From Staying at Home to Staying in School

The challenge

The young person was anxious about attending school and as a result had not been attending. Between the family and the school they had, in their words, exhausted their options. They were waiting on a formal diagnosis and referrals.

The effect

When she did make it to school, she would either not get out of the car or her parent was having to collect her almost instantly. The emotional overwhelm of school resulted in her not only beginning to miss out on education, but the social aspect of seeing friends too. It began to impact home life with arguments between the family members, and her running and hiding when the doorbell rang.

When we initially met, the young person hid under a blanket, unable to converse with me. For many weeks, much of what we did was based on non-verbal/minimal words in order to explore and elicit answers.

Solution

We worked together for 12 one-hour sessions. During that time a series of techniques were provided, utilising NLP and coaching techniques, alongside wellbeing and creative activites, in order to provide a fun, accessible support programme. Together we explored everything from the classroom to the journey from home to get there. Despite some setbacks, they were able to identify some key triggers which we worked through, providing anchor points to allow greater control of the day. We linked success and confidence in other areas of their life to school and utilised what they did in their hobbies to help inform the approach to school anxiety. The family were included at every step in order that their daughter could be supported when I was not around. There were some setbacks, but we worked through these and rebuilt each time.

By the end of our time together, she was in school four lessons each day, and had managed a couple of five lesson days.

Result

The client's parent fed back with this...

The family were struggling with challenging and sad to observe behaviour. Our daughter was refusing to go to school and having panic attacks. Working with Roy has provided positive support for the family and we now have strategies that we have been using together.

Coaching helped our daughter overcome the fear of having someone to help, and helped her in building positive relationships. We have seen a reduction in panic attacks, less frequent mention of headaches and other ailments, and she’s now attending four lessons a day at school. Getting up for it is less of a battle.

The highlight is hearing our daughter laugh again.