At The Life Skills Mentoring Academy we focus on a strength-based approach to improve the mental health of young adults, build positive self-esteem, help them to understand emotions, and build a toolkit of coping strategies when things get tough.
Positive self-esteem means we feel good about ourselves and confident in who we are and in our abilities. When we have positive self-esteem, we don’t worry about how much we get wrong, because we accept ourselves just the way we are, without judgment and we’re not too worried about what other people think. It also means we believe we are worthy and deserving of all the good things. Sometimes, we find it hard to believe in ourselves and feel good enough.
It impacts many important things, such as:
- How we treat ourselves, and if we are kind to ourselves and practice self-care
- How able we feel to share our opinions and ideas, and whether we believe what we have to say matters and is worth other people hearing
- Our confidence– if we are struggling with our self-esteem, we may not feel confident doing things, even if we have done them before and know we can do them
- How much we recognise and value the skills we have
- How comfortable we are with getting things ‘wrong’ and our ability to brush things off and realise that our mistakes and ‘failures’ do not define us.
- How we think and feel about ourselves physically.
There are so many challenges young people face and sometimes extra support is needed. I have worked with children my whole career (13 years) starting with 0-5s, learning about child development to most recently for the last 4 years working with young people who have experienced sexual abuse, completing a number of qualifications including a master’s degree.
Laura Darby The Life Skills Mentoring Academy
FAQs:
- What age group do you work with?
10-18yrs (can be flexible, assessment dependant)
- What makes you qualified to do this?
Please get in touch to view my CV for full details or visit the website thelifeskillsmentoringacademy.com
- Do you have a DBS check?
I have a full enhanced DBS check which can be viewed. I have previously worked for a number of organisations who have conducted the most stringent checks too.
- What can my child access?
I offer 1-1 support sessions and soon will be advertising group sessions between 4 to 12 weeks long.
- What do you charge?
My sessions are priced at £45 an hour. Group session prices differ and can be seen on my website.
- How do you keep your knowledge up to date and who are you ‘accountable’ to?
I am a member of the Association of Coaching, the Association of NLP, a senior member of Accredited Counsellors, Coaches, Psychotherapists and Hypnotherapists, and affiliate subscriber of the British Psychological Society. This means I keep up to date with training, webinars and general good practice advice. I also am bound by their codes of practice and ethical guidance.
