A SENCO's Guide to Bringing an Anxiety Coach Into Your School

You've done the whole-school training. You've got the wellbeing policy. You've introduced Zones of Regulation or THRIVE or whatever the local authority recommended last year. And yet there are still children in your school who can't walk through the door on a Monday morning.

That's not a failure. It's a gap.

Whole-school approaches are designed to shift culture. They give staff a shared language and a framework for emotional regulation across the board. That matters. But they are not designed to sit with a ten-year-old who hasn't eaten breakfast because the thought of the spelling test has made them feel sick since Sunday night.

That child needs someone trained to work with anxiety in children specifically. Not behaviour, not general wellbeing, not a twenty-minute check-in with a busy teaching assistant. They need a structured, short-term intervention that actually moves them forward.

That's what an anxiety coach does. And increasingly, SENCOs across the UK are bringing them in.

What Is an Anxiety Coach (and What Isn't One)?

An anxiety coach is not a therapist, a counsellor, or a mental health first aider. The distinction matters, because it affects what they can do, how quickly they can start, and what you can expect from them.

A therapist works with clinical diagnoses, often over many months. A counsellor provides an open-ended space to talk. A mental health first aider can spot signs of distress and signpost, but they are not trained to deliver an intervention.

An anxiety coach sits in the space between. They use a structured method, a specific framework with clear steps, to help a child understand what is happening in their body and brain when anxiety takes hold. The work is typically short-term, focused, and skills-based. It doesn't require a clinical referral. It doesn't take eighteen months. And it gives the child something they can actually use on the Tuesday morning when everything feels impossible.

For SENCOs under pressure, this matters. You know the children who are falling between the cracks. Too anxious to function well but not unwell enough for CAMHS. Too stuck for a classroom reward chart to reach them. Too frightened for a lunchtime worry box to make any difference. An anxiety coach, such as a trained STILL Method coach, is designed to help exactly those children.

What to Look For When Choosing an Anxiety Coach or Programme

Not all anxiety coaching is the same. Some practitioners have done a weekend CPD course and little else. Others have trained in a recognised, accredited method with ongoing mentoring and professional standards. The difference is significant, and as a SENCO you need to know what questions to ask.

A named, structured method

The coach should be able to explain exactly what framework they use and how it works. If the answer is vague ("I use a mix of techniques" or "it depends on the child") that tells you there is no consistent method underneath. A good anxiety coaching programme follows a clear structure that the coach can describe to you, to parents, and to Ofsted if needed.

The STILL Method, for example, uses a five-step framework: Stop, Talk, Imagine, Listen, Learn. It gives both the coach and the child a shared language and a predictable pathway through the intervention. Every child works through a licensed workbook, which means there is a tangible record of what was covered and what the child has learned.

Accredited training

Ask what professional body accredits the coach's training. In the UK, look for accreditation from bodies such as the ACCPH (Accredited Counsellors, Coaches, Psychotherapists and Hypnotherapists) or IPHM (International Practitioners of Holistic Medicine). These aren't vanity badges. They mean the training provider has been independently assessed against professional standards.

Be cautious of coaches whose only credential is a self-paced online CPD certificate. There is nothing inherently wrong with online learning, but a three-hour module and a PDF certificate is not the same as live, assessed anxiety coach trainingwith mentoring and ongoing supervision.

A defined programme length

You want to know how many sessions are involved and what the arc of the work looks like. Open-ended interventions are hard to resource, hard to evaluate, and hard to explain to parents. A structured six-week programme, for example, gives you a clear start and end point, makes timetabling straightforward, and produces before-and-after data you can actually use.

For specific issues like exam anxiety, a shorter format can work well. A focused 2.5-hour session designed to equip Year 6 or Year 11 pupils with practical tools before the pressure peaks.

Evidence of impact

A credible anxiety coach should be able to show you how they measure change. This might include before-and-after scoring tools completed by the child, structured teacher feedback, and parent feedback. If a coach cannot explain how they evidence their impact, think carefully about whether the investment is justifiable.

This is not about bureaucracy. It is about being able to tell a parent what happened, tell your headteacher what changed, and demonstrate to an inspector that your provision makes a measurable difference.

DBS and safeguarding

This should go without saying, but check it. Any coach working with children in your school should hold an enhanced DBS certificate and be able to demonstrate that they understand safeguarding procedures. If they are part of a wider network or organisation, ask what professional standards they are held to.

How Does It Actually Work in Practice?

This is where many SENCOs get stuck. Not on whether anxiety coaching is a good idea, but on the logistics. Here is how it typically works when a STILL Method coach comes into a school.

The SENCO identifies the children who would benefit, usually in conversation with class teachers and sometimes parents. The coach comes into school on a regular day each week and works with children individually or in small groups, using a quiet space the school provides. Each child follows the structured programme using their own workbook, which they keep.

Sessions are typically weekly over a six-week period. The coach delivers the intervention; the SENCO oversees the referral and logistics. Parents are kept informed throughout, and at the end of the programme you have concrete evidence. Completed workbooks. Before-and-after measures. Feedback from the child's teacher. All usable in a report or review.

For younger children, the approach adapts. Our STILL Early programme for 4 to 7 year olds uses age-appropriate tools and creative methods to reach children who may not yet have the language to describe how they feel.

It is designed to sit alongside whatever else you already have in place. It does not replace your whole-school approach. It plugs the gap that whole-school approaches cannot fill.

How Schools Fund Anxiety Coaching

One of the most common assumptions is that bringing in an external coach means finding a significant chunk of budget. In practice, schools use several different funding routes, sometimes in combination.

Pupil Premium or SEND funding. Many schools allocate part of their Pupil Premium budget to targeted interventions for children whose anxiety is directly affecting attendance or attainment. Anxiety coaching fits this purpose precisely, and the evidence trail it generates supports your Pupil Premium impact reporting.

Direct school commissioning. Some schools commission a block of sessions, for example funding a coach to come in for a half-term to work with a group of identified children. This is straightforward to budget for and easy to evaluate.

Lottery and charitable funding. Depending on your region, local community grants and National Lottery funding can support anxiety coaching provision, particularly in areas of higher deprivation.

Training your own staff. Rather than bringing in an external coach indefinitely, some schools invest in training a member of their own staff to become a certified anxiety coach. Often a teaching assistant, learning mentor, or pastoral lead. This is a one-off investment that gives you permanent in-house capacity. The trained staff member can then deliver the programme year after year.

Parent-funded. In some cases, parents choose to fund sessions privately for their child, with the coach delivering them on school premises during the school day. This requires clear communication between home and school but can work well, particularly for families who are eager to act and do not want to wait.

The key point is that this is not an all-or-nothing decision. There are flexible ways to make it work, and an experienced coach or coaching organisation will be able to talk you through the options that suit your setting.

The Questions Worth Asking Before You Commit

Before you bring anyone into your school, ask these:

What method do you use, and where were you trained? Can you explain the framework you follow with each child? Is your training accredited by a recognised professional body? How many sessions will each child receive, and what does the programme look like week by week? What evidence will I have at the end to demonstrate impact? Do you hold an enhanced DBS? What happens if a child discloses something during a session? Can you provide references from other schools you have worked in?

Any coach worth working with will welcome these questions. They will not be offended. They will be glad you asked, because it means you take this as seriously as they do.

What Changes When It Works

When targeted anxiety coaching works, and the evidence consistently shows that it does, the changes are visible. Teachers report that a child who used to shut down in class is now putting their hand up. Parents say mornings have become manageable again. The child themselves says something simple and enormous, like "I know what to do now when I feel scared."

These are not dramatic transformations. They are quiet, practical shifts. But they are the shifts that change a child's trajectory. And for a SENCO who has been carrying the weight of those children on a list that never gets shorter, knowing that there is a structured, time-limited, evidence-based way to help is worth more than another policy document.

If you are a SENCO looking to bring anxiety coaching into your school, you can find a trained STILL Method coach in your area or explore training a member of your own staff. For an introduction to how the method works, join our free online workshop. And if you'd simply like to talk through what might work for your school, get in touch.