Child Counselors London

The head of Sherborne Prep school argues: we have made children safer and yet more vulnerable; more comfortable and yet less happy; more physically secure and more mentally fragile.
Tottenham Mews Resource Centre
020 75304400
1 Tottenham Mews
London
Jamestown Mental Health Centre
020 75864170
78 Adelaide Road
London
Harambee Project
020 77037733
Camberwell Business Centre
London
Specialist Rehab Team
020 77405600
308-312 Brixton Road
London
South Kensington & Chelsea Mental Health Centre
020 82372000
Nightingale Place
London
Southwark London Borough Of Community Project Southwark Social Services Learning Difficulties/Mental
020 78200457
42 Braganza Street
London
Family Welfare
020 72723036
148 Hornsey Lane
London
South London & Maudsley Nhs Trust
020 32286000
Maudsley Hospital
London
Crossfield Mental Health Day Centre
020 76259042
8 Fairhazel Gardens
London
Deptford Primary Care Mental Health Team
020 86911335
Lind Clinic James Lind House
London
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Coping Strategies

 Peter Tait Headmaster of Sherborne Preparatory School:

Supporting children
“You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you.” Mary Tyler Moore
We are all aware, to a greater or lesser degree, that the world in which our children are growing up is quite different to the one we knew in our own youth. While we may strive to promote our own values and attitudes and ensure that our children have every opportunity in life, we need to recognise that there are significantly different pressures at work upon them.

In our wisdom, we have made children safer and yet more vulnerable; more comfortable and yet, sometimes, less happy; more physically secure and more mentally fragile; more knowing and yet less aware. It is ironic that by giving our children, for instance, cleaner and more sanitised environments, we have reduced their immune systems and made them more susceptible to various illnesses, especially asthma.

Growing up too fast?
It is very difficult now to prolong the innocence of childhood and ignoring the outside world, sadly, is no answer.
We all know that much of what happens in the world is sensible in theory and yet, in practice, things often just don’t work out. Through the internet and television, it is hard now for children to remain ignorant of a world that was once exclusive to adults, but is now everyone’s, like it or not. Youngsters grow up knowing so much more about society and its problems, its lurid and ugly side, its excesses and its casualties. And yet, as many would tell us, things have never been better and what has happened to our society is not that things have become worse, but merely different, and we just need to give our pupils an appropriate survival kit for the new world and that they will cope just fine. Is it that easy?

Stress and depression

Teen stress and depressionAlthough the number of children suffering from stress and depression keeps growing, many manage to find their way through it all. It is important, therefore, that we instill in children mechanisms to cope with the world as they see it. They need to know how to cope with health issues, real and perceived, how to comprehend the graphic images on television without feeling fearful, how to make their way in a fiercely competitive world, and how to deal with all the doubts and uncertainties once associated with adolescence, but no longer exclusively so.

Children have to learn how to place global issues like terrorism and climate change into some sort of perspective and not become fearful or obsessed with survival.
We can do some of this by encouraging appropriate discussion in schools, by listening, by ensuring pupils are properly informed of issues and by ensuring that they have the chance to air their concerns and by giving those concerns a sense of proportion.What is less straightforward is how we can build the inner strength and coping mechanisms required when the school or parent is not there.

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