Starting back at school – what challenges are affecting your family?

The start of a new term is approaching, our holidays will soon be over and the shops are full of ‘back to school’ items.

Many of you will have a family member awaiting the new term with excitement or, perhaps, trepidation, or a mixture of both. A new class, a new teacher, maybe even a new school all bringing uncertainty. Many familiar faces and routines will have to be let go to move on to the new. Change can be difficult and will always involve some loss. 

I well remember my first day at secondary school, even though it was more than 50 years ago. My Mother waved me off and attempted to allay my fears by saying ‘You always wanted an adventure, well consider this an adventure!’. I was a great fan of Famous Five stories, but facing the change from a tiny village school, where I knew and was known, to a massive school with children from widely differing backgrounds did not feel like fun! 

A few years on and I was off to London to continue my studies. I spent the Summer saying ‘goodbye’ to all my rural favourite safe places but nothing prepared me for the massive changes of managing my own day to day life in a vast city, as well as a completely different way of studying. I wish I had learned how to use those unpleasant emotions- fear, anxiety, powerlessness and self-doubt -for their in-built useful purposes, all those years ago!

 Now, working with the Emotional Logic Centre in Ivybridge, I am very aware of the challenges many of you are facing at the start of the coming term and I would like to say, ‘We can help with this adjustment process’. Emotional Logic is a conversational skill that can benefit whole families. We have found that one family member learning about how to USE their anger constructively, for example, untangles complex communication within the whole family. Everyone benefits!

I am also aware, when the exam results come out, there will be some young people and their families facing very difficult decisions because their results were not as good as they hoped for. What a disappointment! All the loss and grief emotions will be evident. However, Emotional Logic tells us this may feel bad, but all these emotions have a useful purpose in keeping the adjustment process moving. We can help you identify how you can move forward with positive energy into the future.

We offer Personal Learning Appointments for individuals or groups, or online learning with videos that you can watch with others. Why not contact us today?

Written by Dr Marian J Langsford.