At stormbreak we believe that children who are encouraged, supported and enabled to engage in the world through movement, play and connection with their trusted adults and peers, have greater access to optimal mental health, and this is essential for their life-long mental health and wellbeing.

Play is about sharing time and engaging in physical and emotional experiences together and this is enhanced through movement, and in shared and reciprocal interaction. It’s about playfulness, and this is through our tone and playfulness in our voice, our facial expressions, our body language and our relational connections with children so that we share in joy, delight and fun. There is a wealth of research that highlights the impact of play and playfulness on:

• strengthening relational connection
• developing life and communication skills
• reducing stress

At stormbreak we believe that;

• Children are happier and healthier when they move more
• Children and their trusted adults are happier and healthier when they interact together through movement
• Movement can be fun, playful and reciprocal
• Movement improves children’s wellbeing and provides vital opportunities for them to develop emotional and physical life skills.

The combination of play through movement and shared interaction is vital for stormbreak in providing opportunities for conversations about feelings and responses to everyday situations. It provides an opportunity to talk and share ideas and thoughts about the stormbreak mental health concepts of resilience, relationships, self-worth, self-care and hope. We know this allows children to feel heard and validated in their experience of the world, and enables them to be open in the expression of feelings and their awareness of their own mental health.

Our mental health concepts

It’s knowing we matter within our relationships with ourselves and others through movement, playfulness and connection that we provide our children with the foundation for living life to the full and being physically and emotionally well.