Mental Wellbeing

Click here to view the Young Person's Mental Health Toolkit

Children's Mental Health Week Express Yourself

6th - 12th Feb 2023


The theme of this year's Children’s Mental Health Week is Express Yourself.

Expressing yourself is about finding ways to share feelings, thoughts, or ideas, through creativity. This could be through art, music, writing and poetry, dance and drama, photography and film, and doing activities that make you feel good.

The website below offers free resources which will help children and young people to explore what it means to Express Yourself. All of the ideas can be adapted for home-schooling, online lessons or independent learning. 

COUNSELLING

Counselling is one of the most common psychological interventions delivered in schools where children can explore, understand and aim to overcome issues in their lives causing them difficulty, distress and/or confusion.

It is viewed as an important, non-stigmatising strategy to help bring about improvements in mental health and wellbeing. Counselling helps children with personal, social and emotional issues affecting their wellbeing, attendance, learning and academic achievements, and relationships; and also develops skills to strengthen their resilience and deal with their problems and challenges.

What is counselling?

The British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) defines counselling and psychotherapy as ‘umbrella terms that cover a range of talking therapies’. It offers children the opportunity to express and explore how they feel and what they’re thinking with someone who is professionally trained, in order to bring about effective change and/or enhance their wellbeing.

Most counselling is conducted on a one-to-one basis which provides children with an opportunity to explore their difficulties in a welcoming and supportive environment, and to find their own ways of addressing their issues. Group counselling is also common in primary schools and family counselling may be appropriate in some instances. Some organisations that work in schools, such as Place2Be, also offer parent counselling in some schools.

Why offer counselling in schools?

There is a government commitment to improving children’s mental health with the expectation that, over time, all schools will make sure that learners can access high-quality counselling services that can offer good outcomes. A 2016 NAHT/Place2Be survey of head teachers reported that 36% of primary schools in England have access to a school-based counsellor.

Given that children spend a large amount of their time in school it is an ideal environment in which to offer therapeutic support, ensuring that:

  • The counselling provision forms part of a whole-school approach.

  • School staff can discuss their concerns with an onsite mental health professional.

  • Children can be referred to a counsellor onsite.

  • Children learn how to ask for help when they need it.

  • Children do not need to have a diagnosable mental health difficulty to access counselling in schools.

  • Children and parents/carers will not have to attend an external agency or clinic (unless referred to a specialist service).

  • Early intervention may help prevent escalation and the need to refer to specialist CAMHS (Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services).

  • Counselling is often well integrated with other wider mental health support for children and families in the community.

Who benefits from counselling and how?

Research tells us that children are most likely to attend counselling because of:

  • family problems

  • trauma and abuse

  • friendship difficulties or bullying-related trauma

  • bereavement

Counselling helps a child develop coping skills and strategies to manage difficulty and change. It improves wellbeing and is a recommended early intervention for children in psychological distress or who have mild to moderate symptoms of depression.

On the whole, counselling is less effective for children with severe and persistent behavioural problems or hyperactivity. These children benefit most from family involvement in programmes such as Triple P, FAST and Incredible Years (see Challenging behaviours and Overactivity and poor concentration for more detailed information). However, drivers for some behavioural problems can be complex (e.g. attachment difficulties, trauma, prolonged experience of discrimination, bullying etc.). So if problems persist despite engagement with parenting support, then counselling or other outside specialist support may be necessary to help address and resolve potentially deeper-rooted, underlying difficulties.

Identifying children who may benefit from counselling

Schools can:

  • Carry out an annual review of children’s mental health and wellbeing. Given that many child mental health problems and difficulties go under the radar, this (together with school staff’s observations) might provide a useful way to identify children who might benefit from help.

  • Complete a Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire which might help identify the severity and scale of problems and where difficulties lie.

  • Ask the advice of a school-based counsellor if available.

Length of counselling

Children can attend counselling:

  • for one session for brief advice and support

  • for short-term counselling (e.g. around 6 weeks)

  • for one to two terms, and

  • as a longer-term intervention over a full academic year or more.

Some studies show that the more often children attend counselling, the greater the improvement. However, analysis of Place2Be data also suggests that most benefits for children take place at the midway stage (6 to 12 weeks) with generally decreasing improvements the longer time passes. This tells us that counselling is most effectively used, on average, as a short to medium term means of support for children facing difficulties.

What does a good quality counselling service look like?

A good school-based counselling service should:

  • Be well-known within the school and promoted to all staff, parents or carers and learners.

  • Have clear processes in place for referring a child to the service (teachers, school staff, parents/carers and self-referral).

  • Be independent, yet integrated into the school.

  • Appoint a member of school staff to act as liaison with the counsellor, who should ideally be part of a team dedicated to children needing additional support (including the SENCO, pastoral lead and DSL).

  • Ideally have a dedicated counselling room that is accessible, private, secure, safe and welcoming.

  • Have a clear accessible complaints procedure.

  • Ensure that good arrangements are in place for working with, and referring onto, other specialist agencies.

Evaluating the effectiveness of counselling

The DfE’s counselling in schools publication reinforces the importance of collecting routine outcome data for children engaged with counselling to assess:

  • the impact of the counselling on the child

  • the effectiveness of the service overall and its value for money.

Ofsted also seeks evidence of the impact of interventions for learners in need. It is critical to evaluate counselling services to ensure that the service is making a difference to children’s mental health in your school. Most counsellors will assess impact through using a good quality tool measuring where the child is before they access help and then reviewing progress with the child, family and teachers at set points to track progress.

Below are some of the ways in which counsellors might measure how their service impacts on children in the school and how they might assess the value of the service to the school:

Some useful online resources

Potential Activities to Support Mental Health