mental wellbeing

A collection of 34 posts

bbc news

The struggle is real

A recent BBC News article reported a huge rise in severe mental health difficulties in children and young people in the past year, sadly this is a statistic that is very true and close to home. Over the past year we have seen an increase in the number of children

emotional wellbeing

Learning to be vulnerable

In this guest blog friend of Phase, Rebekah Bacon, talks to us about vulnerability - what it is, when we notice it and how we can benefit from being more vulnerable with people. A little while ago, I sat down with Kieran (the director of Phase) to talk about vulnerability.

connecting

Step back to move forward

Earlier this week the Phase team went on retreat. We took two days out to spend time learning together, reflecting and thinking, and hanging out together as a group of friends and colleagues. It’s different from your standard team away day in that we didn’t once talk about

lockdown

Happy New Year Hitchin

Where do we start then, friends?! There’s so much to say but we’ll keep this brief. Phase knows that the start of 2021 has been difficult and upsetting, to put it mildly. You may be experiencing anxiety, stress and worry for many people in Hitchin (and of course

anxiety

World Mental Health Day

Tomorrow (10th October) it’s World Mental Health Day. This is the day that the World Health Organisation uses to highlight mental health issues, and this year’s theme is ‘mental health for all’. Now, perhaps more than ever, we are talking more about how we feel inside our heads.

learning

"The beautiful thing about learning is no one can take it away from you." B.B. King

rest

Time to replenish

In the second of her series for Phase looking at finding and using our strengths, Sarah Crittenden makes some suggestions for finding space for R&R... we like the sound of that! Someone said to me the other day that they thought their current lifestyle wasn't so

COVID-19

Brain Twister!

Do you find that sometimes you have rigid thoughts in your head that you can’t seem to change, even if you really want to? I’ve been wondering about that recently… Whilst on holiday in February this year I found an interesting article by Lee Griggs about riding a

resilience

Coping with Change

We are in a time where we are all having to adapt, find new routines and rhythms, as what we previously knew and understood has changed. As I was reflecting on how we cope with change, and what I have personally found helpful during this time, three things came to

virtual mentoring

Virtual Mentoring

As we all go through this incredibly difficult season of isolation where routines, rhythms and everyday normality has been removed, it can make us feel lost, fearful and uncertain about what the future holds. At Phase we are passionate about equipping children and young people to journeying through adolescence, whereby

kindness

Random Acts of Kindness

Have you ever carried out a random act of kindness? Or been on the receiving end of one? There are some amazing stories I have heard of incredible acts of generosity. A friend recently told me of a time when he was making the huge and difficult choice to quit

mental wellbeing

Blue Monday...

This coming Monday (20th January) has gained the name Blue Monday. The third Monday in January is supposedly the day when due to a number of factors including the weather, failure to stick to new year’s resolutions, debt level, Christmas seeming a long time ago, people are feeling at

wellbeing

How have you got on?

At a recent On Your Mark’s workshop run by Phase with Year 6 students we asked students to show, on a spectrum of extremely excited to extremely worried, how they were feeling about starting at Secondary school next year. I was talking to the students who were extremely excited.

perspective

Start how you mean to go on

New school year, new start. A new start to me often feels like starting a new exercise book when I was at school, where I would promise to myself to keep this one neat, clean and tidy. Sadly it was something that I rarely managed. But I’m old and

resilience

Top tips to build resilience

Resilience is a bit of a buzz word right now, but what is it, why is it needed and most importantly, how do we build it? In this blog post I want to answer these questions and give you 10 great tips on how to build your resilience whether your

charity film awards

Finalists

We've made the final! Phase are extremely please to announce that we have made the final of the Charity Film Awards 2019, but we've not won yet! Vote Now [https://www.charityfilmawards.com/videos/lets-talk-self-harm] Our Let's Talk - Self-Harm [https://youtu.be/RoTse0fe9Yo]

mental health

Blue Monday

Is it just me, or does Christmas feel like a really long time ago? I don't know how we're half way through January already. Many would tell you that means Blue Monday is coming up. Or we've just had it. Or it's

fun

December Wellbeing Challenge 2018

DECEMBER!!! You're finally here. I think it’s time for Christmas music. It’s never too early for Christmas music I hear you shout and I’m inclined to agree. (turns up the music a little louder to drown out those that object 🎄) New month, new challenge. And

reflection

November Wellbeing Challenge 2018

We have finally reached the penultimate month in 2018 and if you feel anything like I do then this year has flown by. A new month brings with it a brand-new challenge. The focus of our challenge this month is all about reflection. Normally the end of the year brings

Help for parents

How To Support Your Child

We had the privilege recently of being asked to write a blog post for The Motherload (a website and blogzine for parents) about mental health. It is an area that their readers were requesting some information about, and we know from our own experience at Phase that parents do not

wellbeing

October Wellbeing Challenge 2018

October is here and that means a new challenge! This month’s challenge is a social media detox 😱 Wait don’t close the page. I know, I know this is going to be a real challenge for some of you. It will definitely be a challenge for me. Why even

wellbeing challenge

September Wellbeing Challenge 2018

Welcome to September, It’s the beginning of autumn and the start of a new school year. This month’s challenge is all about you. Think about something you’ve always wanted to do. What’s stopping you from doing it? Your challenge is to make a plan for the

Lillian's Space

Lillian's Space .. Peer Support

We have the wonderful Lillian taking over the blog again and this time she's sharing her experience as a Youth Mental Health Champion. If you missed her last post check it out here [http://blog.phase-hitchin.org/untitled-6/]. During the last academic year, I trained to be a

ditch the news

Good news

This month has been all about ditching the negative and replacing it with positive. I hope you've found it helpful and shared some of the interesting articles you've found along the way. Here are just 3 of my favs. * A story of kindnes [https://www.goodnewsnetwork.

emotional wellbeing

Shine a light on ... Anxiety (part 1)

Everyone I know has anxiety. Not the kind of anxiety that you feel before you speak in public, or when you see a massive spider scuttling towards you. I mean, the kind of anxiety that hangs over your life, that is disproportionate to your circumstances and that prevents you from