Purpose:

We exist to create a world where young people thrive, unrestricted by the challenges of mental and emotional wellbeing.

Private Counselling

The Parachute Project offers support via private counselling and within schools.

The support is offered in a child counselling format and is aimed at 6-18-year old’s who are struggling with issues such as anxiety, low mood, family and peer relationships, ASD and ADHD identity, and trauma. This will ensure that children are equipped with the tools to manage their own emotional wellbeing.

Mission:

We do this by harnessing young people’s emotional wellbeing, delivering the support and skills to overcome barriers, and achieve happiness and success.

Meet Abi

Qualified Social Worker

Abi founded The Parachute Project after spending nearly 25 years working professionally with children and families facing adversity, having heard parents/carers and professionals’ frustrations about the need for accessible early intervention for children with mental health and behavioural related issues, Abi’s mission is to deliver this service by providing psychoeducation at an early stage – improving emotional resilience in young people. Abi has used all her experience to put together unique programs of support that have been proven to bring about positive changes in young people’s self-esteem, resilience, and emotional wellbeing.

I qualified as a social worker in the year 2000 after initially leaving school and qualifying as a nursery nurse and spending some time working for the Local Authority with children with disabilities.

I love working with children of all ages and my key skills have always revolved around building meaningful relationships with young people and their families and effecting positive change in their lives. As a Social Worker I have specialized in 3 main areas: Safeguarding Children, Children with Disabilities and Children’s Mental Health. I have worked in London, Hertfordshire and Norfolk. I have been employed by Children’s Services in both social care and the education sectors as well as for the NHS within the CAMHS (Child Adolescent Mental Health Service). I have extensive further training and experience in the following areas: -Family assessment, risk assessment, self-harm, bullying, loss and bereavement, childhood trauma, ASD and ADHD, parenting, attachment and neurodevelopment, parent led CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy), DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy), restorative practice, child protection, childhood anxiety and creative and play therapies. I have combined all these skills to offer children support via private counselling and within schools

I believe that statutory services are potentially damaging young people by scaling their level of need and turning children away for not being” bad enough”, this is due to the services being underfunded. It Is also my opinion that if expert mental health education and support was more accessible in schools’ young people would become more resilient and have more positive outcomes. I believe that delivering my unique programs of support privately and in schools will help to reduce the numbers of young people whose names are on NHS waiting lists and ensure the right young people get the right level of support at the right time.

Abi also carries out independent social work assessments for both the local authority and in private law proceedings. Abi has had extensive experience working in the family court and is able to carry out both wishes and feelings work with children, parenting assessments and offer tailored support to families in these circumstances.

Meet Lucy

Mental Health Practitioner

Lucy worked as a family practitioner at Family Action for four years before joining The Parachute Project. This was following completing a Psychology degree with the Open University, covering modules such as childhood psychology, sports psychology, mental health, counselling and forensic psychology

Lucy has had voluntary placements with the one to one project and worked in areas of health psychology research at the University of East Anglia.

I take a holistic approach working with children and their families, I have additional training in motivational interviewing, solution focused therapy, family network training, dealing with parental conflict, attachment and brain development, understanding stress and anxiety in autism and understanding and supporting ADHD.

I am also a qualified British Horse Society accredited horse riding coach, and have taught many children to ride and coached them through times when they have felt nervous or unsure, building their confidence to be successful in their riding. This aspect transfers to my mental health interventions with children, encouraging and supporting them to see their full potential even when there are setbacks or challenges in their lives.
I trained to lead on Early Help Assessment and Plan (EHAP) meetings and have worked with many other agencies. Also working as a facilitator on the Solihull approach to parenting and have led groups with parents in the community and young people in schools.

Meet Freddie

Mental Health Practitioner

Freddie Towers is our developmental mental health practitioner. Freddie is passionate about the Parachute Projects ethos to support children’s mental health by supporting and empowering children. Freddie worked previously as a qualified SEN teaching assistant. She completed her CBT Essentials level 2 training in 2022 and is about to start her qualification to become an EFT Tapping practitioner. Freddie has a particular interest in supporting young people from the LGBTQ+ community. Freddie delivers school sessions and targeted one to one support to young people supervised by Abi. Freddie will continue her studying whilst working with us here at The Parachute Project.

Vision:

Our ultimate ambition is to empower young people to be resilient and shape a future without limitations.

We’re making a difference

The Parachute Project has been a life saver for us and even though Abi is working with our son she is also able to give us support as parents and give us a positive and friendly face in a stressful situation.

- Dominique Grant

Abi has been absolutely fantastic with our son. She was really able to make him feel at ease and gave him and us the reassurance for him to open up and talk about his emotions more.

- Amy Janes

Few months ago son wouldn’t have dreamed of walking into school by himself and his anxiety got in the way !

- Sarah Gibbs

I think you guys did an amazing job you make me feel like I can face my fears and I really enjoyed these last few days. I hope you keep doing what you are doing to help other kids.

- Young person, aged 11

It was really good I enjoyed it, it was fun and I learnt things at the same time. I feel more confident on moving up to high school and I know what to do when I’m worried about something.

- Young person

The children were fully engaged in the sessions and learned so much.

- Year 2 class teacher

As a school, we feel that the support that The Parachute Project have provided for our pupils has been invaluable and we are looking forward to being able to continue to work with them in the future.

- Sophie Stephens

Abi and Freddie were very keen to provide exactly what we felt each group needed and worked closely with us to form this package of support which ran over five weeks and ended in week six with an information and Q and A session for parents.

- Kirsten Stibbon

Abi has helped me so much - I understand why I felt like I did and can manage it better.

- LH age 10

She is now able to manage her emotions and is much less likely to worry about things she can’t control.

- Teacher of child age 7

We trust Abi completely to guide us all through what has been a significant mental health crisis when no one else could.

- Parent of child age 15

From the very first time our daughter met Abi she formed an instant bond of trust, very very rare for her.  The sessions are something she looks forward to at a time when life is hard.

- Parent of child age 16

Abi, my son is so positive about his sessions with you.

- Parent of child age 17

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