Safe Spaces, Supported Minds: Supporting emotional wellbeing in adolescence
This practical on-demand course explores how environments shape adolescent wellbeing, regulation and learning. Across two linked sessions, you’ll learn how to create environments that support safety, connection and thinking, helping young people manage stress, build regulation skills and engage more fully in school and beyond.
No previous Thrive training is needed.
Duration
Approx. 1 hour
Format
On demand
Access
90 days' access, for one delegate
Price
£50 + VAT
Safe Spaces, Supported Minds: Supporting emotional wellbeing in adolescence
Overview
Adolescence is a time of significant change. Young people are navigating increased emotional intensity, social sensitivity and cognitive demands, while their stress-regulation system is still developing.
This course takes a different approach to supporting wellbeing. Rather than focusing only on behaviour, it explores how the environments we create - physiological, relational and cognitive - can shape young people’s ability to feel safe, regulate and learn.
Across two practical sessions, you’ll revisit key Thrive concepts through the lens of adolescence and apply them to everyday settings. You’ll explore how sensory load, sleep, peer relationships, transitions, classroom practice and exam pressure can affect young people’s capacity to cope and engage.
Safe Spaces, Supported Minds: Supporting emotional wellbeing in adolescence
Benefits
Build your understanding of adolescent development and take away practical ways to support regulation, wellbeing and engagement.
- Deepen your understanding of adolescent development and regulation.
- Build confidence in recognising what may sit beneath behaviour.
- Learn practical ways to reduce stress and support regulation.
- Understand how relationships, environment and wider adolescent demands can affect wellbeing.
- Feel more confident adapting environments and routines to support young people.
- Create more consistent, supportive environments across the school day.
- Improve engagement, participation and readiness to learn.
- Reduce hidden stressors that can affect behaviour and wellbeing.
- Strengthen relational practice across staff teams.
- Support a shared, developmentally informed approach to adolescent wellbeing.
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Programme details
What you'll learn
Explore how environments, relationships and everyday demands can influence regulation, wellbeing and engagement during adolescence.
You’ll explore:
- How the stress-regulation system operates during adolescence, and why felt safety is relationally built but environmentally shaped.
- How factors such as noise, light, movement, sleep and sensory load can affect regulation.
- What supportive relational environments look like in secondary and post-16 settings, including the role of peer belonging and co-regulation.
- What executive functions are, how they affect behaviour, learning and organisation, and the difference between ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ executive functioning.
- How exam pressure, digital environments and social context can affect young people’s capacity to cope, with practical ways to adapt environments and routines.
How the course works
This one-hour on-demand course is delivered across two linked sessions, each building on the last.
Session 1 focuses on the physiological and relational environments, exploring how sensory experiences, routines, relationships and belonging shape young people’s sense of safety and ability to regulate.
Session 2 builds on this foundation by exploring the cognitive environment, including executive functions, exam pressure and the wider demands of adolescence. You’ll also reflect on the role of the adult and how your own regulation shapes the environment.
The course is practical and reflective, with opportunities to connect the learning directly to your own setting
Safe Spaces, Supported Minds: Supporting emotional wellbeing in adolescence
Who this course is for
This course is designed for professionals working with young people aged 11–25, including those in secondary schools, further education and youth work.
- Teachers and teaching assistants
- Pastoral and safeguarding teams
- Senior leaders
- SENCOs and inclusion staff
- Youth workers and residential care staff
- Post-16 and FE practitioners
- Anyone supporting adolescent development and wellbeing
“We try to create a safe, nurturing space for them… I think the environment is integral to this process.”
Sophie Watson, HLTA and Thrive Lead | Heartwood CE VC Primary and Nursery School
on-demand learning
Start your course
Course fee: £50 + VATLearn at your own pace, with 90 days’ access from purchase.
- Approx. 1 hour
- Start straight away
- No previous Thrive training needed
No. You don’t need to be a Thrive School or have completed any previous Thrive training to take this course.
Each purchase gives one delegate access to the course. You can purchase places for as many team members as you need.
If you’re looking for broader whole-staff development, you can also explore our All Staff Training for Secondary and Post-16 Settings. This is a separate, setting-facilitated offer with a choice of 3-hour units covering different themes.
The course is strongly practice-focused, with clear strategies that you can apply in real-world settings.
You’ll explore how development, regulation and the environments around a young person can influence behaviour, helping you look beyond what you see in the moment and consider practical ways to support wellbeing and engagement.
Yes. It is designed for professionals working with young people across secondary education, further education, youth work and residential settings.
No. This course does not count towards the annual Thrive CPD hours required to maintain your Licensed Practitioner status.