Information for children and young people

We can help with in-person or online sessions.

We work with schools to improve mental health and wellbeing of staff and pupils.

We can help with things like:

  • anxiety
  • low mood
  • low self-esteem
  • poor eating patterns
  • poor sleep
  • worry
  • depression
  • social anxiety and more...

We can meet with you for up to 10 sessions in school or online to support you with your mental health. Depending on your age we sometimes involve parents and carers too, but we’ll talk to you about this first.

We offer one-to-one support using a type of talking therapy called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

CBT is ‘evidence based’, which means that there has been a lot of research into this method.

CBT focuses on a thoughts, feelings and behaviours cycles, which means how you think (your thoughts or assumptions) are linked with how you feel (your emotions) which is then linked with what you do (your actions or behaviours).

CBT works to change the patterns of thoughts and feelings that keep you stuck.

With help to identify these unhelpful cycles of thinking and behaving, you will be able to build a more helpful belief and improve your problem-solving skills which will reduce your emotional difficulties.

We work with you to set goals and make sure you’re in control.

Sessions

If you decide you’d like some one-to-one support from Thought-Full, the steps you’ll take are:

    1. talk to the Senior Mental Health Lead (SMHL) or an adult you trust in your school. Describe the problem and what you would like to be different
    2. they will collect this information send it to us with some other details. If you are under 16 they will gain consent from your parents too
    3. we will look at the form and decide if we can help you. If we can’t help you, we’ll help your school to find out who can
    4. if we can help, we’ll meet up and talk things through. We’ll use some questionnaires with rating scales. These are just a way for us to decide how we can best help
    5. once we understand the problem, we will set some goals together and begin working on the problem. There will be things for you to try at home and we will meet each week to see how things are going
    6. we’ll meet with you for up to 10 sessions then bring things to a close. We’ll review your goals together and help you make a plan for when the sessions come to an end

More about one-to-one sessions with Thought-Full

  • Our sessions and the way we work is based on the idea of collaborative working, meaning that we will work with you, supporting you in making decisions together.

    Usually, we meet with you for up to 10 sessions. In our first session we will explore what the main issues of concern are for you, so that together we can decide if CBT informed interventions are the right support for you.

    We will then focus on what it is that is impacting on your life, and work together to unpick how you would like this to change. Whatever we work on, we will set a specific goal for our time together, so we can keep track of how helpful our sessions are.

    Depending on what we are working on, we may sit and talk about it and then actually practice things in everyday life so that we can begin to experience and think about things differently.

    We will work together throughout this, reviewing and celebrating progress as it is made, identifying any setbacks helping to manage these, and then plan for how our sessions will come to an end.

    We will support you to manage your issue of concern, but you will need to work on this outside of our sessions for our interventions to be effective. 

    This is a key part of CBT and will help you to put into practice in your everyday life things you have learnt during the sessions.  We may set home learning tasks like reading, logging your progress at home, keeping a journal or we may ask you to complete activity sheets. 

    Not doing home learning tasks is one of the main reasons for CBT does not work, therefore it is important that you are willing to do this. 

    All we need from you is to be fully on board and motivated to talk and to work on this.

    In between session contact with your practitioner

    Contact outside of session times is limited. Your practitioner may contact you during working hours (9am to 5pm) using an agreed email address. They will contact you:

    • to send you resources used in the session
    • to send appointment confirmations
    • for you to send copies of your work (if applicable)

  • We will try to see you during the school day. Our sessions will usually last for the duration of a lesson, which is usually up to an hour. 

    We will try to see you in person, face to face, however when this is not possible, we will arrange to meet online.

    We will be able to see and hear each other. No one else other than you, your allocated practitioner from Thought-Full and your parent or carer (if agreed) will be able to join in or hear the session so it will remain private.

  • We will email you a link so that you can join the online sessions.

    Our privacy notice gives more information.

    We have put together some guidelines to help make our online sessions go as easily as possible. Read through the list below and feel free to ask any questions that you may have.

    Session guidelines

    We will call you at a previously agreed time. 

    Sessions generally take place weekly and last for up to 60 minutes.

    It may be helpful to log on 5 to 10 minutes before the session to make sure the link works and that you are comfortable and ready.

    Try and find a quiet and private space for the meeting, ideally not your bedroom. Consider noise and if others can see or hear you, as well as personal or confidential information that may be in your background.

    Be respectful of your practitioner and the session. It is not acceptable to video, screenshot, or screen record sessions and share them with others on any social media platform or in any other format.

    It is important for you to attend sessions at agreed times so we can provide regular support.

    Avoid forms of distractions during sessions (for example eating, mobile phone, computers, TVs).

    Wear appropriate clothing to sessions (not pyjamas, dressing gowns, revealing clothing).

  • If you miss an appointment, we will try to contact you up to 3 times and if you do not answer, we will assume you are not able to attend the appointment.

    If you need to cancel an appointment, please give us at least 24 hours’ notice. To do so, contact your practitioner or email thought-full@westsussex.gov.uk. If we need to cancel your appointment for any reason we will contact you, giving as much notice as possible.

    Following 2 cancellations you will be offered a review to decide whether this is the best time to have sessions.  Things may have got better for you, or it might just not be working. Either way we need to know so that we give the time to someone else who's waiting.

    If you miss more than 2 appointments without giving notice, we will assume that you no longer need the support and end the intervention. We need to do this so that we give the time to someone else who's waiting.

Further information

  • What is confidentiality?

    Confidentiality is about protecting your personal information and making sure that only the people who need to see it, see that personal information.

    How does confidentiality apply to Thought-Full sessions?

    What you talk about in sessions is private and confidential. Your Thought-Full worker will get your consent to share information discussed in sessions, unless they are concerned about your safety.

    If your Thought-Full worker has concerns of you harming yourself, others, or has concerns you are at risk from others, they will need to share this information. Most often, this information is shared with your parent or carer or another adult in school, to support you to stay safe.

    Your Thought-Full worker will always try and let you know when this is the case. They will let you know who the information is best shared with and how it is shared.

    Will my parents or school staff get updates and information about what I am doing in sessions?

    We know from research that involving a parent or carer in the work you do with your Thought-Full worker, can often lead to better outcomes. We also know that young people feel differently about how much (if any) parents or carers find out about their work. Your Thought-Full worker will discuss this with you.

    School staff might already be aware of some of what the sessions are aiming for and what’s been talked about. However, this is because adult staff in the school want to support you to feel and stay safe. Adults will only share information on a need-to-know basis.

    Following your sessions, there might be a short update phone call with your parent or carer, summarising your work together. If there is a need to update your GP, who oversees healthcare, we would usually also send a copy to your parent or carer.

    Are notes or records kept about my sessions?

    You might see your Thought-Full worker writing or taking notes in your session; this is to help them remember the important learning from your sessions. They are then added to an information system, so your worker can keep track of your progress which can be viewed by professionals and services who are working with you.

    If you have any questions about how your personal information is managed, discuss these with your Thought-Full worker.

  • We are an all-year-round service, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, which means we will be able to continue our sessions regardless of school holiday’s.

  • Our interventions are designed to be short term, so we expect that we will work with you for up to 10 sessions. 

    Each session is up to an hour long and we will aim for these to be held over school hours.

  • We are mental health practitioners rather than counsellors. Although we may provide support in some of the same areas as counsellors, our approach is different in that we offer a different type of assessment and intervention and our qualifications are different. 

    There are lots of different people who support people’s mental health including psychiatrists, CAMHS practitioners, GP’s and nurses,  mental health charity workers, specific mental health organisations and support groups, youth workers.

    Each one of these follows a slightly different approach to their sessions in the types of questions they ask, what happens in their sessions and how long they may offer sessions for. 

  • All practitioners will use a range of tools, which include questionnaires and worksheets to complete within our sessions and also in between sessions at home, to help us plan together what interventions we will use and then evaluate if the strategy being used is working or not. 

    They are really useful in supporting our discussions, planning our goals and then looking at if this is working. Some of our team will be training so may ask you for your feedback for their university so they can complete their course and qualify. We really appreciate your input into this.

    Anything that is asked of you to complete, like questionnaires and worksheets is hugely valuable to the session and your progress.

    Your feedback regarding your experience of the Thought-Full service is also used to make improvements to the service. It can also be used anonymously to look at how our service is doing both locally and nationally.