Conference 3

Mind Body SoulFinding your Safe Place

Online conference on young people's mental health.

This year’s theme is Mind Body Soul: Finding your Safe Place. The free conference, which will be hosted on the online platform, Hopin, will explore different ways of maintaining positive wellbeing and mental health, through creativity, staying active and discussion.

David Weaver, President of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), will deliver the keynote speech ahead of a day of online workshops and TED-style talks that can be accessed throughout the day.

Making a return visit is the writer/performer Adisa the Verbaliser who will be exploring how poetry can support positive wellbeing plus spoken-word performer Emily Harrison.

There will be sessions led by representatives from Hackney CAHMS, Young Hackney, the Amy Winehouse Foundation and Targeted Health. Clinical Psychologists Dr Helen Sharples and Dr Rachel Lee Jones return with their hugely popular workshop on how to talk to teenagers. There will also be free yoga with local yoga teacher Georgia Myers.

Past conference 21 Nov 2020

Videos from Mind Body Soul

Mike Collins

Safaplace Chair

David Weaver

President of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy

Rhiannon England

Clinical lead for mental health at City and Hackney CCG

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Transition campaign update

Rose White and Sarah Fink

Safaplace

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Closing and thanks

Programme

10:00
Mike Collins

Safaplace Chair

10:10
Keynote
David Weaver

President of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy

More info

10:45
Workshop: Session 1

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Yoga

Georgia Myers

More info

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Ways to enable communication and to connect with teenagers

Dr. Helen Sharples and Rachel Lee Jones

More info

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Understanding how CAMHS works in the City & Hackney

Sophie McElroy

Programme Manager, City & Hackney CAMHS Alliance

More info

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Using poetry to support wellbeing

Adisa the Verbaliser

More info

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Dealing with Addiction

Will Pugh

Amy Winehouse Foundation

More info

Group 3 Created with Sketch. An Introduction to Young Hackney

Sarah Fox

Targeted Support Team, Young Hackney

More info

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Neurodiversity and mental health: the struggle from school to the workplace

Siobhan Moore

The Discovery Ship

More info

11:30
Interval

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Networking

11:45
Workshop: Session 2

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Ways to enable communication and to connect with teenagers

Dr. Helen Sharples and Rachel Lee Jones

More info

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Understanding how CAMHS works

Sophie McElroy

Programme Manager, City & Hackney CAMHS Alliance

More info

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Using poetry to support wellbeing

Adisa the Verbaliser

More info

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Dealing with Addiction

Will Pugh

Amy Winehouse Foundation

More info

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Hackney's Targeted Health Outreach Team

Sumeet Rawal

Targeted Health Outreach Team

More info

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Neurodiversity and mental health: the struggle from school to the workplace

Siobhan Moore

The Discovery Ship

More info

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Yoga

Georgia Myers

More info

12:30
Talk

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Rhiannon England

Clinical lead for mental health at City and Hackney CCG

More info

12:50
Concluding remarks

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Closing and thanks

Rose White and Sarah Fink

Safaplace

13:00
Interval

Group 3 Created with Sketch. TED Talks

More info

David Weaver

President of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy

David Weaver is President of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. He has played a key role in BACP’s drive to embed social justice as a core principle / aspect of its work and strongly advocates the relevance of the counselling professions for ‘ordinary diverse people and communities’.

A former social worker, university lecturer, local authority senior manager and political advisor, David leads a leadership change organisation that works with individuals, organisations and communities to help them achieve their full potential. He works within public, private and not-for-profit bodies in the UK and has also worked in the USA, Europe, West African and the Caribbean.

David is a former political advisor to Home Office ministers including the Deputy Home Secretary and Home Secretary in the late 1990s. He is a fellow of the British American Project – a body comprising business, media, community and political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic and sits on the Board of a number of community-based organisations working in the area of human rights, community development and counselling in communities.

Recording of session

Georgia Myers

Georgia Myers teaches Vinyasa Flow yoga to suit all bodies. She trained at a local studio, Yoga on the Lane and has been practicing yoga for over 25 years. She believes in the power of yoga to balance mind, body and soul. She lives in Stoke Newington and has three children.

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Yoga

Dr. Helen Sharples and Rachel Lee Jones

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Ways to enable communication and to connect with teenagers

A workshop facilitated by Dr Helen Sharples and Rachel Lee Jones, Clinical Psychologists with experience of working in CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) and schools.

This will include a presentation and opportunities to discuss how to facilitate good communication, and to share experiences of communicating with troubled teenagers.

Sophie McElroy

Programme Manager, City & Hackney CAMHS Alliance

Sophie McElroy has been a secondary teacher and SENCO in mainstream schools. In the last five years she has worked for Hackney Learning Trust in Safeguarding and Wellbeing.

She is now the Programme Manager for City & Hackney CAMHS Alliance, co-ordinating a wide range of development projects including WAMHS (Wellbeing and Mental Health in Schools) which joins up schools with mental health services. The main aims of WAMHS are to increase access to services, upskill school staff and create a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing for all.

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Understanding how CAMHS works in the City & Hackney

This workshop will explain what local services are available, how they work and how CAMHS is working with schools.

Adisa the Verbaliser

Adisa the Verbaliser exploded onto the spoken word scene in the summer of 1993. He has delivered his work in many arenas from pub basements to Buckingham palace, from primary schools to day centres for senior citizens.

Adisa is on a mission to take poetry to the people wherever he finds them; he has taken his word from continent to continent. Adisa delivers his work in a format known as Edutainment, he believes a good performance should be able to entertain the audience, but at the same time challenge the audience to look again and question what it is they hold to be true.

Adisa frequently visits schools throughout Europe, to deliver performances which have been described as a giant pizza with toppings of African wisdom, observational comedy, life skills, and concert like call and response routines.

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Using poetry to support wellbeing

Will Pugh

Amy Winehouse Foundation

Will Pugh grew up in Hackney and had to deal with some traumatic life experiences in early childhood. These experiences influenced Will’s upbringing and his future relationships which in turn helped contribute to his underlying issues with addiction.

Will started using drugs at an early age through to adulthood before finding recovery and is now 8 years abstinent from alcohol and drugs. Now a qualified counsellor, Will coordinates a schools-based programme for The Amy Winehouse Foundation supporting young people.

The workshop will be a ‘life share’ from someone with direct lived experience of addiction, its impact on mental and emotional wellbeing and the underlying issues that can contribute to substance misuse. This will be followed by a q&a. We will also discuss ‘common pressures that young people go through’ as told to us by young people themselves. We will then also look at coping strategies and ways to support young people.

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Dealing with Addiction

A life share from someone with direct lived experience of addiction and the underlying issues.

Sarah Fox

Targeted Support Team, Young Hackney

Sarah Fox is a Team Leader within the Targeted Support teams in Young Hackney. Young Hackney North 2 is the link team to Stoke Newington School. They also often work from The Edge youth hub in Woodberry Down.

Group 3 Created with Sketch. An Introduction to Young Hackney

Young Hackney is Hackney Council’s integrated early help and prevention service, who provide support to children and young people aged 6-19 years old and up to 25 years old if the young person has a special education need and/or a disability. Young Hackney are able to offer targeted interventions tailored to a young person’s individual support needs. Young Hackney practitioners work flexibly and creatively, specialising in a youth work approach which ensures that young people’s voices are held centrally in their work.

Siobhan Moore

The Discovery Ship

Siobhan Moore-Lynch runs workshops focused on understanding, supporting and empowering neurodiverse children and adults. She is an experienced primary school teacher specialising in supporting children with special educational needs. In 2018 she was a speaker at the Learning Through Language (LTL) International Conference. She attended Stoke Newington School.

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Neurodiversity and mental health: the struggle from school to the workplace

It’s estimated that neurodivergent individuals are four times more likely to suffer from mental health problems than their neurotypical peers. This workshop will introduce the concept of neurodiversity, including autism, ADHD, dyspraxia and dyslexia. We will look at the link between dyslexia and anxiety, depression and low self-esteem, and how we can make changes with the right support.

Sumeet Rawal

Targeted Health Outreach Team

Sumeet Rawal has worked in various roles within the NHS and charity sector supporting people with additional needs, and has been working with the Targeted Health Outreach Team since February. He believes in taking a person-centred approach with the aim of being as flexible as possible in order to facilitate improvements in the wellbeing of the young people he works with.

Group 3 Created with Sketch. Hackney's Targeted Health Outreach Team

Sumeet will be talking about how the organisation works with young people who have additional needs.

The Targeted Health Outreach Team specifically work with 14-19 year olds who have no input from social work services and have special educational needs (SEN) or a disability and would like some support around developing their independence and improving their health and wellbeing.

Rhiannon England

Clinical lead for mental health at City and Hackney CCG

Dr Rhiannon England has been a GP for 30 years, working in Hackney in East London and has also worked as a prison GP in Holloway prison. During her work as a GP she became very interested in mental health and also in refugee medicine.

She has been the clinical lead for mental health at City and Hackney CCG for the last 7 years working on a broad range of service redesign, notably primary care mental health, psychiatric liaison, frequent attenders at A&E and crisis care for adults and children.

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Recording of session

Group 3 Created with Sketch. TED Talks

Watch pre-recorded content

Conference sessions