"I have found that using various art forms has enabled me to experience myself and my history differently and engage at a deeper level with my own process. What I experienced at IATE is inspirational teaching so that I could digest and expand on my previous training and experience. Having experienced the arts and the training offered at IATE I feel hungry in my soul to learn more."
Maggie Bunker (Current Student of IATE)

The institute for arts in theraphy & education

Centre for child mental health

Conferences, Training Days and Lectures. Continuing Professional Development Opportunities for Anyone Working to Improve Child and Adolescent Emotional Well-being.
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Certificate in Emotional Literacy for Children

A short course about helping children with their feelings.

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Who is the course for?

This course will be a vital resource for anyone who wants to help children to understand, creatively manage and positively communicate their feelings.

The course will be of particular value for:

Teachers, Mentors, Headteachers, Social Workers, Counsellors, Playleaders, Support Workers, SENCOs, Child Mental Health professionals.

Duration

Approximately 8 weekend days over 2 terms

Philosophy

Children do not have the inner resources to be able to fully process and think about their feelings by themselves. And yet when a child’s painful or difficult feelings are left unprocessed and unattended, they leak out in difficult and challenging behaviours, or in neurotic and bodily symptoms. Therefore the course is based on the premise that all children need support with their feelings from empathic adults.

Such support is vital to enable them to:
- Form positive enriching relationships from an early age
- Successfully manage emotional pain, adversity and stress
- Regulate intense emotional states
- Feel their emotions fully rather than cutting off from them or bottling them up
- Think about and reflect on their feelings rather than discharging them
- Find the words and images for their emotional experiences

The Curriculum

The curriculum offers a wealth of vital psychological theories and practical skills for a real 'what to do' approach.

Topics to be selected from the following:
 

  • Understanding why some children manage their feelings well, whilst others live a life of emotional storms, emotional numbness or bottling up
     
  • Helping children to speak about feelings
     
  • Helping children who think that they are bad
     
  • Helping children who are out of control
     
  • Helping children who find it difficult to play, let go or have fun
     
  • Helping children who feel emotionally overwhelmed by what is happening in their life
     
  • Helping children with feelings of fear, worry and anxiety
     
  • Helping children locked in anger or rage
     
  • Helping children with loss and grief
     
  • How to recognise if a child is suffering from post-traumatic stress – and what to do
     
  • What to say and how to be with bullies and the bullied
     
  • The important relationship between hurt and hate
     
  • Positive approaches to raising self-esteem
     
  • Helping children access and express feelings of love, joy, wonder and awe
     
  • Using play, story and artistic media to help children better manage and understand their feelings
     

 

Related Links: Certificate in Emotional Literacy for Children Brochure

 

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