Counselling, Art Therapy, Breathwork, Yoga, Growth Mindset, Resilience

 
 

HAPPY SOULS KIDs

HAPPY SOULS KIDS exists as a safe place for children to come too deeply connect with their inner self, and develop an intimate relationship with the natural world that surrounds them. We help children build emotional resilience, release stress, create stillness, enhance balance, endurance, flexibility, strength, coordination and teach them how to respond to their internal signals. Through meditation, yoga, breathwork, art therapy, resilience building and mindfulness we help humans combat mental health and give children the tools to self regulate. Our values are love, respect, kindness, honesty, compassion, empathy, and caring.

 Our platform includes::

  • breathwork

  • yoga

  • meditation

  • growth mindset

  • resilience

  • art therapy

  • mindfulness

  • nutrition

Our programs include:: 

In addition, HAPPY SOULS KIDS creates personalised programs for schools, teachers and workplaces to implement mindful strategies to help our favourite little people grow with confidence. Our programs include breathwork, yoga, meditation, growth mindset, resilience art therapy and mindfulness. 

Our personalised program includes calming strategies especially beneficial for 6 - 12-year-olds during preschool, post recess and lunch to ground children back to the classroom to encourage focused learning. Further in-depth programs for 12-17-year-olds to be developed too.

Offerings::

Breathwork

From time to time, our little people can find themselves up against big emotions. These emotions can rise up at any time. 

And while these situations might be unpleasant for you, imagine how difficult it is for someone who doesn’t know how to handle them. When tempers begin to flare, breathing exercises are one of the most effective calming strategies for kids who are dealing with difficult emotions. Anyone who has ever tried it can tell you there’s a lot of power in a deep cleansing breath. For kids, deep breathing is a great way to get them to focus on something else in the moment rather than “the thing” (or things) that are making them sad, mad, or frustrated. Moreover, breathing calms children by physically slowing them down. To practice deep breathing, they must stop whatever they are doing to complete the exercise. Be still and focus. 

What is breathwork?

Diaphragmatic breathing, also known as belly breathing, is a relaxing type of breathing that is controlled by a large muscle in our abdomen called the diaphragm. When you activate this muscle, it helps to trigger a relaxation response in the body. This is known as parasympathetic activation, or “rest and relaxation” mode. It slows us down by decreasing our heart rate and blood pressure and also enhances digestive function. If we engage in more shallow breathing, our bodies may tend towards “flight or fight” mode (also called sympathetic activation). As we breathe more fully, we take air in through our nose, our diaphragm contracts, and our belly expands to make room for our lungs.

Art Therapy 

Art therapy is a form of expressive therapy, in which clients, facilitated, by an art therapist, use the creative process of making art to explore their feelings. Art therapists use the process of self-expression, and the resulting artwork to help clients understand their emotional conflicts, develop social skills, improve self-esteem, manage addictions, reduce anxiety, and restore normal function to their lives. Research shows that art therapy benefits diverse client populations, and can be effective in a variety of formats. Art therapists work with people of all ages and challenges in life, including patients with severe behavioural problems and addictions, to clients without medical or psychological issues who are simply looking for personal insight into their lives.

Yoga 

Our children live in a hurry-up world of busy parents, school pressures, incessant lessons, video games, and competitive sports. We usually don’t think of these influences as stressful for our kids, but often they are. The bustling pace of our children’s lives can have a profound effect on their innate joy— and usually not for the better.

Yoga is a practice that creates stillness to calm a child’s mind. When doing yoga, children exercise, play, connect more deeply with the inner self, and develop an intimate relationship with the natural world that surrounds them. Yoga brings that marvellous inner light that all children have to the surface. 

Children derive enormous benefits from yoga. Physically, it enhances their flexibility, strength, coordination, and body awareness. In addition, their concentration and sense of calmness and relaxation improve. Yoga improves balance, strength, endurance, and aerobic capacity.  A growing body of research has already shown that yoga can improve focus, memory, self-esteem, academic performance, and classroom behaviour, and can even reduce anxiety and stress in children too.

Meditation  

Meditation can help kids read and respond to internal signals of stress before their developing brains and bodies give in to a full-blown tantrum. The key is intuiting what your child needs to come back into balance and giving him or her the tools to practice.

Meditation, often referred to as consciousness or the practice of self-awareness in body and mind, has been revered for thousands of years as a natural, accessible way to regulate our reaction to stress and manifest good health. When presented with any kind of threat, humans are hardwired to fight, take flight, or freeze. Meditation helps both kids and adults find this inner calm, better sleep, reduced anxiety, improved self-esteem, ability to focus and study, reduced levels of stress.

Growth Mindset 

Developing the right mindset early on is crucial for a successful, happy life. When kids learn putting forth effort and using the right strategies can help them get better at things, they feel empowered, and try harder. When they know their brains are capable of growing, they are more confident, resilient, and are not afraid to fail! 

They need to know that their brains can grow stronger—measurably stronger—with time and effort. It sounds simple, but the effects of believing this are profound. Some children will have been born believing this, but others will be certain that they are as they are and that nothing will change that.

Students with a growth mindset see school as a place to develop their abilities and think of challenges as opportunities to grow. Children with a fixed mindset believe that intelligence is fixed at birth and doesn't change or changes very little with practice. Mindset shapes our everyday lives, helping us interpret our experiences and future possibilities. 

Resilience in children 

All children are capable of working through challenges and coping with stress. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from stress, adversity, failure, challenges, or even trauma. It’s not something that kids either have or don’t have; it’s a skill that kids develop as they grow.

Resilient kids are more likely to take healthy risks because they don’t fear falling short of expectations. They are curious, brave, and trusting of their instincts. They know their limits and they push themselves to step outside of their comfort zones. This helps them reach for their long-term goals and it helps them solve problems independently.

All kids encounter stress of varying degrees as they grow. Despite their best efforts, parents can’t protect kids from obstacles. Kids get sick, move to new neighbourhoods, encounter bullies and cyberbullies, take tests, cope with grief, lose friends, and deal with divorce, to name a few. These obstacles might seem small in the eyes of an adult, but they feel large and all-consuming to kids. So HAPPY SOULS KIDS teaches kids tools to self regulate.  

Please head to HAPPY SOULS KIDS for further information, practices to help your child self regulate and to join the tribe.

BOOKINGS

To book a therapy session (Counselling, Art Therapy, Emotional Healing, Reiki) with your child, please book here. Sessions are offered via Telehealth online. To allow for national and international bookings.