The school called me in to say my 7-year-old son was not performing well at school, and that they needed him to do much better. I was shocked and disappointed with how they handled the situation by blaming my child, rather than their teaching capabilities. James, my son, constantly complained about feeling unwell in the mornings and never wanted to go to school. He was an avid reader at the time and always had his nose in a book.

But the truth was, as smart as he was, the school did not recognise his abilities because he suffered from crippling anxiety. After reading an article in 'Families Magazine' about the Safe and Sound Protocol ‘SSP,' I called up Raviv Practice London to learn about their five-day intervention. I was given a detailed questionnaire and two weeks of listening and movement-based preparatory work. I worked through this with James before going to Usha’s studio in the Northolt Village Community Centre.

In the beginning, after doing the intervention of an hour of listening a day, nothing much changed. I was very worried as James became even more jumpy than usual after the first couple of listening sessions. When I spoke to the therapist, I was told this was normal and his nervous system was getting used to the effect of SSP. Four weeks later, the positive changes started to emerge at school. The teacher said James was putting his hand up more to answer questions.

James has completed the SSP therapy twice and will continue to return to it every six months to eight for a top-up. As parents, we have noticed that the mornings before school are significantly less stressful, and tummy aches have more or less evaporated.

We are very grateful to Raviv Practice London for the ongoing support they give to our son

James’ father, Ealing London.