Child Counselors Southampton

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.
Bay Tree House
023 80795354
Graham Road
Southampton
Mad About Enterprises
023 80330001
Bedford House
Southampton
Marcella House
023 80841341
Jones Lane
Southampton
St Waleric Day Hospital
01962 841941
Park Road
Winchester
Employment Works
023 92732965
117 Orchard Road
Southsea
Morris House Nhs
023 80233121
71-73 Morris Road
Southampton
Abbotts Lodge
023 80453562
Abbey Hill
Southampton
Mild Professional Care Ltd
01329 242330
Knightsbridge House 19
Fareham
West Wight Community Mental Health Team
01983 525254
29-31 Pyle Street
Newport
Isle Of Wight Healthcare Nhs Trust
01983 811568
Milligan House
Ryde
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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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