Why use Kaleidoscope Colour Therapy in today’s society?

The pressures and challenges facing young people in the UK today can often be overwhelming. Bullying, bereavement, domestic violence, family breakdown, constant testing and exams at school have a great impact on children’s self-belief.

When considering our budgets, how many of us stop and think about how 1nuch money is spent on dealing with the aftennath of low self-esteem and vulnerability in young people today? Whether it is as severe as being drawn into a negative gang culture on one extreme or simply underperformance and anxiety due to too much stress from the pressure placed upon children and young people to look good, keep up with social media and do well academically. The cost is billions of pounds.

The UK is ranked 14th out of 15 countries in the Children’s Society research into happiness in children publish in 2017. In 2013 UNICEF had previously published similar findings. Mental health problems affect about 1 in 10 children and young people. They include depression, anxiety and conduct disorder and are often a direct response to what is happening in their lives. Alarmingly, 70% of children and young people who experience a mental health problem have not had appropriate intervention at a sufficiently early age. According to Dr Simon Newitt half of all adult mental health problems (excluding dementia) start before the age of 15 and three quarters before the age of 18.

The emotional wellbeing of children is just as important as their physical health. Good mental health allows children and young people to develop the resilience to cope with whatever life throws at them and grow into well rounded healthy adults.

“Kaleidoscope Colour Therapy tackles bullying, truancy, fear, anxiety and anger.”

Data released by NHS England under the Freedom of Information Act, showed that 64,765 under-18s, including 3,876 children aged seven to 12 and 315 aged six or younger, were given medication typically used to treat depression and anxiety berween April 2015 and March 2016.  Almost 65,000 young people in England, including children as young as six, are being prescribed antidepressants by their doctors as reported in the Guardian.

Happiness requires boundaries, consistency, consequences but most of all a feeling of being loved. trusted. understood, valued and safe. Within these safe consistent boundaries children can grasp opportunities to enjoy themselves and thrive, feeling hopeful and optimistic. Being able to recognise who they are and what they are good whilst e1npathising with others is paramount to building healthy relationships.

Then we get onto the subject of staff morale, staff illness especially in schools, hospitals and social work. Staff and parents can feel helpless by the endless waiting lists to get a child seen by an external professional. The waiting list is now 2 years in some parts of the country. This coupled with targets and progress reports and the constant changes in assessment and evidence requirements along with shrinking budgets.

12.5 billion working days were lost 2016/17 in England due to employee suess related illness.

Resilience and resourcefulness comes from having the right people around us to love us, encourage us, validate us, correct us, soothe us and help us bounce back. We can’t all be happy and confident all of the time but when things do go wrong or we meet disappointment in life, which we inevitably will, we need to be able to bounce back even if it is with the help of our friends, families /carers or a group or a club which we belong to.

This is where Kaleidoscope Colour Therapy comes in….

A non-intrusive therapeutic programme on a daily or weekly basis with people the children already know and trust. Kaleidoscope Colour Therapy does not aim to down play or take anything away from the hugely important expertise of external professionals like CAMHS and other therapists, but we often need something in our schools and establishments on a day to day basis for the vast majority of children.

What is needed is something where they don’t need to keep building new relationships of trust, telling their story yet again and possibly end all too soon in order to accommodate the next child on the list.

Children also need to maintain their self-esteem as well as build it. Along with growing up inevitably comes new experiences and challenges. Some are good, some are bad. How do children cope? How do we cope as adults?  One of the answers is Kaleidoscope Colour Therapy.

Kaleidoscope Colour Therapy caters for all children and young people.

Sessions can be adapted and picked through like a menu in a restaurant. Kaleidoscope can be led by the organisation’s own Kaleidoscope Colour Therapy trained staff who genuinely cares for children and young people, able to look beyond a child’s behaviour, be prepared to go on their own journey of self-discovery during the training and take on much more of a therapeutic role of giving possibilities and hope to children and young people.

It’s like cleaning our teeth. We don’t stop cleaning them just because the last time we had a dental check appointment there were no signs of decay. It’s the same with good mental health. Even if we are on top form we still need to maintain it.

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