We think mental health should be on the National Curriculum. But since it’s not – boo! – we take the Resilience Lab into schools, colleges, universities and other youth settings across Bristol and South Gloucestershire and do it ourselves. We do this every week and we love it. So, if you’d like us to visit your school, college or youth club, drop us a line at resiliencelab@otrbristol.org.uk

At OTR we don’t like to call ourselves “experts” and refute the idea that only we can promote and support young people’s mental health. However, through working in the field for over 50 years we have picked up a variety of simple, practical ways to enhance the mental wellbeing of young people. Because we know the positive impact that they can have we want to share our collection of tools, tips and techniques.

What you’ll learn:

This session is aimed at those who work directly with young people. The first half of the day will provide you with a strong overview and understanding of what exactly is young people’s mental health. It will then go on to offer you insight into the tools and techniques our practitioners have found most useful over the years and how they can be adapted as 1:1 and group interventions within your setting.

By the end of it you will have:

• Built a greater understanding and confidence around what exactly is “young peoples’ mental health
• Explored a variety of different techniques for supporting the mental health and wellbeing of young people
• Built confidence in how to adapt and expand on these techniques to make them applicable to your area of work or personal life
• Developed your understanding of the current evidence-based approaches for various young people’s mental health interventions
• Explored the criticisms and barriers to implementing these approaches and developed some solution focused ideas as to how to make turn this training into sustainable change

Resilience has become a real buzzword over the last decade and it can be challenging to make sense of all the theories and approaches out there. At OTR we’ve explored a whole host of resilience building models that we believe offer practical, real-world techniques and approaches to support our human capacity to navigate adversity. Drawing on our first hand experience of delivering these we’ve cherry picked the ones found to be most effective in supporting positive change.

What you’ll learn:

Whether you work with young people or simply want to discover strategies for boosting the resilience of yourself or those around you, this one day course is for you.

By the end of the day you will have:

• Investigated a variety of different definitions of resilience and considered why they matter
• Developed your understanding of current evidence-based approaches, including practical principles and techniques effective in building resilience in a user-friendly way
• Engaged with criticisms of resilience building and considered how these might influence your practice
• Explored tangible ways you can promote the resilience of young people and those in your surrounding networks, by using activities from our Resilience Lab and other tried and tested resources

Our relationship with our bodies can massively impact how we interact with the wider world. It can impact our self-esteem, confidence, the jobs we go for, or opportunities we try to get. This is a topic of importance for all ages, our body is constantly changing and responding to our environment, yet the images that everyone strives to look like remain fixed.

What you’ll learn:

This session is aimed at pulling apart the factors that contribute towards negative body image, opening up participant’s thinking about how we can be more critical about the world around us, and begin questioning what an ‘ideal’ body even is. We will cover techniques to help build confidence in body image for ourselves and those around us.

By the end you’ll:

– Understand how body image has impacted us throughout history
– Empower yourself and others to feel more confident in the bodies we are in
– Have the skills to combat negative feelings towards our bodies
– Have ideas how you can fight back against the ideals and help reflect a more diverse image of how bodies should be

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) skills have a strong evidence base and can be useful tools for supporting young people in challenging negative thoughts and/or behaviours. The principles and techniques of CBT can be drawn upon in a variety of contexts including work, relationships, school and home life.

What you’ll learn:

This course will introduce you to the core concepts and skills of CBT, aiming to provide you with the confidence and competence to draw on them to empower and bring about positive change in both the young people as well as yourself and others in your surrounding networks.

By the end of the day you will have:

• A greater understanding of what CBT is and critically appraised it’s benefits within a variety of situations
• Increased ability and insight into the how, why and what regarding common issues that can cause and maintain distress, particularly in young people
• Explored core CBT techniques proven to help challenge negative thought patterns and/or behaviours, thus reducing the distress they might cause
• Learnt key skills enabling you to deliver these technique with others in a way that maximises empowerment and engagement

Gender and sexuality are two of the most powerful organising principles in our society and as such require exploring and understanding in an empowering and informative way.

What you’ll learn:

This session will explore the increasing diversity and fluidity of gender and sexual identities among ourselves and those we work with, and will give participants new insight and confidence in understanding how these fundamental aspects of our identities shape our mental health and wellbeing.

By the end of it you’ll:

• Understand and be able to integrate best practice across multiple settings when supporting LGBTQ+ young people with gender, sexuality and diversity related issues
• Empower individuals with the confidence to implement and lead within their community and/or workplace to champion the rights of LGBTQ+ people
• Recognise and reflect upon your own values in order to develop and learn new skills
• Support and work with others in an interactive way with a strong focus on how to implement the workshop content from individual, systems and organisational perspectives
• Become part of a network of trained organisations, locally and nationally, known for implementing meaningful and proactive provision supporting LGBTQ+ service users and staff and developing organisational, structural and community change

What better way to work towards a more sustainable and enduring mental health approach in your youth setting than to attend one of our Train the Trainer programmes?

For ease of access, we offer an in-house Train the Trainer where we can come to your setting and deliver the programme to larger groups of staff (up to 20).

Alternatively, you can attend one of our open training programmes and benefit from the opportunity to network and learn from other professionals working in similar fields.

A piece of consultancy work and any necessary follow up will be included as standard to ensure any hurdles or challenges you may face in the implementation of this project in your setting are overcome as smoothly and effectively as possible.

Resilience Lab

The Resilience Lab is all about good mental health! The fun, interactive exercises have been designed to help young people learn all about self-care and how to bounce back.

Through attending this 2 day workshop participants will:

• Share and learn from our knowledge and experience to gain a full and comprehensive understanding of the theory and evidence base behind the Resilience Lab
• Learn how to develop your own Resilience Lab (or enhance an existing project) by offering effective content that promotes and sustains good mental health
• Be provided with all the resources and marketing materials necessary to set up, deliver, promote and outcome measure the project in your setting
• Become part of a growing community of like-minded professionals and receive continuing support and ideas via our online group

Shameless

Shameless is OTR’s group for young people feeling impacted by issues around body image and low self-esteem. “Know your worth, find your power”. At Shameless we look at why we’ve grown to feel ashamed of our bodies, where expectations of how we should look come from, and how to fight back against these messages.

Through attending this 2 day workshop participants will:

• Share and learn from our knowledge and experience to gain a full and comprehensive understanding of the theory and evidence base behind Shameless.
• Find practical ways to boost confidence, acceptance and celebrate attendees bodies.
• Learn how to develop your own Shameless (or enhance an existing project) by offering effective content that promotes and sustains good mental health
• Be provided with all the resources and marketing materials necessary to set up, deliver, promote and outcome measure the project in your setting
• Become part of a growing community of like-minded professionals and receive continuing support and ideas via our online group

Mind Aid

Mind Aid helps young people learn how living in difficult situations can cause these feelings, and learn ways that might help them manage better in what is often a stressful world.

Through attending this 2 day workshop participants will:

• Share and learn from our knowledge and experience to gain a full and comprehensive understanding of the theory and evidence base behind Mind Aid.
• Find practical ways to combat low mood, anxiety and depression.
• Learn how to develop your own Mind Aid (or enhance an existing project) by offering effective content that promotes and sustains good mental health
• Be provided with all the resources and marketing materials necessary to set up, deliver, promote and outcome measure the project in your setting
• Become part of a growing community of like-minded professionals and receive continuing support and ideas via our online group

Corporate bodies

We can work with your organisation on creating an environment and culture that supports the mental health needs of your staff, boosting productivity and efficiency, as well as responding to the specific needs you may have.

Professional groups who work with young people

Diffusion can help develop your systems and incorporate up-to-date evidence based practice that will allow you to reach your potential in supporting young people. This may be looking at your approach to equalities, or looking at how to reduce staff burn out and illness based on mental health issues.

Schools/Colleges/Universities

By helping you to take stock of what is already working, identifying what isn’t and taking into account current statutory requirements we can assist you in creating strategies that will help you to support and protect your students and staff.

We offer coaching, clinical supervision, reflective practice. This can either happen on a 1:1 basis, or in groups. The aim of any 1:1 support will be to help you reflect on your practice, review what’s working and what isn’t and enable and empower you to move forward in your career confident that you are taking into account the mental health needs of yourself and the young people you work with.

Our reputation in running groups that help young people to improve their own mental wellbeing is well established. The groups we are able to offer with young people are:

• Mind Aid
• Shameless
• Resilience Lab