Therapy
I have been counselling young people for 11 years, 10 years in special education and this last year with Reach Essex as an outreach worker engaging young people with complex needs. I am an eclectic counsellor drawing from a variety of therapeutic principles and philosophies in order to create the ideal treatment program to meet the specific needs of the young person.
In my role at The Omnia Foundation I take a holistic approach to the emotional and social wellbeing of our school community to ensure that everyone has the tools to succeed. Holistic wellbeing isn’t merely an attempt to alleviate the fatigue, anger and anxiety that often come along with emotional struggles, but to address the roots of the disorders themselves. This type of intervention involves treating the whole person and their ecosystem— that includes looking not only at the individual, but at the effects of family, school, peers and community on the life of a young person. Holistic therapy postulates that the way these systems connect can be the key to creating an effective, individualized treatment plan.
My goal, through the work we do at The Omnia Foundation, is to create a Wellbeing Program that ensures that all young people can access education, be successful and develop healthy habits that will last a lifetime, this correlates to the wellbeing of citizens on societal scale.
At The Omnia Foundation we offer a wide range of tried and tested therapies to ensure that we can meet the needs of our community, these include:
Counselling
Counselling is a process of talking about and working through personal problems. The counsellor helps to address problems in a positive way by helping to clarify the issues, explore options, develop strategies and increase self-awareness in a non-judgemental environment. For some people, just the process of telling their story to a counsellor, and being listened to, is helpful.
Counselling provides confidential support. This means that everything discussed with the counsellor is private, between the client and the counsellor. The exception is when a counsellor has a duty of care to report something that threatens the wellbeing of the client or the wellbeing of others.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT is an intervention that aims to improve wellbeing by challenging and changing unhelpful thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours, improving emotional regulation and developing coping strategies that target solving current problems.
Everything we do at The Omnia Foundation is underpinned by CBT, we are solution-focused and action-oriented and believe that maladaptive behaviours and associated stress can be reduced by teaching coping mechanisms and a new way of thinking.
Overcoming Anger and Aggression
Overcoming anger and aggression is a 12 week program that can be delivered 1:1 or to small groups and uses CBT, DBT and Mindfulness to help young people gain a better understanding of the strong emotions they experience and begin to think about changing unhelpful thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
The program encourages young people to explore the seeds of their anger (past experiences) and develop personalised detours and calming strategies to manage very strong emotions.
Smart Thinking
Smart Thinking is a group intervention developed in collaboration with The Citizenship Foundation and youth justice workers for use with young people between the ages of 12 and 18. The aims of Smart Thinking are to:
- Encourage the development of a range of thinking and communication skills
- Improve the ability to think about moral aspects of everyday life, with particular reference to offending behaviour
- Enhance self-awareness through increasing the ability to think critically and reflectively
- Increase the ability to operate in social settings by improving the capacity to interact verbally
Therapy through Sport
“Sport has the power to change the world…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair.”
Nelson Mandela
Sport has even greater power to heal when it is combined with evidence based practices that help to regulate emotions and behaviours. We are working with sports psychologists to fuse sport with therapies to help our young people deal with struggles surrounding, self-esteem, anxiety, aggression, social awareness and emotional regulation through football, rugby and boxing as an alternative to traditional talking therapies.
Art Therapy
Art therapy is a distinct discipline that incorporates creative methods of expression through visual art media, it may focus on the creative art-making process itself, as therapy, or on the analysis of expression gained through an exchange of patient and therapist interaction.
Art therapy can be used to help people improve cognitive and sensory motor function, self-esteem, self awareness and emotional resilience. It may also aid in resolving conflicts and reduce distress.
Occupational Therapy
‘Occupation’ refers to the practical activities that allow a person to be independent and develop a sense of identity. Paediatric occupational therapist work in a variety of settings supporting children.
At Omnia Foundation the occupational therapist is focused on developing skills that enable the student to handle day-to-day tasks such as self-care, work, play and leisure. Omnia Foundation have an experienced occupational therapist on-site who works in conjunction with staff, parents / carers, and outside services to support and optimise each student functioning within all areas of the school day. The support provided is also to aid the student to thrive at home and in the wider community.
Thrive Approach
The Thrive Approach is a systematic method of identifying gaps in children’s emotional and social wellbeing. One of the main focuses within Thrive is providing children of all ages with the correct emotional support of which is informed by the following key areas; an established neuroscience, attachment research, as well as, child development studies whilst learning the importance of resilience. Here children have the opportunity to develop and learn basic life skills such as confidence, with the support of trained adults, enabling them to progress further in education. Thrive is also committed to providing children with the necessary skills to deal with life’s ups and downs. It also consists of Thrive-Online, a web-based assessment and monitoring tool, and training.
In my role at The Omnia Foundation I am committed to helping make a difference to the lives of children and young adults. Over the last two years I have completed my training to become a licenced Thrive Practitioner where I worked alongside children building relevant case studies. My role is to understand how the brain develops and create unique opportunities to support their growth, stability, social and emotional well-being. I explore the role of the arts, play and creativity in supporting the needs of young people and develop strategies for building supportive relationships. Thrive is a rewarding and fulfilling process as it helps a young person become happy, confident and resilient.
Kristi Knowles, Emotional Wellbeing Coordinator.
