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We all respond to the world around us in different ways. This can be seen in our emotions and behaviour. Often, those responses are helpful – it’s useful to fear stepping out into the road when the cars are going by, for example. Emotions can alert us to a problem in our environment.
Sometimes emotional responses go beyond what is helpful and become a problem in themselves. People start to feel anxious all the time, even when there isn’t anything to be afraid of. Sometimes the things that we do in order to feel better – like drinking, or isolating ourselves – can make problems worse. We get stuck, because the things we are doing to try to feel better end up making the situation more complicated.
Mental health professionals define something as a mental health problem when it causes a problem for a person and stops them being able to live their life in the way that they want. Emotions and behaviour are seen as symptoms of the mental health problem. This can include unusual experiences such as hearing voices or paranoid thinking.
The issues which are defined as mental health problems include anxiety, depression, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and substance misuse. In our webinars about mental health problems, you’ll hear about evidence-based techniques to help you and your child get unstuck and to make the changes you or they want to make in their lives.
These webinars are not therapy and should not be used as a replacement for therapy. They are educational self-help webinars, using psychological theory to help you help yourself and your child.
This mini-course for teenagers to watch by themselves is about what anxiety is like for teenagers, and how sometimes the things we do to try and make anxiety better, end up making it worse. It has some clips from Jenna, who is 18 and who has lots of experience of anxiety. She’ll tell you about what helped her and how she’s manages to live the life that she wants to live.
Many teenagers are anxious, and their parents don't know how to help. Worries about school, worries about friends, anxiety which just seems overwhelming - what's going on? Naomi will explain how anxiety works and how brains change in adolescence. She'll go on to explain why adolescents are often anxious - and give parents some ideas as to how to help their teen.
Many autistic children are anxious. Dr Naomi Fisher, clinical psychologist, will help you understand some of the reasons and will show you some ways you might be able to support your child. You will leave with a better understanding of what might be going on, and some ideas as to how you as the parent can help.
Why are so many autistic teenagers anxious - and what can parents do to help? Gain understanding, insight and practical tips in this mini-course by Dr Naomi Fisher.
Living with your autistic child is like walking on eggshells. They sleep badly, they cling to you and they have extreme reactions to seemingly small events. They are very scared of particular things, and you aren't really sure why. Naomi will explain how trauma affects the brain - and why understanding trauma in autism requires us to look beyond major traumatic events to understand the person's individual experience.
In this practical and engaging course, Dr Naomi Fisher, clinical psychologist, will help you understand the developmental changes of early childhood. She'll show you how anxiety works, and how parents can make a difference. You'll understand your child better, and therefore be better able to help.
Some children and young people seem to withdraw from life. Their anxiety becomes so severe that anything which might have helped seemed to make things worse. They may find it hard to come out of the bedrooms or to leave the house. Parents are left not knowing what to do next. Naomi will help you to think about severe anxiety through the lens of the nervous system and give you some practical ideas to help your child.
Many children with learning disabilities are anxious - but those around them might not recognise this as anxiety. They're unlikely to say 'I'm worried' but instead will show us their feelings through their behaviour. Behaviour which can be hard to manage. Naomi explains how anxiety works and give you practical ideas to reduce anxiety and help your children thrive. It is suitable for parents of children with learning disabilities or global developmental delay.
Life is full of transitions - and many autistic children find them really difficult - which means that their parents find them hard too. Life can feel like walking on eggshells. Dr. Naomi Fisher will help you gain a new understanding of why transitions are so hard, what makes it worse - and how to help.
Dr Naomi Fisher will explain OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) and how it can interact with autism. She'll describe how parents and children can fall into OCD traps, and what to do to get out. She'll give you some ideas to help your child, even if they themselves don't think that there's a problem.
Things have gone wrong at school for your teenager, and now it’s like they have nothing left. They have lost their sense of what made life worth living. You don’t know how to help, and sometimes it seems like whatever you do makes things worse. Naomi will explain how burnout happens and what the process of recovery looks like.
In this mini course Naomi will talk about school trauma, how it occurs, what makes it worse and how parents can help. You'll leave with a new understanding of what has gone on for your child, why they are still affected by the past, and some ideas of what to do. This course will combine psychological theory with practical strategies and ideas.
Your child isn’t happy at school. They are protesting in the mornings, or having meltdowns in the afternoons. They tell you that they don’t want to go, and you feel torn between them and the school. School are telling you that the answer is to keep pushing, as you don’t want to reinforce avoidance or behaviour. It’s starting to dominate everything about your family life, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.
This mini-course is for teenagers to watch themselves. It explains burnout, why our bodies go into burnout, what that process looks like and how we can recover. It is broken down into small sections and has subtitles. Featuring Chloe from Me Just Me.
Dr Naomi Fisher, clinical psychologist, will share with you how trauma and loss affect children and what their parents can do to help. With various handouts to download and extra audios, this course is a comprehensive and practical resource to help you support your child.
EOTAS is a provision for students whose needs cannot be met within a traditional school setting, and is a bespoke, individualised education. In this course, Dr Abigail Fisher, educational psychologist, will help you understand the process, benefits, potential costs and unexpected challenges of EOTAS.
Updated for 2024! Some children are highly sensitive to emotions and pressure, and parenting them takes a whole new skillset. Dr Naomi Fisher and Eliza Fricker explain why many mainstream parenting approaches can make things worse and how to parent to help your child learn to manage their emotions.
How can you make space for yourself, whilst also doing the best you can for your children? How can you make sure your own needs matter, when your child's needs are so high that they can't be put aside? Is it even possible for life to feel more sustainable?
A clear and engaging introduction to the psychology of mental health, which takes account of a range of perspectives and illustrates how psychologists work in the field today. Psychology of Mental Health will place our current understanding of mental health in context, both historically and culturally. It will discuss various models for understanding mental health, research on causes of mental health problems, and will introduce recent psychology-led alternatives to diagnosis.
No one thinks they will have a child who doesn’t want to open their presents - and who even when the paper is off, doesn’t open the boxes. No one thinks that they’ll be looking at last years’ gifts still sitting in a pile in the cupboard, as next Christmas is fast approaching.
A lot is justified in the name of exam results. It’s okay to control every moment of a child’s day, if the school can show they get excellent exam results. It’s okay to have behaviour policies which put many children in isolation, if the school gets excellent exam results. It’s okay for parents to be complaining, and children to be protesting, if the school can show improving exam results.