We were so excited to run fall and winter rounds of both of our children’s groups again over the past school year. If you don’t already know about them, we run two children’s groups twice each year – Mighty Minds Kids Anxiety Group and Wise Minds Kids Emotion Regulation Group. Both of these groups are based primarily on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) however each group has a slightly different focus. Mighty Minds helps kids to work on facing their fears, while Wise Minds Kids works on skills such as problem solving and effective communication. Both groups help kids learn about their emotions, coping strategies, and helpful self-talk. If you want to know more about the details of these groups check it out here: https://dragonflycfwc.ca/group-programs/
Our group programs are all offered at no cost to participants to anyone who thinks their child might benefit from the program. We couldn’t have done this without our sponsors – Community Initiatives Fund, Affinity Credit Union, and Unifor. We were thrilled to have forty-four children participate over the course of the school year. Parents also attended along with their children so that they can better support their children in using their new skills at home.
Parents provided feedback after the groups, and there were some common themes noted. Parents said the group setting was helpful for their children because it normalized their feelings and made the children more comfortable in attending. Skills learned were practical and can be applied outside of the group sessions. Parents commented on how helpful it was to learn the skills together with the child and that learning the skills even helped their own wellbeing.
“The program helped my daughter to identify different emotions and use specific techniques like breathing and STOP steps to be able to respond well. I have observed she’s using it effectively. Kids need constant reminders and it’s really valuable that parents are with them while they learn and go thru the program. I really love the program and hopefully many families with kids can attend and experience the learnings that we have attained. Looking forward to enrol my other child and onto the next age group program. Please continue offering this type of courses. Thank you so much!”
“The facilitators of this group were absolutely wonderful. Great at making my child feel very welcome and included and he enjoyed coming. They shared the information in a great way for his mind to grasp. We will continue to use many of these skills going forward.”Â
We are already looking forward to running these groups again in the new school year. And on that note…parents have already started calling and adding their children’s names to the waitlist, so if you would like to register please give us a call and let us know!
