Junior Worry Hunter – in training
(Age 5-11)

Leanne Newland (Clinical child psychologist) presents a beautiful take on Art Therapy:
All children hold inner resources and strengths that can help them weather the journey of growing up. Accessing our imagination and creativity thru Art can be healing for all children.

In this group children in an environment of kindness and support access their imaginations and creativity to create their own unique memory latern, heart map, worry muncher and pebble pet. They leave with their own worry hunter kit that provides them with a sense of their own agency. This does not require any special artistic ability.

First Kit Item – WORRY MUNCHER
Make your own Worry Muncher out of recycled materials – ideal for helping kids their worries. These little monsters just love to eat worries, in fact the more you give them the happier they are!!! You will get a chance to feed your monster as many worries as you like, no worry is too big for this feisty critter. This process gives children a sense of containment and encourages worries to be expressed with others, rather than have children carry them alone.

Second Kit Item – HEART MAP
Have a really good look inside your kind heart – you will be amazed what you discover. Make your own heart map out of watercolour, glue it onto a black canvas that can be hung as a daily reminder to a child of their unique resources and strengths. A heart map can be an anchor for a child’s positive resources, calm feelings, thoughts and memories. It offers a way for children to have a shield against worry, showing them they already carry inside of their heart what matters to them the most.

Third Kit Item – PEBBLE PET
Create and adopt your very own pebble pet who loves to stick close to you wherever you go, they enjoing hanging out in pockets where it is warm and dry. Write on the back of your rock monster a special message so that you are always prepared the next time that the pesky worry monster pops up, uninvited! This is a simple and tangible symbol for children to carry with them, providing a child with a greater sense of personal power over their worries. On leaving the group they will encouraged to be on the look out for more pet pebbles to create, you can never have too many on your worry hunter team.

Fourth Kit Item – Memory Latern
Create your own unique latern out of recycled materials where your child is guided through a mindfulness visulisation in which they use their imagination to create their own scene of comfort.