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Self-care Cafe for Parents/Carers

So many people I know – and obviously tens of thousands I don’t know – struggle thanks to the broken SEND system in which misinformed SENCos are complicit, and local authorities fail children in order to save budget.

As someone who is through to the other side of the parent tightrope, and who has survived and healed, I have had a good think about how I can push my work out to reach PARENTS like me.

I decided to put together something that would actually help, rather than merely pay lip service to our struggles. You see, when you are highly stressed, your ability to communicate clearly and to rationalise reduces. You may see red and get shouty, or you may withdraw from the world and avoid contact, or even avoid doing important things.

I emoticon-ridden instaguru-type, MLM-esque social media posts abhorrent and exploitative – especially when they are blatantly trying to extract as much money as possible out of vulnerable parents. For this reason, I decided to start a regular “Support Cafe” on a donation basis – that way, people can donate whatever they think the session is worth. If these are successful, people find them helpful AND I get to cover my costs, I’ll continue – if not, I won’t.

However, this is NOT about participants passively sitting and absorbing information. Nor is it about counselling or giving advice on legal process (although I can point you in the right direction if this is required!).

These sessions are about CONNECTION, learning about our nervous systems and understanding what prolonged stress can do to us, and learning HOW TO HEAL ourselves using somatic techniques. You’ll learn about your autonomic nervous system and how to identify nervous system states. I’ll take you through a series of useful exercises to help you anchor in a rest/digest state.

You do not have to commit to attending regularly, or even stay for the whole hour. Step by step…

These are educational sessions, with the aim of giving you a self-care toolkit of VAGUS NERVE HACKS to ensure that you are anchored in a safe place, ready to take the world on.

Please register here

If someone had offered me these sessions 5 or so years ago, I would not have had anywhere near as many sleepless nights, and would have had a lot more bandwidth to function and advocate without going into a deep freeze state.

If you would like to know more about why it is so important to be in tune with your own nervous system before you can work with your child, you may enjoy the following TED talk by the author of Grounded, Claire Wilson:

For further support with your neuroplasticity journey from other parents, and to find out more about whether primitive reflex integration or the Safe and Sound Protocol can help you, please join this Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/739754809477939/

For more information on events I run, please refer to my Events page.

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