Supporting children's mental health, working together for a brighter future

Little Stars Pre-School & Nursery

"Children’s Mental Health Week, such an important topic for us and following o children's mental health n from our training with Jodie and Sunny Kids Shine programme we used the feeling cards this week in a variety of ways. We read the emotion with the child, talked about when we have felt this emotion, talked about how it’s OK to have a feeling and how we might be able to deal with an emotion, if we didn’t like it! The children played snap game and really enjoyed looking at the cards. Such a simple yet powerful resource to introduce young children to emotions and teach them to talk about things. ‘Worried’ was a hard emotion for children to understand but talking about it with a grown up by giving simple examples helped the children understand this and normalise this emotion. Thanks Sunny Kids Shine for all your useful tips and advice too, it’s lovely to be part of such a supportive group. Mandy Young Owner of Little Stars Pre-School & Nursery - February 2020

https://www.facebook.com/amandalee.young/posts/10163307740040495

Michelle from Bedford Open Door

"Sunny Kids Shine did a wonderful interactive mindfulness session with the children at our Festival in the Bell Tent - the children loved it - Jodie really does have a special connection with young people and I would highly recommend her - she made our mental health awareness event very special by bringing in the sunny side"

https://www.facebook.com/michele.flynn.14/posts/10157348132016649

DS Achieve

"Our second Empowerment Group session of the year took place this morning in collaboration with the wonderful Jodie Smart of Sunny Kids Shine. We were treated to expertise from Jodie which enabled us to understand mindfulness and consider techniques that we could use in our own daily routines to give ourselves high quality self care. We also enjoyed the practical activities that showed us how to focus on our senses."

https://www.facebook.com/dsachieve/posts/639738193270658

Strengthening families

Jodie is amazing and her wisdom has been really invaluable with providing strategies that I can use with my 7 year old daughter. We also love love love the Rainbow of Feelings cards which provided us with some brilliant dialogue around the fact that ALL feelings are valid! I’m so excited to see Jodie and Sunny Kids Shine just go from strength to strength! - Bea

https://www.facebook.com/bea.willow.33/posts/505892153688171

Link between home and School

Our sessions with Jody were always really fun. She does have a special way to communicate with young children and was able to make my son smile in the most adverse situation. She has also gone the extra mile in supporting us as a family and at school. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! - Clara

https://www.facebook.com/clara.oliveira.1614/posts/10157100052220662

SUPPORTING CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

"Our six year old is autistic and during the lockdown they had started showing some unusually aggressive behaviour. They were finding it hard to tell us how they were feeling and we were struggling to talk to them in a way that they understood. I had also noticed that I had started shouting so much more because I didn't feel like I knew what I was doing or how to get my kids to listen to me, which I hated. 

As a result of this, the aggressive behaviour has stopped. Being able to name emotions is something that they have never been able to do in their life, so it's making a huge difference. I feel more confident than I did before.  I have also gone back to rarely shouting, which is much more like my natural parenting style, so I don't feel like a terrible mum any more!" 

SUPPORTING CHILDREN WITH ADHD
"Couldn’t recommend Jodie enough. With her help my house has turned into a happy place again. We saw huge improvements from this course and even with my sons ADHD Jodie kept him engaged and interested. She gave us some amazing tips and strategies and we’ve seen such massive improvements. There needed to be some change and work on our part as parents but it was all worth it to see him happy, smiling and confident again. We literally couldn’t be prouder. And we can’t thank Jodie enough!!" ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

When this family first came to me, their daughter was experiencing difficulties with friendships, excessive worrying and negative thought patterns. Her parent's were exhausted as she was unable to be by herself, or go to sleep by herself and woke frequently throughout the night, with nightmares and fears. During our sessions I supported her to:

• Manage her thoughts and feelings surrounding her worries in healthy ways.
• Grow in confidence and self-esteem so that she felt more open and able to cope when faced with new challenges and situations
• Reduce associated feelings of anxiety so that she felt more relaxed and able to sleep.

After our sessions, she was able to go to bed and fall asleep by herself and slept through the night. She felt happy to be alone in a room and go to the toilet without needing company and was more able to manage conflict with friends improving her relationships..

"Jodie has been a phenomenal help to our family. She’s given us  incredible, yet simple and fun tools to help my daughter deal with her anxious thoughts. My daughter has made progress in leaps and bounds over the last 6 weeks and we are very, very grateful! " Liz

Kim

"There has been such a turn around in D's behaviour over the past 6 weeks, both at home and in school. He is more open with this feelings and gets angry far less. Even when he is angry he calms down quicker. Home is a happier place, thank you!" 

Craig

"We are starting to see M being able to control his feelings. It has given us a as a family, the methods we need to support him. We enjoyed all of the sessions and I as a a parent have learnt to start managing my own feelings around M and that spending more one on one time together helps a lot!"

O Family

"Jodie was always very empathetic, listened to our concerns and addressed them in a clear way. Our sessions with Jodie were always really fun. She does have a special way to communicate with children  and was able to make my son smile in the most adverse situation!  Thank you!"

C Family 

"It has increased our awareness about behaviour/feelings making us more understanding. It encouraged us to make changes to our routine and gave us confidence in the way that we dealt with negative behaviour at it home. It bought us even more together as a family."

"My son was struggling with his self esteem and also with managing his anger when things would not go his way. 

He is now a calm boy who has gone from not being able to list 1 thing he liked about himself to being able to list 9 things. He is calm and his response to losing is much more measured and he erupts less.   

For our family this is resulted in a calmer environment and we have enjoyed spending time together. For my son he now understands his triggers and Jodie has helped him with tools to manage his expectations.

Jodie was really flexible with these lessons which was key. We did not stick to a regimented timetable and she worked with my son only when she knew he was receptive. Her tools her easy to understand and overall she really helped me understand what my son was thinking and feeling." 

I could not recommend her enough!" The E family