The student programs offered are for anxiety, grief and loss, and an emotional awareness program that supports friendship building:

● The Anxiety program is an eight-lesson course based on the book, ‘What to do when you worry too much’ written by Dawn Huebner Ph.D, a clinical psychologist who became interested in anxiety when her own son developed a fear of getting splinters. The program will help your child recognise the effects of worry on their body and the impact on their lifestyle and give them simple practical steps to manage their anxiety and take control. All of the techniques are developed from cognitive-behavioural principles used extensively by therapists to reduce anxiety and are based on the three principles known as containment, externalisation and competing demands.

● The Grief and Loss program consists of eight lessons, using the Seasons for Growth material. It is a peer-based program with four to seven participants who support children to understand and respond to the issues they experience as a result of death, separation, divorce or other significant changes or loss in their life. It helps to restore their self-confidence, develop skills for coping and build a peer support network. 

● The Emotional Awareness program is a parent-supported 11-week course using the award-winning and evidence-based Secret Agent Society (SAS) small group program. The espionage-themed program engages eight to nine year-old students in social and emotional development through gamified learning, skill generalisation, reward systems and interactive-led sessions.
Beginning as ‘cadets’, a specially-designed online platform connects cadets, their adult support network and their SAS facilitator in a digitally-enabled wraparound approach. At the end of the program, children graduate as ‘Secret Agents’ having learnt and practised codes and tools that focus on four key life skills: emotional recognition, emotional regulation, social problem solving and social skills.

For our parent body, the programs currently offered are a Marriage Enrichment course and a Parenting course for children under ten.

● The Marriage Enrichment course is run for seven weeks and uses the Alpha marriage material. The course is offered to you online for convenience. The sessions are run as a date night, so you organise desserts and watch the video lesson, once the children are in bed, and then practise the skills taught. You still work independently as a couple and you don’t have to be married. Couples will need a journal each and these are available through the school. The course covers topics such as communication skills, resolving conflict, the impact of family, intimacy and love languages.

● The Parenting course runs for five weeks and uses material from Alpha. This course can also be completed online, in a similar way to the marriage course, though this course is more fun to do as a group as you get different parenting tips from each other. It’s also useful for separated families as it helps you talk through things that are important to you as a parent and organise your parenting plan.

If you have questions about any of our programs, or think you or your child could benefit from one, you can email me at chaplain@livingfaith.qld.edu.au. Don’t forget, I also keep a number of resources in my office that you can borrow to use with your children on various issues, such as anxiety, depression, Alzheimer’s, grief and loss, cancer, safe touch, puberty and separation or
divorce. I hope you find these courses of benefit.

Paul Bowyer
School Chaplain