Emotionally Informed Tutoring, Coaching, Counselling and Support for Children in Essex
Helping anxious, overwhelmed and neurodiverse children rebuild confidence, emotional wellbeing and reignite their love for learning.
- Supporting children with anxiety, autism, ADHD, PDA, SEMH and dyslexia
- Trusted by families, schools and professionals across Essex
- Qualified teachers, emotion coaches and counsellors
At Emotionally Healthy Minds, our passion is to nurture positive emotional health. We believe academic achievement and emotional wellbeing go hand in hand—and it doesn’t always have to be a struggle.
Giving children and young people the tools to understand, regulate and manage their emotions is key—and this is where we can help. After all, how can we expect children, or even adults, to excel academically if they’re struggling emotionally?
Everything we offer is built around four key strands:
Emotional Support
Compassionate, tailored Emotion Coaching and Counselling to help children understand their feelings and behaviours, empowering them to make positive changes. After all, emotionally healthy children become emotionally healthy adults.
Tutoring
Combining Academic Tutoring and Emotion Coaching to meet each child’s unique learning needs, helping them catch up, keep up and fall in love with learning all over again.
Parent and Carer Support and Consultancy
Providing parents and carers with practical tools and insights to confidently support their child’s emotional and educational growth at home—always with kindness and encouragement.
School Wellbeing Training and Consultancy
Partnering with schools, education professionals and organisations to deliver tailored training and consultancy, sharing best practices that foster emotionally healthy, thriving environments.
Who we Work With
To support children and young people, we work closely with:
- Parents and carers
- Schools
- Local Authorities
- Educational organisations
Who we support
We support children and young people who:
- feel anxious about school
- are struggling emotionally
- have lost confidence in learning
- have SEND needs such as autism, ADHD, PDA or dyslexia
- are emotionally overwhelmed
- feel misunderstood or unsupported
- are school avoidant
- need a more nurturing and holistic approach to education
Learning barriers are broken down, potential is unlocked and hope is restored
Why Families and schools choose Emotionally Healthy Minds
Many of the children we support:
- feel anxious or overwhelmed
- struggle in mainstream school environments
- have lost confidence in themselves
- feel misunderstood
- are masking emotional distress
- have experienced school-based stress or trauma
- are falling behind academically or losing their love of learning
At Emotionally Healthy Minds, we understand that children cannot thrive academically when they are struggling emotionally. That’s why our approach combines emotional support with education—helping children feel safe, understood and able to learn again.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can tutoring help anxious children?
When a child is anxious, their brain works hard just to feel safe, leaving little capacity for learning.
At Emotionally Healthy Minds, we take time to understand the child behind the behaviour. We build relationships intentionally, reduce pressure and adapt sessions to meet each child where they are emotionally as well as academically. This might look like learning through interests, movement breaks, games, creative activities, or simply giving a child time to feel comfortable again.
When a child feels emotionally safe and believed in, their nervous system settles and learning finally becomes possible again.
What Support Do You Offer for Neurodivergent Children with Autism and ADHD?
We support many children and young people with autism and ADHD, including those who may feel misunderstood, overwhelmed in school environments, emotionally exhausted, or unable to access traditional learning.
Our approach is flexible, child led, and emotionally informed. We understand that every child is different, so we adapt sessions around their needs, interests, sensory profile and communication style. Some children need movement and breaks, some need low demand approaches, some need routine and predictability, and others need space to regulate before learning can begin.
Many of the children we support have experienced anxiety, masking, burnout, school trauma, or low confidence, and our aim is always to reduce pressure rather than add to it.
We adapt sessions to the child, not the other way around. Above all, we meet your child with patience, empathy and genuine respect for how their brain works
Do you support children struggling with school attendance or EBSA?
Yes, we support many children and young people experiencing emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA), anxiety around school, burnout, or difficulties attending mainstream education.
For some children, school has become a place associated with stress, sensory overwhelm, or feeling unsafe. Our role is not to force children back into school before they are ready, but to gently rebuild trust, confidence, and enjoyment in learning again.
We provide both tutoring and wellbeing support for children who are out of school, on reduced timetables, awaiting specialist placements, home educated, as part of an EOTAS package or finding school environments difficult to manage.
What is emotionally informed tutoring?
Emotionally informed tutoring recognises that children cannot learn well when they feel anxious, overwhelmed, dysregulated or emotionally shut down. When a child’s nervous system is in survival mode, it is much harder for them to concentrate, remember information, take risks, make mistakes or believe they are capable.
At Emotionally Healthy Minds, we don’t focus only on academic outcomes. We take time to understand the child behind the behaviour, what helps them feel safe, what makes learning feel difficult and what they need in order to engage.
Our team build safe, trusting relationships and adapt sessions to reduce pressure, support emotional regulation and rebuild confidence alongside learning. This might include gentle encouragement, movement breaks, emotion coaching, flexible tasks, reassurance, or simply slowing things down so the child feels able to try.
It’s tutoring, but with empathy, brain science, emotional intelligence and confidence-building at the heart of everything we do.
What emotion coaching and counselling support do you offer?
Our coaching and counselling sessions help children and young people better understand their emotions, build confidence and feel supported through the challenges they may be facing.
Many of the children we support feel anxious, overwhelmed, emotionally dysregulated or stuck. Some struggle with low self esteem, school anxiety, friendships, behaviour, motivation or managing big emotions. Others may be neurodivergent or have experienced difficult school experiences that have affected how they feel about themselves and learning.
At Emotionally Healthy Minds, we know children are far more likely to thrive academically when they feel emotionally safe and regulated. Our coaching and counselling support is gentle, relational and tailored to the individual child. We focus on building safe, trusting relationships where children feel heard without pressure or judgement.
Sessions are interactive, flexible and child centred. Depending on the child’s age and needs, sessions may include conversations, games, creative activities, therapeutic approaches, emotional regulation strategies and practical coping tools. Some children feel most comfortable talking, while others open up more naturally through painting, drawing, clay work, colouring, Play Doh, movement or play based activities.
We support children to recognise emotions, understand themselves more deeply, process difficult feelings and develop healthier ways of coping, while rebuilding confidence and emotional wellbeing.
Do you work with schools and the Local Authority?
We regularly work alongside schools, SENCOs, Local Authorities and other professionals to support children with both their learning and emotional wellbeing.
We understand the pressures schools are under, so our aim is always to work collaboratively and provide consistent, child-centred support. This may include tutoring, counselling, emotion coaching, or tailored provision for children who are struggling within mainstream settings.
We can provide progress updates, emotional insights and support plans to help everyone work together around the child. Many schools and local authorities come to us when a child needs a more personalised, relational and emotionally aware approach to learning and wellbeing.
What makes Emotionally Healthy Minds different from traditional tutoring?
At Emotionally Healthy Minds, we understand that children cannot learn effectively when they feel anxious, overwhelmed, emotionally dysregulated, or unsafe. Traditional tutoring often focuses purely on academic progress, but our approach recognises that emotional wellbeing and learning are deeply connected.
We do not believe children are “lazy”, “difficult”, or “not trying.” We look beneath behaviour to understand what a child may be communicating through avoidance, shutdown, frustration, or disengagement.
Our sessions are relationship based, emotionally informed, and tailored to each individual child. We focus on building trust first, creating a safe environment where children feel accepted, understood, and free from pressure or shame. Once children feel emotionally safe, confidence and learning often begin to grow naturally.
We support many children with anxiety, autism, ADHD, emotionally based school avoidance, low confidence, school trauma, sensory needs, and gaps in education. Sessions are adapted flexibly around the child’s emotional and learning needs, rather than expecting the child to fit into a rigid approach.
Alongside tutoring, we also offer wellbeing and emotion coaching, helping children develop emotional awareness, regulation skills, resilience, and self-belief.
For many families, the difference is that we see the whole child, not just the academic outcome.
I’m struggling to support my child at home. Can you help me?
Our one-to-one parent consultations support families navigating neurodivergence, challenging behaviour, school avoidance and emotional overwhelm. We help parents better understand their child’s needs, reduce conflict at home and feel more confident responding to big emotions.
If you’re navigating a diagnosis, struggling with the EHCP process, or worried your child’s needs are not being properly supported within education, we offer guidance around SEN support, understanding your child’s rights, and advocating effectively within the system and support with EHCP applications and paperwork.
What types of support do you offer schools?
We provide tailored training and workshops for school staff, students, parents and carers, all centred around emotional wellbeing, mental health, and emotionally informed practice. Our training supports schools to better understand and respond to anxiety, emotional regulation, resilience, self-esteem and emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA).
We offer whole school INSET training, leadership and staff training, student workshops, parent and carer workshops, follow up training, and consultancy support. Sessions are practical, relational, and grounded in Emotion Coaching and current research around children’s emotional wellbeing.
Our student workshops are interactive and age appropriate, helping pupils develop emotional literacy, confidence, resilience, and self-regulation skills. We also provide transition workshops for Year 6 pupils preparing for secondary school.
We are delighted to announce that the winner of our birthday competition is Katie Sutherby!
Katie, please get in touch to claim your free tutoring or Emotion Coaching session.
We are really looking forward to restarting our sessions at the centre next week. We have missed all our wonderful team and your awesome children!
Have a lovely weekend, everyone. Love Sarah x
#CompetitionWinner #EmotionallyHealthyMinds #Tutoring #EmotionCoaching #backtoschool
After a little summer break at the end of August, our Monday afternoon sessions for home-ed families are back, starting from Monday 7th September.
Our sessions are a relaxed and welcoming space for children of all ages to come together, play, have fun and make new friends.
And it’s not just for the children! It’s a great opportunity for parents and carers to meet other home ed families, build connections and support one another too.
Whether you’re new to home ed or a familiar face, come along and join our community. We can’t wait to see you!
Join James and Jess for some summer Home Ed fun every Monday from 12:30pm-2:30pm at New Life Church, Clements Green Lane, South Woodham Ferrers, CM3 5JP.
£6 for one child
£9 for 2+ children
Sign up here to come and pay on the day:
https://docs.google.com/forms/u/1/d/e/1FAIpQLSeV4_2qLEbFfWgiSJYjqi_9CRDaSWbBNUcEqrg3iFYZ83ENFA/viewform
We would love to see you there!
#HomeEducationUK #HomeEdCommunity #HomeEdEssex #HomeEdFamilies #HomeEdActivities #HomeEdSupport #SouthWoodhamFerrers #EssexFamilies #SummerActivities #EmotionallyHealthyMinds
Following today’s @bbcnews report showing the rise in children as young as six reaching A&E in mental health crisis, this should concern every one of us, both as parents and as professionals working with children.
At Emotionally Healthy Minds, we often see children much earlier in that journey, when anxiety first begins affecting school attendance, when behaviour changes, when confidence disappears or when a child gradually becomes unable to access learning.
Too often, support still comes only once a child has reached crisis point. We need to become much better at recognising and responding to distress earlier, and that means bringing emotional wellbeing, education, health and family support much closer together.
I have personally taken a young person to A&E who was close to taking her own life. I have also been there as a parent with my own son for the usual childhood bumps and injuries. Even then, the waits can feel long. But when a child is already overwhelmed, distressed or in a very dark place, sitting for hours in a busy A&E department must be incredibly difficult.
We have got to talk much more loudly about prevention. We cannot keep waiting until a child reaches crisis before support becomes available. Early intervention has to be treated with the same urgency as crisis response.
Children should not have to become severely unwell before somebody listens, responds and offers meaningful support.
#ChildrensMentalHealth #EarlyIntervention #MentalHealthSupport #EmotionalWellbeing #EmotionallyHealthyMinds #EmotionallyInformedEducation #SchoolAnxiety #EBSA #SEND #ChildrensWellbeing
Yesterday, Emotionally Healthy Minds turned four.
And it feels like the perfect time to share a little more of the story behind how it all began.
Emotionally Healthy Minds didn’t start with a big business plan or a vision of what it would become four years later. It started with frustration and a need to do things differently for children who were struggling.
I’ve written more about why I founded Emotionally Healthy Minds, where the idea came from and some of the journey that brought us here.
If you’d like to know a little more about the story behind EHM, you can read it here:
https://emotionallyhealthyminds.com/why-i-founded-emotionally-healthy-minds/
And thank you, as always, to everyone who has been part of that story so far.
Love Sarah x
#EmotionallyHealthyMinds #ChildrensWellbeing #EmotionalWellbeing #MentalHealthInEducation #SENDSupport #EmotionCoaching #EssexParents #SupportingChildren #ourstory
Emotionally Healthy Minds is 4 years old today… And what a 4 years it has been!
To celebrate our 4th birthday, we’re giving away a FREE tutoring or coaching session.
To enter:
* Share this post
* Comment below and tell us the best birthday present you’ve ever received
We’ll choose one winner at random this Friday.
The session can be used for a child in primary or secondary school. If you already attend sessions with Emotionally Healthy Minds, you can still enter – you’ll simply get one session for free.
Please note, there is no cash alternative, and the session must be used within 3 months.
Have fun everyone, and thank you for being part of our first four years.
Love Sarah x
#EmotionallyHealthyMinds #BirthdayGiveaway #GiveawayUK #EssexParents #EssexFamilies #TutoringSupport #EmotionCoaching #ChildrensWellbeing #EmotionalWellbeing #SENDSupport #EssexBusiness #ChelmsfordParents #SouthWoodhamFerrers #EssexMums #EssexKids #EssexEducation
You know your child better than anyone, but as parents we do not always know how to help when we can see that something is not quite right.
Most children do not know how to ask for help, but there can be signs to look out for, such as:
* Trouble focusing
* Trouble sleeping
* Withdrawing
* Changes in behaviour
* School grades dropping
* Eating more or less than usual
We started our counselling service around six months ago with Kate, alongside the emotion coaching support we already offer at Emotionally Healthy Minds. Counselling gives us another way to support children and young people who may be experiencing more complex emotional difficulties and who need a safe, confidential space to explore what is happening for them.
You may have seen the video James and I recorded a couple of weeks ago explaining that we have now increased our counselling provision. This means we have more spaces available for children and young people who may need additional emotional support.
Our counsellors support children and young people experiencing anxiety, low mood, low self-esteem, emotional overwhelm, friendship difficulties, school-related distress, bereavement, trauma or simply a period where life feels particularly difficult.
We currently have counselling spaces available at our South Woodham Ferrers centre, with both school-time and after-school appointments, as well as some availability within schools and the wider community.
If you would like to find out more about whether counselling might be the right support for your child, or make an enquiry, you can do so here:
https://emotionallyhealthyminds.com/counselling/
#EmotionallyHealthyMinds #ChildrensCounselling #ChildrensWellbeing #EmotionalWellbeing #ChildMentalHealth #ParentSupport #SchoolAnxiety #SENDSupport #EssexParents #SouthWoodhamFerrers
We are not your average tuition company.
If you’re considering tutoring for your child this term, it might be helpful to understand why and how we do things a little differently at Emotionally Healthy Minds.
You can read the full blog here:
https://emotionallyhealthyminds.com/emotionally-informed-tutoring-children/
#EmotionallyHealthyMinds #EssexParents #EssexFamilies #TutoringSupport #EmotionCoaching #ChildrensWellbeing #EmotionalWellbeing #SENDSupport #EssexBusiness #ChelmsfordParents #SouthWoodhamFerrers #EssexMums #EssexKids #EssexEducation
Lauren’s student LOVES a squishy, so why not use that as inspiration for their writing?
#EmotionallyHealthyMinds #ChildrensMentalHealth #EmotionalWellbeing #SENDSupport #NeurodivergentChildren #AnxietySupport #BuildingConfidence #EmotionallyInformed #AlternativeEducation #SmallWins
Starting secondary school is a huge transition.
A new building.
Different teachers.
Moving between lessons.
Finding classrooms.
Managing equipment.
Making new friends.
Getting the bus.
And suddenly feeling very small in a very big school.
For some children, it’s exciting. For others, there can be a lot of anxiety sitting underneath it all.
If your child is starting Year 7 in September, James has written a practical blog about helping them feel more confident and prepared for the transition.
There are things you can start doing now that can make those first few weeks feel much more manageable.
Have a read here: https://emotionallyhealthyminds.com/starting-secondary-school/
#StartingSecondarySchool #Year7 #SecondarySchoolTransition #BackToSchool #ParentingSupport #SchoolAnxiety #EmotionallyHealthyMinds
