Support for Parents and Carers
HeartSmart uses play and creativity to connect with and support children. Play is ESSENTIAL for our children's healthy development! Play helps us all to connect, to heal, to socialise, to learn. HeartSmart's mission is to support adults in finding their inner playfulness as a way to help the children in their care.
Jane says...
'As a young Mum with 3 boys under 4 years, I muddled through the days, staggering out of bed at all hours of the night, straining to keep my head straight with everything that needed doing between work, kids and home: it felt like an endless juggle and a bit of a crazy maze that I was picking my way through! Now those little boys - plus one extra daughter who came later! - are grown and pretty independent, I lovingly reminisce about the times I call 'the wilderness years'. But actually there were times when it was SO hard, and confusing, and I felt burdened by the responsibility of trying to know how to be the parent each child seemed to need me to be. Coming across a newly published book by chance "How to Talk so your Kids will Listen and Listen so your Kids will Talk" by A Faber and E Mazlish (2000) turned on a light for me, especially when the approaches they described actually made a difference! Life felt a little calmer, the children seemed happier, and I felt quite simply, more capable! Soon after, the counselling route opened up and off I went...
Now, I experience a real glow from working with parents to help them in the way I would have wished for myself back then. Parenting is a real challenge - very little preparation, lots of conflicting advice, constantly changing! And what seems to have been OK for one child, can then be no help at all with another - they are so different in their needs!
My aim is to translate the theories and neuroscience underlying therapy approaches to shape practical, playful ways to help you nurture settled and contented children, within a calmer home and to feel on top of your game as a parent. At HeartSmart we work with other professionals to create programmes addressing specific concerns you might have - such as sleep issues, addressing rude and poor behaviours, coping with worries - perhaps particularly relevant this year as we try to adapt to living with Coronavirus'.
"Jane has helped me to drastically improve my relationship with my child. She has given me the space and understanding to really explore the challenges that my child faces and how this impacts on family life. She is very highly skilled and so easy to talk to." J (mum) 2020
“Jane has been like the fourth emergency service for us. Quickly understanding why our child wasn’t happy, identifying the problem and then working with her to rebuild confidence and give her the toolkit to handle problems. Thanks to Jane we have our girl back and she is more resilient, happier and more positive than ever before.” A.(Dad) 2020
Coaching parents in particular ways of playing with their children can be very effective in improving children's difficulties and supports parents in developing how they raise and relate to their children. This approach draws on theories underpinning Play Therapy and therapeutic parenting principles including PACE (Dan Hughes) and Parent Child Attachment Play (Debi Maskell-Graham).
Our aim is to empower parents to be the 'agents of change' in their homes through recognising and drawing on strengths as well as developing new skills in parenting.
This can be done one-to-one in person, or online, as well as through small group workshops series.