This Thursday (10th July) we attended the Rochdale Boroughwide User Forum (RBUF) Involvement Day.  RBUF exists to give voice to people who use mental health services.  The annual Involvement Day provides an opportunity for people to come together and try out some fun activities, get advice and have a voice.  We offered free circus skills workshops, meditation and Chill Skill sessions, play sessions and Reiki tasters.  The event took place at Rochdale Cricket Club.

We put up a board with a timetable of activities.  I started a circus skills workshop while Jo gave a Reiki treatment to the first "customer".  RBUF organisers expected we'd need a quiet corner for Reiki but it was such a glorious day Jo set up on the cricket pitch next to me with circus skills in front of the seating i.e. we had an audience.  Before long it became obvious that I'd have to abandon circus and join in with the Reiki action, it was so popular.  We gave 2 chair treatments at a time for the rest of the day and though they were only 20 minutes long everyone who received a treatment reported that it was very relaxing and some had an emotional release.

You might be wondering why we would offer this when our main objective is to work with families affected by Autism?  Well, did you know that at least one in three adults with Autism experience severe mental health difficulties?  The figure is likely to be much higher as there are so many undiagnosed adults out there.  And with 40% of children with Autism experiencing bullying at school I imagine that the figure will increase as these children reach adulthood.  This is one of the reasons that we support early diagnosis and training for professionals.  The earlier a family knows their child has Autism the sooner they can implement meaningful strategies.  It goes without saying that if professionals working with children with Autism are well trained they can better meet the need of each child.

We know that people with Autism are amazing, talented and valuable to our society and want to see an end to Autism being synonymous with limitation and despair.  I believe in a future where the unique talents and gifts that often come with Autism are celebrated and children can reach adulthood as healthy, happy individuals!
Lindzi 
P.S. Figures quoted are taken from The National Autistic Society website.

We welcomed 20 SuperKids (and Teens) through our doors for a 6 day mission to explore a different adventure every day:

    Day 1 - Magical Adventure
SuperKids arrived and were issued with their "passport to fun" and asked to declare any Super Powers they had brought on their journey.  The magic started with balancing peacock feathers, spinning plates and working the devil stick like a pro.

    Day 2 - Space Adventure
"Commencing countdown, engines on!" 
10 - Build your Rocket (Creativity)
  9 - Crater Game (Play)
  8 - Walking on the Moon (Dance warm-up)
  7 - Moonsand in your hands (Sensory experience)
  6 - Spaceman breathing - helmets on (Breathe)
  5 - Sun Salutation (Stretch)
  4 - Reach for the Star Cards (Positive affirmation)
  3 - Journey into Space (Meditation)
  2 - Come back down to Earth (Grounding)
  1 - Collect your souvenir (Gift/reminder)

    Day 3 - Sea Adventure
Imagine how many sea creatures we discovered with so many creative minds and how they felt as we did peer massage.
We found the:
    octopus tentacles
    lobster pinch
    star fish press
    crab crawl
    shimmery seaweed ..... and many more.
                
    Day 4 - Jungle Adventure
Not quite The Lion King at the Palace Theatre but along those lines - we made shakers and rain sticks and were painted like lions and performed the jungle story using an array of musical instruments.
              
    Day 5 - SuperKids Adventure
How brilliant would it feel to be able to fall and be caught, to get a hug when you ask and to fly like a
superhero. Our SuperKids know all about teamwork now as they helped each other build confidence and trust in "I Want to Fly".
    
    Day 6 - Celebration Day
Everyone joined in for a taste of each of the previous adventures.  So the parents joined their children in creative and fun activities. 

The intensive week with families (13th -18th August) was highly successful.  We worked with the children on one-to-one or two-to-one sessions involving creative activities throughout the week and ended the week with a celebration day where the whole family could take part in creative activities, taste some gluten-free and casein free baking or just chat and exchange experiences.  The families were great and really interacted with the activities as well as some taster treatments (counselling, massage, Reiki and EFT).
The children made puppets, used the puppets to make little films and made bracelets and keyrings.  The children also had the opportunity to join in with an interactive Relax-kids session.
The families each made a colourful pillow case for the child involved in the project to remember and celebrate the child's great qualities.

We're getting ready for our intensive week with the families that have signed up
for the Case Studies pilot project from 13 August to 18 August.  Over this week we will work 3 or 4 families affected by Autism.  These are families that are involved in our current Case Studies Pilot project.  The week wll culminate in the production of a person centred plan for the child or young person with Autism and a Fun Finale on Saturday 18th August where we will bring all the families together to take part in creative workshops including mask-making, circus skills, music, drama and dance.  The theme of all the workshops is "Celebrating Our Family".
The Case Studies Pilot is taking place so that we can gather evidence to show that our interventions work.  We intend to raise funding to enable more families to access our services for free!  If you think this might be for you, even if Autism is only suspected, not diagnosed yet we'd really like to hear from you.

enlightening@mail.com
07722 285367 
 

Spinning plates are easy and fun.  You can do a lot more with them than you might think.  Lindzi often demonstrates a 'two plate frisbee throw start'!!!  If you'd like to know what that is then maybe we can persuade Lindzi to put it on video.

The famous 'balance a peacock feather on your foot' trick.

Flower sticks are FUN!