About Kelly Seaward MSc, PG Dip, PGCE, BA Hons BA Hons
Positive Psychologist | Hypnotherapist | Counsellor | Teacher
Hello and welcome,
I hope my journey inspires you to take action on the changes you want to make...
I am Kelly Seaward-Ding and I am passionate about helping teachers to reignite their passion for their professional and personal lives. The light of a teacher transforms the worlds of the students they work with or the careers they follow after teaching because their compassion to help others ripples in the world. Positive Teacher Therapy is about putting the spirit back in the teacher and love back into their lives and if they choose to stay in education, they put the love back into teaching, which is the purpose we all start with when we embark a journey into teaching.
I use my skills in teaching, therapy, positive psychology and healing to transform stressed and burnt out teachers to confident and flourishing ones.
This calling for eliminating the impact of stress on teachers has come from my own teaching journey and how I personally overcome and recovered from the trauma of teacher stress.
When I entered the teaching profession in my early twenties, my vision, belief and faith were grounded in the following:
I wanted to be one of those teachers who empowers this greatness in the worlds of the students I teach.
Instead I experienced this:
My story into the importance of mental health and well-being for teachers began in 2010...
I was thirty years old and I phoned in sick to work because I had a serve headache. This got worse throughout the morning, so I phoned my mum. She turned up to my flat to check on me, took one look at me, got me in the car and took me straight to the hospital - Accidents and Emergency (A&E). At this point my right-hand side of body had started to feel numb and the right hand side of my face had started to drop. During that day, I got tested over a twelve-hour period for a mild stroke, a heart attack, MS, lupus and a brain tumour. Each time the doctor came to do another test, the more I could see the fear in my mum's face. The fear a parent has when they think their child might die. At midnight I was admitted onto a ward with the medical profession still no clearer on what was happening to me and the right-hand side on my body still numbing. I laid in the hospital bed and spoke to god for the first time. And I said ‘God I know I have not been doing what I am meant to be. However, I promise if I get out of this in one piece, I will change and do the things I am meant to do.’ I then went off to sleep, finally the exhaustion had taken everything I had. My body was depleted. I had no idea what my fate would be. Throughout the day the thoughts of ‘am I going to die?’ rolled around my head and I still didn’t have an answer to this question. I was sent home the next day, still with my right side numbing. I was left in a dysfunctional body to rest. I couldn’t walk properly and I had no energy. My emotions were numb and my spark for life was well and truly dimmed.
It took three weeks for the sensations of my body to start aligning. When I took a hot bath, my right hand side of my body couldn't feel the temperature, it was just aware it was in water. I was signed off work for 3 months and I started my own research into complimentary medicine as this was my only option at this point. I used hypnotherapy to improve my relationship with work-related stress and a completely new way of living started to emerge. I promised myself and my family, I would not do this to myself again.
From this experience, I continued to research and use therapeutic skills and psychology to enhance my well-being as a teacher. I am very passionate about sharing my skills with other teachers and help keeping them emotionally and mentally well, because flourishing teachers means flourishing students. Teachers deserve the same nurturing they give their students and Positive Teacher Therapy has a mission to ensure that teachers are not just surviving, they are thriving.
I hope my journey inspires you to take action on the changes you want to make...
I am Kelly Seaward-Ding and I am passionate about helping teachers to reignite their passion for their professional and personal lives. The light of a teacher transforms the worlds of the students they work with or the careers they follow after teaching because their compassion to help others ripples in the world. Positive Teacher Therapy is about putting the spirit back in the teacher and love back into their lives and if they choose to stay in education, they put the love back into teaching, which is the purpose we all start with when we embark a journey into teaching.
I use my skills in teaching, therapy, positive psychology and healing to transform stressed and burnt out teachers to confident and flourishing ones.
This calling for eliminating the impact of stress on teachers has come from my own teaching journey and how I personally overcome and recovered from the trauma of teacher stress.
When I entered the teaching profession in my early twenties, my vision, belief and faith were grounded in the following:
- The belief in the power of education changing peoples’ lives.
- The belief that education provides more opportunities for children to live better lives.
- The belief that every child deserves a great teacher.
- The knowing that when a child has a positive adult in their lives they have the foundations to be great people, doing great things and the ability to live well.
I wanted to be one of those teachers who empowers this greatness in the worlds of the students I teach.
Instead I experienced this:
- Exhaustion and burn out through the pressures of teaching.
- Creativity and fun in the classrooms being drowned by assessment measures and tracking systems.
- Constant thoughts and plans created to leave the profession and doing something else that would create a healthier work/life balance.
- Suffered from stress, anxiety and at times low level depression.
- Teaching took up too much time, which left limited time for a personal life and time with loved ones.
My story into the importance of mental health and well-being for teachers began in 2010...
I was thirty years old and I phoned in sick to work because I had a serve headache. This got worse throughout the morning, so I phoned my mum. She turned up to my flat to check on me, took one look at me, got me in the car and took me straight to the hospital - Accidents and Emergency (A&E). At this point my right-hand side of body had started to feel numb and the right hand side of my face had started to drop. During that day, I got tested over a twelve-hour period for a mild stroke, a heart attack, MS, lupus and a brain tumour. Each time the doctor came to do another test, the more I could see the fear in my mum's face. The fear a parent has when they think their child might die. At midnight I was admitted onto a ward with the medical profession still no clearer on what was happening to me and the right-hand side on my body still numbing. I laid in the hospital bed and spoke to god for the first time. And I said ‘God I know I have not been doing what I am meant to be. However, I promise if I get out of this in one piece, I will change and do the things I am meant to do.’ I then went off to sleep, finally the exhaustion had taken everything I had. My body was depleted. I had no idea what my fate would be. Throughout the day the thoughts of ‘am I going to die?’ rolled around my head and I still didn’t have an answer to this question. I was sent home the next day, still with my right side numbing. I was left in a dysfunctional body to rest. I couldn’t walk properly and I had no energy. My emotions were numb and my spark for life was well and truly dimmed.
It took three weeks for the sensations of my body to start aligning. When I took a hot bath, my right hand side of my body couldn't feel the temperature, it was just aware it was in water. I was signed off work for 3 months and I started my own research into complimentary medicine as this was my only option at this point. I used hypnotherapy to improve my relationship with work-related stress and a completely new way of living started to emerge. I promised myself and my family, I would not do this to myself again.
From this experience, I continued to research and use therapeutic skills and psychology to enhance my well-being as a teacher. I am very passionate about sharing my skills with other teachers and help keeping them emotionally and mentally well, because flourishing teachers means flourishing students. Teachers deserve the same nurturing they give their students and Positive Teacher Therapy has a mission to ensure that teachers are not just surviving, they are thriving.
Higher Education Qualifications:
Other:
- PG Dip Mental Health and Wellbeing in Education 2022
- MSc Positive Psychology, Bucks New University 2018
- PGCE, The Central School of Speech and Drama 2003
- BA Honours in Dance and Drama, King Alfred’s College, Winchester 2002
- Advance Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy 2013
- Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy 2012
- Diploma in Hypnotherapy 2010
- Reike Level one and two 2008
- The National Hypnotherapy Society
- The National Counselling Society
Other:
- DSB
'Teachers affect eternity; no one can tell where their influence stop'.
Henry Brooks Adams
Henry Brooks Adams