Janice Barclay, a CNHC registered Hypnotherapist, writes about the Kool to be Kind Initiative in Primary Schools...
I have been practising Hypnotherapy since 2015 and Meditation for over 10 years, but it wasn’t until May 2017 that I started offering classes in my local village hall, which led to a wonderful opportunity to help school children in the local community. Following one of my classes, I was contacted by the local radio station Moray Firth Radio on behalf of their charity Cash for Kids. They asked if I would be interested in going around to schools to support a new programme called ‘Kool to be Kind’. This initiative was designed to help children learn coping strategies if they got angry or frustrated at home or at school.
For the Kool to be Kind initiative we visited 3 local primary schools who were willing and eager to participate. We scheduled dates to visit and had a full day at one of the schools, working with 5 groups of children in their classrooms for 20 minute sessions. To engage with the children, I started by asking them what they would do to be kind to someone, and while answering they got to cuddle a Care Bear. I then taught them about hypnotic anchors, so that if they ever felt insecure all they needed to do was take a deep breath and blow out their frustrations and the lovely feeling of calm would return to them. The sessions were a great success and I received many positive responses from the children and their teachers.
I felt it was important to work on the Kool to be Kind initiative, so these children may be less likely to get angry or stressed as they grew up, which is why I offered my services free of charge. Whilst my time was on a voluntary basis initially, my involvement in Kool to be Kind has led to paid opportunities and new clients.
Following the Easter holidays, I will start working with Central Primary School where I am leading a case study of a group of 6 children and a teacher. It will be a group activity which will aim to see how effective different meditation styles work on the children, and we will be encouraging them to help and support each other. Their teacher and I will then record and discuss any change in their attitude before and after. My fees have been funded by a local business man who donated money to the school. And just recently Moray Firth Radio Station has contacted me about collaborating with them again, and this time funding would be offered to me through their charity Cash For Kids.
My registration with CNHC gave confidence to the charity, teachers and radio station for these initiatives, and I very much look forward to working on more activities like these for the community.