The FRIENDS Programs are a suite of programs, developmentally tailored to assist children and youth in building resilience, confidence and self-esteem. and to learn important skills and techniques to cope with feelings of fear, worry and depression.
Teaches cognitive, behavioural and emotional skills in a simple, structured format.
Children and adolescents will gain skills to:-
The FRIENDS program has proved successful for long term sustainability with prevention and resilience gains lasting for at least 3 years following the program implementation. – (Barrett,P.M., Farrell,L.J., Ollendick,T.H., & Dadds,M., 2006)
There are three developmentally tailored versions of the FRIENDS programs – Fun Friends for 4-7 year olds, FRIENDS for Life for 7-12 year olds, and My FRIENDS for 12-17 year olds.
The recently developed Fun Friends program shares similar principles asFRIENDS for Life, but is developmentally tailored for children aged 4 to 7 years old. The play-based program teaches children and their families practical, useful strategies for coping with stress, worry, fear and sadness through activities and experiential learning (i.e. use of puppets, storytelling, puppets, art, games).
The overarching aim of Fun Friends is to increase social-emotional competence and resilience whilst decreasing and preventing worry and emotional distress.
Research shows that as many as 20% of preschool-aged children already exhibit moderate to clinical levels of emotional and behavioural disturbance, indicating the importance of early intervention.
Fun Friends aims to prevent the onset of later-life emotional and behavioural difficulties.
Some of the skills taught in Fun Friends include:
The objectives of the program have been shown to be well-matched and complementary to educational goals and curriculum in schools for this age group
The Pathways to Resilience Trust is a certified licensee of the Fun Friends program, and provides facilitator training accredited by Pathways Health and Research Centre.
There are three developmentally tailored versions of the FRIENDS programs – Fun Friends for 4-7 year olds, FRIENDS for Life for 7-12 year olds and My FRIENDS for 12-17 year olds.
FRIENDS for Life is a cognitive-behavioural program for children and adolescents developed by world-renowned child psychologist Professor Paula Barrett. FRIENDS focuses on teaching children life skills to help build resilience and prevent anxiety and depression.
Developed in Brisbane, Australia and used in schools worldwide, FRIENDS is the only anxiety prevention program acknowledged by the World Health Organisation for its 12 years of comprehensive evaluation and practice. Its strong evidence based demonstrates the program’s effectiveness in building resilience, and reducing the onset of youth anxiety and depression in a range of contexts.
The FRIENDS program is designed to build resilience, self-esteem and confidence, and to increase children’s ability to cope effectively with stress, daily challenges, and difficult life events. It is an empowering program for children, families and teachers. Some of the practical and useful strategies taught in the program include:
The FRIENDS programs are well-matched to educational goals and curriculum guidelines, and the program complements and enhances learning in schools. Click here to see how the FRIENDS program fits in with the school curriculum.
The Pathways to Resilience Trust is a certified licensee of the FRIENDS programs, and provides facilitator training accredited by Pathways Health and Research Centre.
There are three developmentally tailored versions of the FRIENDS programs – Fun FRIENDSfor 4-7 year olds, FRIENDS for Lifefor 7-12 year olds and My FRIENDS 12-17 year olds.
My FRIENDS 12-17 Years:
