Teaching the iheart program
iheart is a preventive mental health education program for young people aged 9-12 and 13-18. It teaches them to discover their innate well-being and potential to become resilient and useful members of society. It is taught in 11 one-hour sessions, in groups or individually, live or via Zoom. It is also available for adults, in 8 one-hour sessions.
What is the iheart program and how will it help your children?
Letter to parents...
Dear parent or attendant;
Your child is about to embark on a very special journey. Through participating in the iheart Programme, iheartthey will learn to uncover their innate wellbeing and resilience, no matter what the circumstances or challenges facing them.
Why is this programme important for our children?
We tend to think that some people were born with well-being. That is, with feelings such as security, resilience, gratitude, kindness, peace of mind and wisdom, and others are not. We often think that these qualities are the result of achievements, circumstances, acquisitions or other factors. These innate qualities are always present, whether we feel them or not. But when we do not know or forget that our well-being is innate and unconditional, we think there are things that can give us our well-being and others that can take it away. We attach our well-being to something or someone else, which inevitably creates a large number of erroneous and unsafe thoughts. We are beginning to doubt ourselves thinking something is wrong with us.
But when young people realize that all these qualities are intrinsic – that we were born with – and that they can never be damaged, lost or broken, they relax.
Knowing that they already have everything they need inside them, that they lack nothing and that nothing is missing from them, is a deeply encouraging and liberating discovery. Every time a child remembers that well-being is innate – that nothing or anyone can give it to us or take it away from us – many useless and erroneous thoughts disappear from his mind. Students who participated in the iheart program report feeling lighter, hopeful and naturally motivated. Other opinions confirm that participants have more clarity and perspective, giving them a greater sense of security and resilience. The iheart program was designed to help our children learn to feel this clarity, perspective, security and resilience more often.
What is iheart and what does it mean?
iheart means Innate Health Education and Resilience Training. It is a registered charity based in London, England. Our vision is a paradigm shift (model) in mental health education and working with young people, so that they can access their innate well-being and their potential to become resilient and useful members of society. The iheart curriculum is a mental health prevention project specifically designed to help students discover their innate resilience and overcome their personal difficulties.
The iheart vision is based on close collaboration with schools and educational leaders, as well as with parents and caregivers, to build a sustainable culture of resilience and well-being throughout the school environment and family units.
What will my child learn?
The iheart programme is a preventive mental health education programme for young people aged 8-18, which takes place in 11 group sessions for the entire class. Based on a scaffolding learning approach, each session has its own clear learning goal and a mix of interactive discussions, activities, self-reflection, summary slides, animations, videos and group exercises.
The curriculum is based on a key question:
Do you think someone, or something, has the power to change your state of mind?
The answer to this question, "yes" or "no", acts as a compass, informing us whether we are on the right track or not, and reconnects us with our innate well-being and resilience.
Based on this idea, our program teaches:
- Which is innate/integrated into our psychological system.
- Why do we think, feel and behave as we do? Why and how can our well-being be hidden and rediscovered?
- How our integrated compass helps us regain our well-being.
What's the difference with iheart?
At the end of the programme, participants will have learned how to meet their challenges more easily and successfully, found the confidence needed to make positive changes, and understood what prevented them from accessing their natural resilience and well-being. Based on the impact and results framework, we expect to see the following improvements in the lives of the young people we work with:
- Resilience and welfare; e.g. self-esteem, reverse management, adaptability.
- Mental health; e.g. anxiety, stress, depression, self-mutilation, addictive behaviour.
- Motivation; e.g. progress, attendance, perseverance, problem solving and academic achievement.
- Behaviour; e.g. self-regulation, exclusions, disturbances, anger, aggression.
- Relations; e.g. tolerance, respect for difference, teamwork, positive relationships with teachers, peers and family members.
What motivates us...
Helping young people feel able to discover the resilience and innate well-being that each of them received at birth is our deep passion. We look forward to working with your children and sharing with them the teachings of the iheart approach – not because there is something wrong with them, but because there are many things that go well with them.
We hope it will be an exciting and exciting discovery journey and we look forward to you, parents and caregivers, seeing the benefits and changes in your children as a result of this very special program.
The iheart team
www.iheartprinciples.com