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Well not quite a year since the last blog but just thought that I’d update you all on our adventures as we have a teeny bit more time in the Summer hols for website and updates. Doesn’t time fly? At the start of the year, Karen and I paid a visit to Arbor Low, a Neolithic henge monument not too far from us Arbor Low Stone Circle and Gib Hill Barrow | English Heritage (english-heritage.org.uk) Feeling the spiritual vibe, we took a walk around the stone circle in the bracing wind, taking it in turns to talk about our highlights of the year and what we were most proud of, before deciding what we were going to leave behind going into the new year - things like imposter syndrome and other self-limiting beliefs. We returned in Spring, this time with the sun on our side to take stock of our growth and for a photo opportunity with our new mascot! These visits and walks are an important part of who we are and what we do. We found a name for it too! SOLVITUR AMBULADO - It is solved by walking! You know how we love our Latin! Whilst we are on the subject of Latin, our Veni Vedi Vici inspired VICI, has continued to confuse. Soooo, in order to play along with the joke of, “Which one of you is Vicki?” we have introduced our new mascot Vicki the Vixen! The fox is associated with intelligence, wisdom, and the where-with-all to achieve one’s goals and solve problems. Besides all of that, she is very cute and has proved a big hit with the young people that we work with. And that’s been a lot of young people: six programs in primary schools, as well as four in the community! So, if we left behind imposter syndrome and self-limiting beliefs in 2022, how have we moved forward this year? Networking and meeting up with other small business owners has been key. A special mention here to Gemma Bourne, local enterprise manager at NatWest Group. Gemma, who has not only advised us with our finances, has also introduced us to some amazing female entrepreneurs including Anya Cummings with her Female Founders Sessions and Katie Beardmore with her fabulous Brampton Hill House venue! A highlight for us this year was being asked to run our 3-week STILL Performing/Learning program alongside a five week Boosting Women in Business program sponsored by the NatWest and delivered by The Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce. Mind blowing to think that just over a year ago we were where those ladies are - taking advantage of the Chambers expert guidance to build our business. What a fabulously inspiring group of ladies attended our sessions, it’ll be amazing to watch their businesses grow and may even lead to some future collaborations! We have also been hard at work studying! The STILL Method has launched a new program, STILL Early. This program is aimed at children aged 4-7 years and is active and fun, helping to regulate emotions and grow in confidence. After training, we loved delivering the first of these sessions at one of our regular partner schools. I, Amanda, have also completed the Advanced Drawing and Talking Practitioner training. This means that we were able to run group Drawing and Talking sessions in the community as well as introducing sand play for individuals into our repertoire. There’s also a new high school program that we will be training for soon! The STILL Method is such a flexible program! We can’t do all of these new things without firm foundations, and we find that in our community. This year when not in schools, we have been mainly based in the community room of Fenton Town Hall café. Such a supportive community. Once visited you’ll never escape! From Restoke’s Dancing Through The Darkness movement sessions, attending monthly Transformative Justice meetings, helping out at Coronation and Christmas parties and nattering to the staff and our Fenton Café friends. Being amongst our community is our happy place. Supporting our community and in return receiving support from them - that is what Vici is all about. ACTA NON VERBA! Actions not words! Positive action!

Well, what an adventure this year has been! So, I thought as I’m sitting on the sofa with a sniffly cold, recouping my energy before two back-to-back coaching sessions later, I’d jot down a few ramblings. After our launch in September 2021, Karen and I were never even certain that we would be running any coaching sessions at all. We had picked up a bit of tutoring but knew almost straight away that that was not the direction that we wanted to head in (Shame we hadn’t realised that before getting our web domain name, creating a website, and printing off all our tuition branded materials). But we grow and evolve and that is what this year has been. Evolution and a bit of a revolution! Karen trained as a STILL Method coach too so at least we can say that we doubled our workforce in the first year! I know that it’s tricky launching any new business but after booking the venues, it was a case of trying to get clients. But who were we? Why should people trust us and want to come to the sessions? We believed in what we are doing! We had seen the difference that the program made to the lives of the young people that we had worked with and also, on our own mental health. We were repeatedly being told that people in our area were struggling financially and we were passionate about supporting our community. How could we enable people to access our support? Direct action was needed. We attended Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce meetings designed to support new businesses. Here we were introduced to Richard Carty, Fiona Miller and, more recently, a mentor Justine Halifax. We talked to other STILL Method Coaches about their experiences, set ourselves up as a Community Interest Company, were awarded funding from The National Lottery Community Fund and the rest is history! This past year we have worked with over 100 women and children. Bringing lottery funded sessions to three community venues: Green Grams Zero Waste Shop in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, The Café at Fenton Town Hall, and The Community Room at Tesco Extra in Hanley and also worked in a couple of schools: Co-Op Academy Clarice Cliff and Etruscan Primary. Alongside this, we have met some fabulous people who have inspired us and encouraged us on our journey: Ben from The Café Fenton, Sally from Mother’s Mind and Birgit from Better Together Partnership who all run successful charities or CICs in the area. We also attended the first ever STILL Method conference in London - a real joy to meet Stuart Thompson, the creator of The STILL Method, and some of the other fabulous coaches! What we have been able to do this year was only a dream not so long ago! We have been able to support people, young and old, in our community: addressing anxiety and boosting confidence. Participants have gone on to new jobs - one has even trained as a STILL Method coach herself! Some have achieved personal goals such as motorway driving; attending medical procedures; overcoming health anxiety or leaving relationships that no longer served them well. Alongside this, we have coached private clients face-to-face and online. What we have loved above all, is getting involved in our community and making the most of the opportunities that are out there: tap dancing, arts events, fundraising events, canoeing, dressing up as fairy godmothers and teddy bears! This is what launching our own business has enabled us to do and we couldn’t be happier! Now to the year ahead! Lots of exciting developments are in the pipeline as we’ve both trained as Drawing and Talking practitioners. There are new STILL Method programs to look forward to in 2023 that will meet the needs of a wider range of ages and, fingers crossed, an office space that we will be able to use as a more permanent base from which we can offer our services. Now to crack this social media malarky and get a bit more business savvy! Thank you to everyone who has supported us and cheers! Merry Christmas and a happy and fulfilled New Year. Amanda and Karen xx

Signing your child up for six weekly sessions without being sure of what it involves could be a daunting prospect for parents and children. After all, the program is about boosting confidence and addressing anxiety so starting these sessions could really be out of a child’s comfort zone. Who will be there? What will I have to do? Will it be just like school? Let me give you a bit of background and explain why making this small commitment will really make a big difference. Light-bulb moments I never thought for one moment that only six weeks could impact a child’s self-confidence and self-regulation. Yes, I had completed the STILL Method training and could see the benefit of the exercises, but 6 weeks surely would be too soon to see an impact? How wrong I was. The impact was immediate. My first STILL Method sessions were delivered in my school, as an after-school Confidence Club. Some of the children I was teaching; others I did not know so well. They embraced the sessions wholeheartedly and it was one of those light-bulb moments where you see it click - the realisation that they can control their thoughts, emotions, and their behaviours BUT it would take a bit of time and practise. Group support The group soon bonded and were super-supportive of each other. That’s what happens within the sessions, there are many opportunities for children to share, if they’d like to; opportunities for them to praise each other’s progress and celebrate successes. By the final session, they are coaching each other! That is what my role is - coach. I’m not a teacher, not a therapist, I’m a coach. Supporting, inspiring, and giving young people the tools to achieve personal goals. What is their anxiety stopping them from doing that they would like to? The journal It is not school; you don’t have to write down lots of things. The sessions are very active and practical. The personal STILL Method journal is a place to make notes and respond to tasks in whatever way they would like to. I’m not marking journals or correcting spellings! A little bit of homework is given but that homework is just to practise the sessions activities to reinforce more positive thinking and behaviours. Surely it can’t work online? Since lockdown, young people are more familiar with accessing learning online. It has made us re-think the way that we communicate and educate and for some of us oldies it has forced us to upskill! It is a reality now that we must be more creative with the way that we access groups - Zoom yoga is a good example of this. I have delivered STILL Method sessions face-to-face, in groups and individually, and the same online. Whichever way you choose to engage, the program works just as well, but online, the group size is limited to 6 to facilitate better engagement. So now all that is left to do is sign your child up. “Our role as parents is not to take a child’s anxiety away. It is to give them the strength to face it.” Stuart Thompson STILL Method creator. Feel free to contact me if you’d like to find out more, Amanda x