Support for Youth and Kids Mental Health, Wellbeing Joy Balance
Creativity, Social and Play-based Therapeutic Support for Kids Mental Health. Improving the well-being of Young People and their Families.
"Bright Hearts acknowledges and pays respects to Australia's First Nations Peoples, Their Ancestors and this precious and beautiful living Country who sustains us all and holds both our stories and our future.
We also acknowledge that we recognise and repent for the ongoing colonial trauma experienced by many of our First Nations people and the great need for truth and healing we have as a nation.
We commit our hearts and our hands to the work of reaching for this truth and healing in order to break the negative cycles of the past for the wellbeing of our future generations."
BRIGHT HEARTS
Who Are We?
Bright Hearts is a registered charity that exists to support Young People and their families by providing therapeutic services that support Kid's mental health, well-being & resilience.
We work extensively with Young People, their caregivers in out-of-home care or who are neurodiverse and have experienced any kind of trauma. We are based in the Yuin Nation, in Nowra NSW and service the Shoalhaven and Illawarra, as well as providing support for remote and regional locations online or over the phone.
We offer a range of services, which you can read about below.
If you're not sure, you can book a free initial online consultation with one of our practitioners.
YES, WE WORK WITH THE NDIS
Vision
The Bright Hearts Vision
Bright Hearts is founded by Mark and Chloe to establish various therapeutic services that bridge the gaps in life for Young People who need support around kids mental health, well-being, and resilience. We support Young People aged 0-25 and their parents who have had adverse life experiences. This could be due to childhood trauma, disadvantage, disability, challenges in the out-of-home care system or many other causes.
After a combined 30 years of working with Young People and the complex and often compartmentalised systems that support them, Mark and Chloe saw an urgent need to provide targeted therapies that support positive healing connections between Young People and the people in their lives.
Each Young Person we work with has a team of people around them, such as their family, teachers, social workers, allied health practitioners, and other therapists.
No matter the young person, this group of stakeholders in the young person's life represents the bricks, then the work of Bright Hearts acts as the scaffolding and the mortar.
We seek to provide therapeutic programs that adapt to each Young Person's needs for strength, well-being and the breaking of negative generational cycles of trauma. Our programs are designed to build these Young People up and create a stable base for their future.
About the Founders
Chloe
Chloe has 20 years of experience working with Young People and their caregivers in a well-being capacity. She is a Qualified Student Wellbeing Officer in the Shoalhaven, where she is experienced in responding to client needs, including supporting mental health around trauma, grief and loss. She has been a therapeutic mentor for many years and has completed a Professional Diploma in Therapeutic Life Story Work. She is a Student at Deakin University, Studying for a Master's in Child Therapeutic Play. She has also studied behavioural science and sociology for a decade.
Chloe has been passionate about using creativity and play as therapeutic tools for healing throughout her career. She has spent hundreds of hours studying and practising the science behind why this works and how to best use creativity and play with evidence-based humanistic psychodynamic principles to help Young People in her therapeutic practice. She is passionate about breaking generational cycles of trauma and hurt in her Nation, and that is why she does what she does and is on the board of directors of Bright Hearts Ltd.
Mark
Marks was saved from himself and his behaviours by Therapeutic Mentorship in a voluntary wilderness program on Country in the late 90's. The power that one Mentor had to reach him through all his anger, fear, and dangerous choices -when no one else could- has never left him. He often says that his mentor stood in the gap between where he was and the life he could have. Soon after that, he began training in youth work and outdoor recreation. He became a qualified carpenter and then a builder and is currently studying design and drafting in order to teach trade skills to the young People who come through our Well Forged Mentorship program.
Throughout it all, he never stopped mentoring young men who needed his help. He practises unconditional positive regard for the youth who come to him through enacting a social learning, humanistic approach to mentoring, meeting each Young Person where they are at and standing in the gap for them. Mark currently works for Bight Hearts Support and our Well Forged programs as a Therapeutic Youth Mentor and is the heart and brains behind our Well Forged Youth Mentorship. Like Chloe, he has faith in Jesus, and like Jesus, he doesn't exclude or judge anyone for who they are but rather stands in the gap for them between pain and freedom.
What We Provide
Bright Stories - Therapeutic Life Story Work (Rose Model)
Therapeutic Life Story Work for Young People who have been or are in out-of-home care. See Bright Stories
Well Forged - Therapeutic Mentorship
Therapeutic Mentorship reflects back to a Young Person their strengths and attributes and helps them to develop a positive identity and sense of self-worth.
Our Therapeutic Mentorship programs are tailored to each individual and generally run during school term times.
Sessions support and strengthen kids mental health can take place anywhere, from the library to the zoo, on-site at the HQ amongst the Lego paint and plants, on a high ropes course or anything in between.
Therapeutic Play
Play Therapy is a powerful medium for change in kids mental health, aiding in communication, positive relationships with peers and carers, positive behavioural change, resilience, mindfulness skills, mental health, resilience, healing from trauma and many other beautiful benefits that lead to a Bright future for Young People.
Divergent and Friends
"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." - Albert Einstien.
Knowing and loving who you are is key to having a positive identity.
At Bright Hearts, we celebrate neurodiversity, and we're SO over the fear, excuses, learnt helplessness and negative labels that are often attached to having a fabulously unique brain.
Often, these brains get a bad rap because they don't fit in the box that the world tries to put them in. As a result, many studies have found that neurodiverse Young People have a greatly increased risk of acute mental health disorders and suicidal thoughts.
The truth is, these Young People have minds that they and the world ought to treasure, many of the world's greatest thinkers, innovators and artists are neurodiverse. It is important everyone loves and learns about these unique brains and how they fit in with the world around you.
Divergent and Friends offers educational support and celebration to Neurodiverse Young People and their families, as well as group meet-ups and events for these amazing Young People and friends that foster fun, friendship, kindness and joy.
Therapeutic Creativity
Like Play Therapy, Creativity is a powerful medium for supporting kids mental health. Poetry, Creative Writing, Art Therapy, Drama, Dance and Music are all at hand in our Creativity Programs. With intensives in the School Holidays and programs running during the School term, there's something for every Young Person.
We have Visiting Art therapists, Poetry Slams and Writing competitions, and our musical instruments -including Isla the cello-. We also have dance, singing and theatre sports drama sessions.
Special Guests and Events
Stay tuned for our calendar of guests and events
The Village
It takes a village to raise a child, and we aim to support and network with other businesses and organisations that also support the Young People in our community.
Some of the wonderful connections in our village can be found below
If you are one of them, please reach out to see how we can help you!
