The Story of Four Wellbeing
I'm Gemma, the founder of Four Wellbeing. I work in a school setting supporting children with trauma of many kinds. In 2024 I completed my MA in SEN Education with Exeter University, in which I specialised my research around supporting children with trauma. Throughout my practice and study I came across many forms of supportive cognitive behavioural therapies, which research shows to be successful, but one thing bothered me... what if, as found in people who have experienced trauma, our cognitive brain has switched off. Those people often find themselves at a loss of words to describe their feelings, without the language to explain their thoughts, or simply in a frozen state of emotional distress.
I came across Drawing and Talking and the non-cognitive, non-intrusive ethos immediately resonated with me and I knew it would support many of the young people I see daily. I trained and became an Advanced Drawing and Talking Practitioner and have now helped many young people start their journey to processing their subconcious emotions.
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I liken the feelings experienced after trauma to a jigsaw puzzle - A really hard one! A puzzle whose pieces are a bit old and tatty, one piece is chewed by the dog, one got wet and was never the same again, and in fact one piece from a different puzzle. Every day you get up and start the puzzle - to varying degrees of success - but throughout the day it continually gets knocked over. Sometimes just a small knock, other times a much larger. Some days you can cope with the knocks, some days it sends you sidewards! Some days an alien spaceship lands and takes a piece back to its home planet and ever being able to finish it feels a distant dream.
In this story, Drawing and Talking is the helping hand. Someone accepting of your struggle who comes along, helps you find a simpler, more manageable puzzle with less pieces and sticks around to support you as you find your FOUR corner pieces - the starting blocks, the foundations, and the strength.
Together, we make sure those FOUR pieces can always be found. The puzzle may get knocked over again, it may never actually get fully finished. BUT, your FOUR corners are there, you know how to find them and you can try again.