Watch Out, There Are Worry Monsters About!
A sold-out craft session at Supporting Minds has given children the chance to create their own ‘worry monster’ in time for Hallowe’en.
The workshop, part of a series of creative activities at the counselling service based in Lincoln, aimed to give children the option of creating their own worry monster that they can tell their concerns to or ‘feed’ them paper with their anxieties written on them.
Jenine said: “Mental health issues among children are an important subject and more people are now willing to talk about it openly.
“This half term we have held sessions on grief, dreams and anxiety and the children have found it incredibly rewarding. The worry monster idea is particularly helpful for children suffering with confidence or anxiety issues as they can project their problems in a useful way. They may be more willing to tell their worry monster things that are affecting them more than anyone else. The children also have the journals to take home to continue with the skills they’ve learned during the class.
“We’ve had amazing feedback from both the children and the parents and we’ve had to start reserve lists as they’ve sold out in advance! We work within several schools in the area, so we’ll be rolling some of these classes out there too.”
One of the children taking part in the workshop was Kaid Raynor 8, from Willingham. He said: “My worry monster is called Vampderev, because he has big fangs. I’ve enjoyed making him today and me and my mum have had fun at the other classes this week.”
Parents couldn’t escape the worry monsters either, some even getting stuck in to helping create some weird and wonderful creations.
Kaid’s mother Jess added: “We’ve been to a few of the sessions during half terms and Kaid has had some counselling here. We’ve found them so useful. We take some of the methods they teach here, and they can be applied at home and at school. It’s also a really nice way to spend half term – we’ll definitely be coming back.
The next ‘Make a Worry Monster’ workshop is on Saturday 9th December from 2.30pm to 5pm. Places are limited so it’s advisable to book early. Each place is £30 per child, £25 per additional child and £15 for each artistic parent to cover materials. Cost includes materials, worry monster activity book and refreshments.
Sessions take place at the Carlton Centre in Lincoln but will be taking place in other venues in 2018. For details, visit www.supportingminds.com
Ends
Notes to editors:
• Supporting Minds is an affordable counselling service based at the Carlton Centre, Lincoln.
• Director and founder Jenine Butroid is a qualified counsellor and has experience within the education and health sector.
• For more information, follow Supporting Minds on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
For media information contact:
Mike Shields
Shooting Star
01522 528540
mike@weareshootingstar.co.uk
[SupportingMinds02WorryMonsters]
