministries in mental health. This included:

• An hour about emotions, what their purpose is, learning to recognise them, and raising emotional literacy amongst children and young people. Creating glitter calm jars to support young people in intense emotional states.
• An hour on childhood development, the different roles of different parts of the brain, and helping children integrate the parts of their brains.
• An hour on adolescent development, supporting young people through the challenges those changes bring, and embracing the opportunities those changes bring.
• An hour on positive mental health and how we can be more proactive in helping young people identify their strengths and apply them to both the good and bad seasons of life.
• An hour on the impact of trauma in childhood, how it alters development, supporting children and young people that are in hyperarousal or dissociative states, and the importance in healthy relationships to mitigate and/or recover from traumatic experiences.
• An hour on crisis support, looking at all the major mental illnesses and how to support children and young people struggling with them. Creating weighted pillows with mermaid sequins to provide anxiety relief and sensory distraction.
• An hour on the theology of sexuality, creating spaces in our youth groups that are empathic and compassionate towards those struggling in this area, and improving our cultures of friendship.
• An hour set aside to provide one to one time with each of the trainees to discuss anything that came up for them personally over the sessions, or any further questions they might have.

There were three students on this course, all engaged in youth work in schools, churches, and projects in different parts of Devon. I asked them each to fill out a feedback from about the training I provided. In four different areas they ranked me from 1 (awful) to 6 (excellent). Here are the average scores from their reviews:

• Session Content – 5.66
• Session Delivery – 5.33
• Interaction Level – 5
• Use of Media – 6

Here are a few quotes from the students:

“It was amazing to learn about trauma and the effect on the brain.”

“Learned so many great theories that I can practically apply to my current work place / context.”

“I learned a lot about development, different mental health conditions and ways to help young people.”