Children’s Mental Health Week is a time to explore the resources available
Knowing where to start is the first step to helping your child
“If children are given the language for their feelings early enough, maybe they won’t grow up believing they have to suffer in silence”. Powerful words from north London mother-of-three Esther Marshall, author of two children’s books. Sophie Says ‘I Can, I Will’ focuses on empowerment and career aspirations and is based on the imaginary childhood friend ‘Sophie’ that she and her sister Rebecca shared.
Tragically Rebecca, who had long-suffered from mental illness, committed suicide aged 28. Losing her sister reshaped everything Esther believes about mental health, spurring her to write a second book, Sophie Says ‘It’s Okay Not To Be Okay’, about coping with emotions and getting rid of perfection, a pressure Rebecca always felt as a junior doctor.
Books are a great way to connect with a child who perhaps isn’t quite ready to see a therapist and Esther’s aim is to help children talk openly about feelings, believing that emotional education should matter as much as reading and maths.
“The books are very visual and feature Sophie’s sidekick ‘Bunny’ who hides on each page. For school visits, I bring a knitted Bunny and Sophie which the children love to hold. It’s lovely receiving feedback from teachers and parents that their kids ask for the ‘finding the bunny’ book.”
Children’s Mental Health Week (9-15 February) drops into calendars with a powerful theme of ‘This is My Place’, supporting children and young people to feel that they belong. Whether that is at home, in school, in friendships or in communities, a sense of belonging is integral to mental health and wellbeing.
Children’s Mental Health Week was established by Place2Be, which was founded more than 30 years ago by Dame Benny Refson DBE with the aim of giving children and young people the support they need to build lifelong coping skills and thrive. The campaign offers free resources to every school, family and youth group across the UK.
There are many ways to support children with their mental health and Jami (Jewish Association for Mental Illness) is an excellent place to start. Supporting hundreds of people each year who have been impacted by mental health problems, the service has never been needed more, particularly by the younger generation.
Hayley Aaron, Senior PR & Comms Lead at Jami says: “We set up the Dangoor Children and Young Person’s Service because Covid highlighted how much young people needed support. The pilot programme at JCoSS offered 1:1 support from mental health practitioners including occupational therapists, working on coping strategies like how to deal with anxiety.”
The scheme was successfully rolled out to JFS and Yavneh, and offered a Talking Therapies service at Jewish Care’s Amelie House. The service extended to children at non-Jewish schools, as well as carer groups for parents of young people with ADHD.
For a child not quite sold on therapy, Debbie Fine offers coaching. “I realised from my time on Facebook that kids could benefit from something lighter than therapy. My coaching skills help kids between 10-18 years old who come to me with challenges like petty friendships or weekend camp nerves such as ‘what if I get my period?’. Social media is a huge topic too: kids left off plans because they’re not naturally good at replying to messages. These things are a big deal to kids and I give them the space to talk about it.”
Sharing that ‘even my own daughter sees someone’, Debbie’s approach is without weekly commitment (unless requested) as she likes to the sessions to be ‘something they look forward to’.
For a more traditional approach, Emma Cohn is a psychotherapist with over 25 years’ experience seeing patients from eight to adulthood. Her methods include play and some psychoeducation for younger children, where she gently explains “the thinking brain” and “the feeling brain”.
“Kids are all about the feeling brain and we discuss this through play because that’s how they make sense of the world. I always tread lightly and avoid saying ‘you should’, going with ‘I believe’ instead.”
Child therapist Saskia Joss’s book Help! My Child’s Anxiety is Giving Me Anxiety is a guide for parents of anxious children covering topics such as separation anxiety, phobias and sexual identity. The book also features over 100 ‘firework ideas’: quick, digestible strategies for parents to immediately work off.
Saskia co-hosts the podcast Help! My Child’s Anxious with her mother, broadcaster Vanessa Feltz. “The pod allows us to respond in real-time to current affairs and the general field of parenting. After Adolescence aired on Netflix (March 2025) there was a surge of parents searching for help and the podcast was immediately supportive. We’re currently the third biggest parenting podcast in Yemen! That tells us that parents all over the world are worried about their anxious children.”
Saskia and her husband Mark run the Mill Hill Therapy Hub with a team of therapists who see kids between three and 18 years old. There is also a children’s book in the pipeline for Saskia.
childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk
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