In this interview, host Heather Prince talks with former teacher‑turned‑counsellor Usha Chudasama about the shortcomings of the current UK education system and how her "Healing Feeling" workshops aim to fill the emotional‑development gap for children. Usha critiques the simplistic labeling of teachers and emphasizes that great teaching comes from understanding and inspiring students. She highlights the slow adoption of neuroscience, positive psychology, and the concept that children can rewire their brains for happiness within schools. The Healing Feeling is a ten‑week, research‑informed programme that blends drama, role‑play, art, mindfulness, visualization and discussion to help children recognise, understand and manage their emotions, build strengths and support peers. The workshops target children dealing with stress, trauma, bullying, family issues such as addiction or separation, and provide tools for emotional regulation, illustrated by a case of a nine‑year‑old boy whose anger from bullying was transformed through poetry, mindfulness and creative work. Based in Woodford, East London, Usha plans to expand the programme online in early 2015. She advises parents to read Sue Gerhardt’s Why Love Matters and to listen actively to their children’s emotions. Contact details are provided via www.healing-feeling.co.uk.
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Heather Prince here with Information for Parents, where we help you be the best informed parent to create the right choices. Today I have the pleasure of introducing you to Usha Chudasama to discuss her experience as a counsellor. She used to work as a teacher within the current educational system. And she now runs Unique Kids Workshops. So Usha, I'd like to ask you that William Arthur Ward said, the mediocre teacher tells, the good teacher explains, the superior teacher demonstrates, the great teacher inspires. What do you feel about that?
Okay, Heather, thank you first of all for inviting me here. That quote I've never heard of, but it's a great quote. I suppose the first feeling I got was, oh, that's a lot of labels there, you know, labelling teachers as mediocre or superior or whatever. I think they do the best they can, you know. So when you've got a teacher that's newly qualified, would you call them a mediocre teacher? I don't think— I wouldn't. So, but I do think that a good teacher inspires. I think that's the making of a great leader, actually.
Yes.
So, in my experience with certain children, I have seen teachers that, you know, have inspired others. And from my own childhood, I remember my teachers.
Yes, it's amazing, isn't it, that we are so affected by the experiences that we have as children with the teachers. It has been also said that the best teachers teach from the heart. Would you agree with that?
Yeah, and, and, you know, from my perspective, teaching from the heart means to me that the teacher totally understands the child and where they're coming from.
Yes.
So meeting them heart to heart, which, which I think that, you know, a teacher that teaches from the heart knows what stage the child is at, and they really listen and nurture where the child is at, where the child is coming from.
Yes. Having changed your role from being a teacher to becoming a counsellor/psychologist within the school that you're working at. Can you tell us a little bit about the age group that you're working with and what tweaks you would like the educational system to change in 2014?
Yeah, I mean, I was a teacher for 17 years, you know, so I've seen a lot of changes in the education system. And the reason I changed over to becoming a psychotherapist is because of the lack of— not understanding— the lack of time that teachers can dedicate to working with children. So I've forgotten the question. What tweaks would I like to do?
What tweaks, yes, would you like to make The government, yeah.
Yeah, in the education system.
Yes.
Sorry. So the tweaks that I'd like to see, I just see that, you know, there's so much changes globally that I've noticed in terms of, you know, the current research in neuroscience, you know, the understanding of positive psychology, and, you know, the idea that, you know, children can make up new pathways in their brain to promote happiness in their life. All of those things are not necessarily being incorporated in the education system per se. It's happening, I think it's happening, but not as quickly as children need it.
So how do your workshops help children, and what kind of background do these children have that attend your workshops?
Yeah, I think the Healing Feeling, you know, my workshops, the Healing Feeling, kind of bridges a gap because at the moment the way the school system is geared, the way the new legislation is, is that teachers are going to be to identify children that have got special needs, but the statutory guidance of teaching PSHE, which is Personal Social Health Education within school, isn't, isn't a statutory requirement anymore. So the gap in between is what the Healing Feeling can, you know, meet, which is that children that get which in my opinion get, you know, go through the net, get missed. So the workshops encourage children to learn ways of getting in touch with their own inner power. They learn ways of managing their emotions, understanding their emotions, And, you know, their strengths and encouraging others' strengths as well.
So, and how do you bring that out with the children that attend?
We have a series. I mean, it's a 10-week workshop. It's a tried and tested and it's scientifically researched program where, you know, they— we start with actually where the children are at. So whatever their skills are, whatever their interests and passions are. So it could be sport, it could be music, whatever it is, we start with that. And what we do is we build on that through doing activities like drama, role-play, there's art and craft activities, there's a lot of discussion work and reflection on the kinds of things we discuss.
And can you tell the parents watching this video today what kind of background or issues or problems Do these children have, that come to these workshops?
Yes. You see, there are— the world is changing, and you know, you can't get away from the fact that, you know, children come into school with a lot of issues around stress. Stress, you know, they might be witnessing things happening, adult concepts happening in the home, like addictions or, you know, separations or loss or domestic violence. And, and so these children are coming in not quite understanding the whole concept because their brains aren't developed. And what, what they come and learn, you know, in these workshops is a way to understand what is going on, what, what might be happening for them, and that it's not their fault. It's not the parent's fault either, but it helps and gives a kind of a knowledge and understanding of where they're at and what they can do about it. Because emotions, you know, like Daniel Goleman says, emotions are an impulse to act. So in the workshop, they learn about their emotions, but they also learn what they can do with them. Rather than act out, they can learn how to positively deal with them.
That sounds amazing. Can you give an example of somebody that might have an anger issue and how you help them use another tool to express that anger.
Yeah, I have an example of a parent who gave me a testimonial about her child who was, who was very angry, but the anger was a result of bullying that the child was experiencing He was only 9 years old at the time and the kinds of activities we did were— actually mindfulness was one of them. We did some visualization work and we did a lot of artwork with this boy. He was actually pretty talented and he was very poetic. I mean, he was really good at writing poetry and he had such a sense of humor. But because of the bullying, all of that got squashed and we started with his poetry. So that was his starting point. And the way we built on was through, through a lot of discussion, through a lot of learning and understanding about what goes on in the brain, for example. And over time, I think we had the 10 sessions, and over time Mum said, You know, I thought I'd lost the connection with my child, but thank you, you've brought him back to me, and he is the happy child that I once had before. So, you know, it does make a huge difference for children, and it's so easily learned.
That sounds absolutely amazing. And you're based in—
I'm based in Woodford at the moment.
Which is in?
Which is in East London, in Redbridge, in the borough of Redbridge.
And do you take children from outside of this area as well?
At the moment, the plans are that I work within the borough because I'm just literally starting off in the local borough. However, there are plans to develop an online program So this will be available, but it's a work in progress at the moment. It will be available, I'm hoping, by January 2015.
Fantastic. And for the parents watching today, Usha, have you got any tips that you can offer them? Yes.
Yeah, first of all, I want to say that parents often get blamed for what's— what the child is experiencing. But I would say that parents are doing the best they can, first of all. But what I would say is go and read the book Why Love Matters by Sue Gerhart, and that book teaches you and explains how important it is to listen to your child, to understand the child's emotions, and to speak to them about their emotions. I mean, my workshop, The Healing Feeling, is all about think happy, be happy, but it's not to say discount all the other emotions. It's so important to talk about those emotions.
Absolutely. It's very important to honour all of our emotions without anyone saying, oh, don't be silly, you shouldn't be feeling like that, when actually you feel the way that you feel. So thank you very much, Usha, for this very interesting chat today. And if people wish to contact you, what is your website details?
The website details are www.healing-feeling.co.uk.
Wonderful. Thank you, Usha. It's been an absolute pleasure and joy to be chatting to you about your very interesting work, and good luck next year when you go global on the internet.
Thank you so Thank you so much, Heather, for inviting me. Thank you to everybody.
