For Professionals
For Professionals
Welcome to The Roots, a mental health service delivered by Groundwork and commissioned by Waltham Forest. Our team of therapists and practitioners is dedicated to providing engaging, evidence-based mental health support tailored to the needs of families across Waltham Forest. We understand the challenges that come with anxiety, low mood and family relationships. The Roots offers therapy groups for young people, parent workshops and therapy groups for parents of younger children, as well as whole-family support.
When you refer a family or young person to receive support with us, they can expect a warm and welcoming environment where they can feel empowered and supported on their journey to better mental health. We are here to support the families of Waltham Forest to thrive.
How can we help?
Children and families who are referred to us will be offered one of our various support services. In order to find out what type of support is most suited for your family, a member of our team will have an initial meeting with your child or with you as a family group. In this initial meeting, we explore the challenges, strengths and circumstances of your family.
We will ask questions about any problems, how significant the problems are, and what solutions and support might look like. This information will help us to understand how we can best support you and your family.
CBT Groups for Children and Young People (11-17)
We provide group-based mental health support for children and young people, using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to address common challenges, such as fears and worries. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, is a type of talking therapy that helps us manage problems by changing the way we think and behave. It’s based on the idea that our thoughts, feelings and behaviour are all connected.
Each group is tailored for the ages and needs of the children in each group. Groups are typically offered to young people in age groups of 11-14 year olds and 15-17 year olds. Groups run total of 8 sessions. Participation is key within CBT, and it’s important that young people are ready for support. We are a young person led service, and will only proceed with therapeutic support where young people express that they are willing and able to take part.
In these groups, children engage in activities, discussions, quizzes and games which are designed to help them understand:
How their bodies work, and the way in which they may experience common wellbeing challenges and difficult emotions/sensations.
How their bodies work, and the way in which they may experience common wellbeing challenges and difficult emotions/sensations.
How their experiences and unique individual challenges may affect their experience of the world.
How their experiences and unique individual challenges may affect their experience of the world.
How to develop strategies and plans to overcome their specific challenges. These may include behavioural or cognitive change techniques, such as thought mapping, behavioural activation and exposure tasks (increasing positive, valued activities and facing fears).
How to develop strategies and plans to overcome their specific challenges. These may include behavioural or cognitive change techniques, such as thought mapping, behavioural activation and exposure tasks (increasing positive, valued activities and facing fears).
The group moves at a pace that helps children to feel more confident over time. Hearing from others in the group about problems and solutions can be really helpful for children, to know that they are not alone in finding something difficult. They can also get ideas about useful strategies from others in the room.
How you can help
As we are a service led by children and young people, you can support their engagement with our offers by sharing information with them about how we can help. Where children are able to make informed decisions about the support they need, they will be more able to meaningfully engage with, and participate in, the support that we provide.
Children, young people and parents can read about our services, or watch our video about CBT, to help them know what to expect. Doing this supports our aim to help young people and families feel empowered to take actions that can improve their wellbeing.
Groups for parents of younger children
We provide CBT groups for parents of children who are aged 5-11. These parent-guided offers are suitable for supporting children with common mental health challenges and who are too young to take part in CBT groups themselves. Parents attend a course of CBT in order to learn and adopt strategies that they can use at home to support their younger children’s wellbeing.
Parent groups and workshops use a CBT framework, exploring how thoughts and feelings influence our behaviour. We believe that parents are the experts in their children. We aim to empower parents with the tools and strategies to implement CBT techniques at home, creating long-term benefits for their children’s wellbeing.
Parent CBT Groups include learning about:
How the body works, specifically in younger children, and how that might impact their reactions and abilities to regulate emotions.
How the body works, specifically in younger children, and how that might impact their reactions and abilities to regulate emotions.
How their children’s experiences and individual challenges may affect their experience of the world.
Principles and solutions that can be tailored to suit each family.
Problem-solving and action-planning to generate ideas that can be maintained beyond the CBT group offer.
How their children’s experiences and individual challenges may affect their experience of the world.
Principles and solutions that can be tailored to suit each family.
Problem-solving and action-planning to generate ideas that can be maintained beyond the CBT group offer.
How you can help
We set our group dates in advance and need your help to ensure that spaces are filled with parents who can benefit from this type of support offer. Parents and carers with children aged 5-11 years, where the children experience challenges with fears and worries, or anxiety, are suited for this type of support.
When you refer families to our service, including as much information about the families’ needs as possible in our referral form helps us to carefully assess and tailor the support we provide, accounting for any additional needs or barriers that parents may face in accessing our support.
You can share information with parents from our website, visiting our Parents Information pages, to help them know what to expect and how our support can be helpful for their family. They can also watch this video to find out more about what the CBT Groups involve.
It’s important that parents who are referred for these groups are committed to attending all sessions of the CBT course. We cover a lot of information in each session, with at-home tasks to complete in between sessions. It is helpful to ensure that parents understand the commitment to attending and feel able to allocate time in their day to fully participate in the course. We are here to support parents with problem-solving any barriers they face, to help them make the most of this supportive offer.
Single Session Support – Parent workshops
We deliver one-off workshops across Waltham Forest for parents and carers to attend. These workshops aim to support families with common mental health challenges and wellbeing concerns. On key topics, such as Emotionally Based School Avoidance, we run multiple sessions of the same workshop, to enable as many parents and carers as possible to have access to the information and support. Parents need only book on to one workshop for each topic area that is available.
A timetable and topic list of the upcoming workshops can be found here.
Sharing information with parents and carers about these workshops will enable us to reach those families who can most benefit from this brief support offer. This can help parents know what to expect from the offer, including any pre-workshop tasks or information that is shared with them after registering for a place on a workshop.
It may be helpful to discuss with parents what any barriers to participation might be, so that they can problem-solve and plan ahead to gain maximum benefit from these offers.
Sharing information with parents and carers about these workshops will enable us to reach those families who can most benefit from this brief support offer. This can help parents know what to expect from the offer, including any pre-workshop tasks or information that is shared with them after registering for a place on a workshop.
It may be helpful to discuss with parents what any barriers to participation might be, so that they can problem-solve and plan ahead to gain maximum benefit from these offers.
Family Therapeutic Support
Sometimes it can be helpful for families to meet together, with parents and children accessing support jointly. Our Family Systemic approach focuses on understanding problems and solutions within the context of family relationships. We recognize that each family member has their own strengths and challenges, and how we cope with challenges within our families affects everyone.
In our family service, we bring together as many family members as feels helpful. This could be children and parents together; it might include aunts or uncles, grandparents or siblings. Some families may be offered some one-to-one sessions, to provide space for individual conversations, before coming back together again for family sessions.
Our family service can also support parents in thinking about the family, even if children do not feel interested or able to engage in the family therapeutic support. Our Systemic Family Practitioner will discuss with each family in an initial meeting, to find out who should attend sessions and how to make the most of the time together.
The goal of Family Therapeutic Support is to help families understand each other’s perspectives. We might explore patterns in communication, relationship or interactions within the family setting. We use a strengths-based and non-blaming approach to help families build and maintain positive connection as a means to problem-solving and improving wellbeing.
Family therapeutic support can feel like a different experience for many families. Providing information to families about what the offer is, and what they can expect from the sessions, will help them to benefit and engage more in the support. Parents can read more about our Family Therapeutic Support service here. Children and parents can watch this video to hear more about what to expect and how they can benefit from this service.
When you are referring a family to our service who may be suited to this type of support, you can help our initial assessment process by including as much relevant information about the family and context as you are able to. This will help us to ensure that families are provided with the most suited support offer for their unique needs and circumstances.
Family therapeutic support can feel like a different experience for many families. Providing information to families about what the offer is, and what they can expect from the sessions, will help them to benefit and engage more in the support. Parents can read more about our Family Therapeutic Support service here. Children and parents can watch this video to hear more about what to expect and how they can benefit from this service.
When you are referring a family to our service who may be suited to this type of support, you can help our initial assessment process by including as much relevant information about the family and context as you are able to. This will help us to ensure that families are provided with the most suited support offer for their unique needs and circumstances.