July 31, 2022 • 26 mins
Tana Macpherson-Smith founded ClearMinds Education Ltd in 2015 to improve mental health in children and teenagers. With over thirty years of experience as an educator, —and as the mother of two children—she knows the day-to-day challenges young people face.
“Bullying, anxiety, anger, lack of self-esteem, depression and despair have become more commonplace among children of all ages,” she says. “Without help, a child’s entire life may be negatively affected.”
Tana has worked as a teacher of drama and senior leader in secondary schools, as a boarding school housemistress with sixty thirteen to eighteen-year-old girls living with her and her family in the boarding house. She has been a school governor, schools’ marketing director and a creator of life-changing events for young people.
She is now a mental health speaker and trainer in schools across the UK, a child and adolescent trauma therapist and thought-change transformation coach and a parent coach.
Tana has her own experiences of mental health issues, which resulted in a sudden and unexpected breakdown in 2013 which resulted in her spending not the promised three days of assessment in a London psychiatric hospital but a full six months. This was the catalyst for Tana’s deep research into the key causes of the international mental health crisis, and her mission to do what she can to change the face of mental health for future generations by putting the focus on prevention and working from the grassroots up; i.e. from conception onwards.
By combining that wealth of experience with compassion, intuition and insight gained from her own experiences of mental health issues and her research and training, Tana has developed ground-breaking programmes and tools for children, parents and educators.
“Bullying, anxiety, anger, lack of self-esteem, depression and despair have become more commonplace among children of all ages,” she says. “Without help, a child’s entire life may be negatively affected.”
Tana has worked as a teacher of drama and senior leader in secondary schools, as a boarding school housemistress with sixty thirteen to eighteen-year-old girls living with her and her family in the boarding house. She has been a school governor, schools’ marketing director and a creator of life-changing events for young people.
She is now a mental health speaker and trainer in schools across the UK, a child and adolescent trauma therapist and thought-change transformation coach and a parent coach.
Tana has her own experiences of mental health issues, which resulted in a sudden and unexpected breakdown in 2013 which resulted in her spending not the promised three days of assessment in a London psychiatric hospital but a full six months. This was the catalyst for Tana’s deep research into the key causes of the international mental health crisis, and her mission to do what she can to change the face of mental health for future generations by putting the focus on prevention and working from the grassroots up; i.e. from conception onwards.
By combining that wealth of experience with compassion, intuition and insight gained from her own experiences of mental health issues and her research and training, Tana has developed ground-breaking programmes and tools for children, parents and educators.
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