THE NEED FOR IMPRESSIVE MINDS:

Children and adults confront psychological, social, and vocational difficulties daily. Some of these difficulties can create a heavy burden to carry upon one’s shoulders. They act as an obstacle to one’s progress which necessitate the intervention of professional help for support, guidance and counselling; hence the need for Impressive Minds.

THE AIMS OF IMPRESSIVE MINDS:

- To provide professional diagnosis and orientation for psychological, social, educational and vocational difficulties.
- To prevent the development of all sorts of problems, through early intervention.
- To focus on people’s strengths to maximise their learning potential.
- To change the negative connotation about dyslexia and ADHD into a positive one, that of being a gift.

SERVICES PROVIDED AT IMPRESSIVE MINDS:

• Correcting dyslexia by facilitating the 5-Day Davis® Dyslexia Correction Program: Dyslexics usually feel confused, dumb, frustrated, and inadequate, to name a few of the negative emotions they experience. They use several memory tricks to get by in schools as well as rely heavily on others to cope in life. They are usually right-brained children living in a left-brained world. The initial 5-day Davis® Dyslexia Correction Program will help people diagnosed with dyslexia and Attention Deficit Disorder make use of their talented ways of thinking to control and correct their dyslexic symptoms and feel good about themselves. Support training is also provided to parents or tutors to help the client complete the Symbol Mastery follow-up, at home.
  
  N.B.: The Davis® Dyslexia Correction Program is a separate and distinct program from the other counselling and therapeutic services offered, and is provided in its own distinct context on a separate schedule.
  
  
• Building Self-Esteem for children and adults:
  The way in which a person thinks, feels and behaves, creates the quality of his/her life. If you think that you are ‘not good enough’, you’ll feel inadequate and lacking in confidence; your behaviour will reflect these feelings: you will behave like a victim.
  If you believe in yourself and can love and value yourself, in spite of your mistakes, you will feel empowered and have a better chance to meet life’s challenges with courage and confidence.
  
  
• Breaking free of addictive childhood behaviour patterns that ruin people’s lives and their adult relationships:
  These unconscious patterns are responsible for most of the cruelty that people administer to themselves and others, for example: eating disorders, unhappy and co-dependent relationships, psychological and physical abuse.
  
  
• Therapy for social matters (such as divorce and loss of a loved one) as well as psychological problems (managing stress and anxiety):

  Divorce has sometimes been called ‘a death where nobody dies’. Unlike adults who seek help, children do not find it easy to express their feelings and talk about their problems. Any sudden change in the child’s behaviour at home or school, during that sad period, is a sign that professional help is needed

  Stress is with us to stay. We must learn to adapt ourselves to enjoy its positive energy and to have as little distress in our lives as possible. Stress is a precursor to anxiety.

  While anxiety can be a positive emotion (planning, giving energy) it can often become a problem (excessive worry, panic attacks…), when the process ‘goes over the top.’ This is when anxiety starts to hinder rather than help.

  The experience of anxiety for one person is not likely to be the same as the other. Moreover people will respond to what is happening to them differently. Some types of anxiety problems include: phobias, fears not-related to physical threats (failure), social anxieties, obsession problems and last but not least, marital problems.

  Each approach is dealt with differently. Only severe cases need a referral to a psychiatrist who will prescribe medication. Even so, it is essential to understand that medication is most effective when accompanied by therapy.