Learning to cope with the negative emotions is the main reason that young people manage to stop harming themselves. Heads Above The Waves’ workshops introduce creative coping techniques as an alternative to self-harm. Aimed at students aged 11-18, our workshops introduce the concept of positive alternatives to self-harm, encourage honest and open conversation, and plant the seeds for self-help.
We offer two types of workshop format
Digital Workshops
We offer digital versions of our school workshops that anyone can access and work through in their own time. Through a series of videos and worksheets, we share the same ideas that we do in our in person workshops, available anytime, anywhere.
In-Person Workshops
Workshops are run on site in the school, and can take place during lunchtimes, after school, or (for best attendance) during PSHE sessions. Each session lasts for an hour and a half.
Already purchased a workshop?
If you have previously ordered one of our digital workshops, you can login below to access your workshops and watch any time.
Outcomes
We’ve collated the results from our first 3 years of running workshops into a document that you can download below:
To book a set of workshops or for more information, please complete the form below:
Workshop FAQs
We generally run the workshops for secondary school students aged anywhere between 11-18. We do get asked a lot if we can do the workshops in colleges and the answer is yes! We have lots of experience of working with groups in colleges, in after school programmes, in special groups, and youth clubs.
Each week we try out a coping technique based on something that has helped us with our mental health or someone else’s. We cover things like art, music, writing and meditation and relaxing techniques. We have a weekly discussion with the group on a different topic relating to mental health (for example their support networks, identifying theory triggers, their coping techniques etc). We also fill out self-care spectrums, do weekly check ins, get the students to identify positives in their life, talk around different topics that they bring up, and hand out literature for them to take home and read at their leisure.
HATW is based in Cardiff but we can travel. We do workshops across South Wales and even into South West England. Essentially we head anywhere we can get to and from in a day by car!
We’re happy to run the session for any groups of young folks that would like them. We’re not confined to a school setting but it is always helpful to run them in conjunction with support staff that can be there for the young people to talk to after the sessions are completed.
Currently we don’t have the capacity as an organisation to support primary school aged children. However we recognise the growing concerns with this age group and are hoping to develop something in the near future. There’s lots of helpful info on our website (hatw.co.uk) that may be useful such as links to helplines, lists of coping techniques to try, and advice for parents supporting children who are self-harming.
Yes we do. You can find a full breakdown of our prices and what we offer here: (can we link to the workshop document?)
The ideal running time for us is one x two hour session a week for 5 weeks. We are able to run the sessions for 1.5 hours per week also but we’ve found 2 hours gives us a good amount of time to do our activities and discussions.
Drop us an email and we’ll check our diaries! We’ll do our best to accommodate your workshop needs!
Currently we usually set up the workshops through your child’s school or organisation that they are a part of. You can always contact your childs head of year or wellbeing support in school and ask if having us in for a set of workshops is an option. Alternatively you can contact us and we can get in touch with your child’s school to make them aware of our services. If this isn’t feasible we have online video workshops that you can purchase for your child to watch in their own time at home that you may find helpful. If you’d like more info on those email us or find out more here.
We’re glad you asked! We recently had some funding from the wonderful folks at National Lottery to develop some online versions of our school workshops due to the Covid Pandemic. We’re very excited to say that they are now online and ready for purchase for groups in schools or for young people at home to complete. You can even buy them for yourself to watch and do in your leisure if you’re having a tough time.
In them we talk you through our self-care spectrums, do weekly check-ins, and talk you through and demonstrate the coping techniques we do in schools. We also then informally chat through some discussion points, giving you some food for thought, talking about what works for us and guiding you through the different topics we cover in the in-person sessions.
Essentially the online workshops are a way for you to check in with yourself, try out some ways to manage your mental health and start thinking about your mental health more mindfully. It’s also chock full of positivity, our silly personalities and some funny bits for good measure!
We do indeed! Please drop us an email to workshops@hatw.co.uk where we can chat more about what you’re looking for and to talk through our availability.
Absolutely! Drop us an email at workshops@hatw.co.uk and one of our team will get back to you with anything you need to know!
