This Is My Place: Creating Calm, Connected Spaces Where Children Truly Belong

Children’s Mental Health Week invites us each year to pause, reflect and recommit to supporting the emotional wellbeing of the children in our care. This year’s theme, “This Is My Place,” shines a powerful light on something every child deserves: a sense of belonging.

Belonging is not just about where a child lives or learns it’s about how they feel. Do they feel safe? Seen? Accepted? Supported to be themselves? At Calm Cats, this idea of belonging sits at the heart of everything we do.

From our mum and baby circles to our tween and teen groups, school-based nurture programmes and parent workshops, Calm Cats is built on one simple belief: children thrive when they feel emotionally safe, connected and understood. Our unique therapeutic activity curriculum:

Move, Stretch, Breathe, Focus, Meditate, Imagine and Relax is designed to help children regulate their nervous systems, express emotions, and build confidence in a way that feels playful, gentle and accessible.

For many children particularly those who are neurodivergent, anxious, sensitive or struggling with confidence the world can feel overwhelming. Too often, they are expected to “fit in” rather than be fully accepted. At Calm Cats, we do the opposite. We create spaces where children are welcomed exactly as they are, where differences are celebrated, and where emotional needs are met with compassion rather than correction.

Our Parent and Child Clubs offer families a place to slow down together, reconnect and build calm, trusting relationships. Our children’s clubs and holiday sessions provide a sense of routine, safety and belonging beyond the school day. Our tween and teen girls’ circles create brave spaces for self-expression, self-esteem and self-love at a time when many young people feel pressure to conform. And our school-based work supports classrooms to become calmer, more emotionally attuned environments where every child can flourish.

But belonging doesn’t stop at the door of a session. It is built in the everyday moments — in the way we speak to children, listen to them, include them, and respond to their emotions. This Children’s Mental Health Week, we invite parents, educators, schools and communities to ask:

• How can we make our homes calmer, safer places for emotional expression?

• How can schools create environments where every child feels valued, not just those who fit the mould?

• How can communities offer spaces where children and families feel connected, supported and understood?

  
  

At Calm Cats, our vision for the future is a holistic family wellbeing journey supporting families from bump to teen, with inclusive, neuro-affirming services that strengthen emotional resilience and connection across generations. We believe that when children feel they belong, everything else becomes possible: learning, confidence, friendships, wellbeing and hope.

“This is my place” should not be a rare feeling, it should be every child’s everyday experience.

Let’s work together to build a world where children don’t have to change who they are to belong they are simply welcomed, supported and celebrated.