An anxiety programme for NZ schools, parents and teens
Learning What Helps When Worries Show Up is a psychologist-designed anxiety education and skills programme for students aged 11 to 16, their parents and the staff who support them. Practical, evidence-based, kind.
Anxiety in NZ teens is rising, and most arrive at high school never having been taught how it works.
Schools are noticing more avoidance, more pastoral load, and more parents asking what do I do? Engagement and behaviour data only tell part of the story. Often the bigger signal is the quieter one: the bright kid who’s stopped putting their hand up, the year 9 who suddenly cannot face Mondays, the family weeknight that has become a negotiation about school.
Counselling and clinical support matter, and they’re not always the right first step. What’s missing for most young people is knowing what anxiety actually is, why their brain responds the way it does, and what genuinely helps when worry shows up. Not a poster on the wall. The kind of practical, evidence-based education that gets used.
That’s what this programme is built to do, in a way that fits the school you already have, the staff you already trust, and the parents who want to help but aren’t sure how.
An anxiety programme that actually meets teens where they are.
Most young people reach high school without ever being explicitly taught how anxiety works, or what to do when it shows up. This programme changes that.
Learning What Helps When Worries Show Up is an evidence-based anxiety education and skills programme for students aged 11–16, designed and delivered by a registered psychologist.
Drawing on ACT, CBT and DBT — three of the most well-researched approaches in adolescent mental health — students learn how their brain’s “alarm system” works, what to do when it goes off unhelpfully, and how to support a friend who’s struggling. The same shared language is taught to parents and pastoral staff so the message is reinforced everywhere a young person spends their time.
It’s not therapy and it doesn’t replace counselling. It’s the education that helps every student, anxious or not, understand themselves better and build a life-long toolkit.
Ages 11–16
Intermediate and secondary students; whole year groups or targeted cohorts.
Workshop + follow-up
An interactive workshop for students, plus a session to reinforce what they’ve learned.
Workbook for every student
A take-home reference covering all seven themes, used in class and at home.
Pastoral safety built-in
Pastoral staff present throughout, safeguarding agreed in advance.
Seven themes, sequenced to build skills that last.
Each theme connects to the next. Students leave with a shared vocabulary and a workbook they can come back to whenever worry shows up.
Understanding Anxiety
What the body’s alarm system is, how it shows up, and why it’s not a sign something is wrong with you.
Stress vs. Anxiety
Telling the difference between everyday stress and the kind of anxiety that needs more support.
Brain Science
Fight, flight and freeze in plain language — using the “Guard Dog” and “Thinking Brain” metaphors.
Evidence-Based Strategies
Practical tools from ACT, CBT and DBT that students try out in the room and take into their week.
Wellbeing Foundations
Sleep, movement, social connection and time in nature — the daily things that quietly do the heavy lifting.
Supporting Peers
How to recognise when a friend is struggling, what to say (and not say), and when to pull in an adult.
Help-Seeking Pathways
Knowing when to ask for more help and exactly who to talk to — co-developed with your school’s pastoral team.
What this looks like for you.
The same evidence-based concepts, in language that fits where you’re standing. So everyone is supporting the young person with the same playbook.
Understand what your teen is going through, and how to help.
A 60-minute session walks you through the same psychoeducation and tools your young person learns, and includes a copy of the workbook to take home. You’ll leave with practical language and a much clearer sense of what to say (and what to avoid) when worry shows up.
- · How the teenage brain processes anxiety differently
- · Practical evidence-based strategies you can model at home
- · What to say when your teen is overwhelmed, and what to skip
- · How to know when more support might be helpful, and where to go
- · A copy of the same workbook your teen uses, to keep at home
A flexible programme that fits the way your school already works.
The programme can be delivered to whole year groups or smaller cohorts, and runs flexibly alongside your support staff and teachers. It aligns with the NZ Curriculum key competencies, ERO wellbeing expectations and Te Whare Tapa Whā — built to fit what you already do, not compete with it.
- · Workshops for whole year groups, smaller cohorts or mixed groupings
- · Delivered flexibly alongside your support staff and teachers
- · A staff briefing so the language carries into everyday conversations
- · A parent session to align the home environment
- · Workbooks for every student — used in class, at home, and beyond
- · Pre-programme consultation and post-programme review
A clear, collaborative process from first conversation to follow-up.
Nothing surprising and nothing rushed. Your school steers what works for your community, we support the content delivery.
Pre-programme consultation
A planning meeting to understand your school’s context and current wellbeing approach.
Collaborative tailoring
Help-seeking pathways are co-developed with your pastoral team so students hear consistent messaging.
Staff briefing
A briefing on programme content, the therapeutic framework and how to respond to anything that comes up on the day.
Parent session
Core anxiety psychoeducation, evidence-based strategies, help-seeking guidance and a copy of the workbook to take home.
Workshop
An interactive workshop covering all seven themes. Every student receives a workbook. Pastoral staff present throughout.
Follow-up session
A session to reinforce learning, revisit strategies and address questions that have come up since.
Post-programme review
A debrief to review observations, next steps and any further support — including measurement of impact.
Outcomes that show up at home, in class and across the school.
Designed and delivered by a registered psychologist, not a generalist trainer. Co-developed with your pastoral team, not delivered as a one-off. Self-reinforcing because students, parents and staff use the same language long after the workshop ends.
For students
- Increased understanding of how anxiety works
- An expanded toolkit of practical strategies
- Greater self-awareness and emotion vocabulary
- Confidence to support a peer who’s struggling
- A clear sense of when and how to seek help
For schools
- Shared language across students, staff and whānau
- Strengthened pastoral capacity and confidence
- Better early identification of struggling students
- A culture that normalises talking about mental health
- Alignment with NZC key competencies and ERO wellbeing
For families
- Practical tools you can model and reinforce at home
- Clearer language for tricky conversations
- A shared playbook between school and home
- Confidence about when more support is needed
- A take-home resource you can come back to
Safe Delivery. Designed using evidence.
Two things matter most when an outside facilitator works with young people: how the safety is held, and how strong the underlying evidence is. Here’s both.
Safety & safeguarding
- Activities are framed educationally — no expectation that students share personal experiences
- Content reviewed with your safeguarding lead before delivery
- Help-seeking pathways co-created with your pastoral team
- Pastoral staff present throughout all student sessions
- Programme is psychoeducational — it does not replace clinical assessment or counselling
- Cultural responsiveness woven through, including te reo Māori concepts
- Flexible delivery designed to support neurodiverse learners
Evidence base & alignment
- CBT — the most-researched intervention for anxiety in young people
- ACT — psychological flexibility and values-based action
- DBT — distress tolerance and interpersonal effectiveness
- Aligns with the NZ Curriculum key competencies (managing self, relating to others)
- Supports ERO wellbeing expectations through a whole-community approach
- Sits naturally alongside Te Whare Tapa Whā as a holistic model of health
- Addresses anxiety as a primary driver of avoidance-based absence
Designed and delivered by a registered psychologist.
The programme is developed and facilitated by a registered psychologist with specialist expertise in adolescent development, mental health and behaviour.
Multi-cohort and peer-leader models are also available for schools wanting to build the programme out across year groups year on year.
A short brief for boards, principals and pastoral teams.
You probably need to talk this through with someone before booking a call. The brief is written for that conversation: three pages you can email to your principal, take to a board meeting, or share with your pastoral team.
- The case for action, with NZ-specific evidence
- What the programme covers, including the seven themes it teaches
- How it aligns with NZ Curriculum, ERO wellbeing, Te Whare Tapa Whā and HSWA 2015
- How it runs, the timeframe, and what schools commit to
- Safeguarding approach and pastoral integration
What Helps — Board Brief
No follow-up unless you ask for one. Your details aren’t shared.
Common questions from parents and schools.
EveryoneIs this a replacement for counselling or therapy?
No. The programme is psychoeducational and skills-based — designed to complement, not replace, clinical services. If a young person needs more individual support, the programme makes that easier by giving them shared language and clearer pathways to ask for it.
For schoolsWhat happens if a student becomes distressed during the day?
Pastoral staff are present throughout and briefed in advance. Any student who becomes distressed is supported immediately by a familiar adult, in line with your school’s existing pastoral process. We agree these protocols with your safeguarding lead before delivery.
For parentsIs the parent session compulsory?
Strongly recommended, but not required. Parental reinforcement significantly enhances outcomes — when the same language is used at home as at school, the impact lasts longer. Schools have full flexibility over how the parent session is offered.
EveryoneWhat qualifications does the facilitator hold?
The programme is designed and delivered by a registered psychologist with specialist expertise in adolescent mental health, holding a current police vet under the Children’s Act 2014.
For schoolsCan the programme be adapted for boys, girls, or mixed groups?
Yes. The content is applicable to all genders and inclusive of transgender and gender-diverse students. Schools can choose single-gender or mixed-gender groupings to suit their context. Cohorts can be whole year groups, targeted groups, or anything in between.
For schoolsHow does it fit with our existing wellbeing framework?
During the pre-programme consultation we review your current wellbeing approach and align our language and referral processes with what you already do. The programme is intentionally designed to plug into existing pastoral structures rather than compete with them.
EveryoneHow is student privacy protected?
All information is managed in accordance with privacy legislation and your school’s policies. Students are informed about the limits of confidentiality at the start of the programme, and activities are framed so that no student is ever required to disclose personal experiences.
For schoolsWhat follow-up support is provided?
In addition to the structured student follow-up session, the facilitator provides a review meeting with observations and recommendations. Impact is assessed through pre/post student surveys, staff feedback, pastoral referral tracking and qualitative observations.
For parentsMy teen says they’re fine — would they still get something out of this?
Yes — the programme is designed for every student, not only those struggling. Most teens report finding the brain science interesting, the strategies useful, and the peer-support content reassuring. It’s also a quiet protective factor for the years ahead, when worry tends to show up more.
Let’s start a conversation about your school or your young person.
A no-obligation chat with the programme facilitator about what you’re noticing, what you’ve already got in place, and how the programme could fit. Schools, parents and whānau all welcome.
Mind. Body. Environment.