Lorraine is giving us invaluable advice as we navigate our way through the tricky world of raising an autistic girl with severe anxiety. Our daughter has a lot of school-based anxiety and Lorraine has brought incredibly sharp and refreshing insights and given us new ideas on different strategies at home and in school. Lorraine has acted as an advocate for us in conversations with the school and has fed into the EHCP process. She has also spent a lot of time and effort building up a positive relationship with our daughter through craft and calming activities, which give our daughter an important creative outlet and opportunities for exploration of her anxiety. I would highly recommend Lorraine as a highly experienced professional who has brought new ideas and knowledge to the table.
Our son has complex needs and has struggled for years to find a setting where he feels safe, understood and supported. Willow has been the first place where he has genuinely felt secure enough to begin engaging again. From day one, the team took the time to truly get to know him — what helps, what overwhelms him, and what makes him feel calm. Their bespoke, nurturing approach has made a noticeable difference to his confidence and anxiety levels in such a short time. As a family, we finally feel supported, heard and understood, and we are so grateful for everything Willow have done for him.
We have had input from Willow as part of an EOTAS package for our 11 year old, for nearly 12 months. It was amazing to connect with the Willow team and find people who totally understood the approach our child needed to their education without having to explain it - low demand, child-led, trauma-informed, relational-safety-led. More than that, a team who validate and champion this approach to education. And who are responsive and fully flexible in their approach. Our child has developed a wonderful relationship with his tutor from the home visits and this has paved the way for a highly successful start attending the new Willow base once a week. To see our extremely demand avoidant, school-traumatised child who struggles to leave the house, run into the Willow base with joy is something we didn't think would be possible. Words cannot express our gratitude. Thank you Willow so much.