Warrior Spirit Martial Arts has achieved a significant milestone, becoming the first Trauma and Mental Health Informed Martial Arts club in the UK. This achievement is spearheaded by our Chief Instructor, Jon McLean (4th Dan), who has earned a prestigious qualification empowering Warrior Spirit Martial to work within this important framework.
All schools on Anglesey are Trauma and Mental Health Informed, and we are proud to join them on the same mission to create a Trauma and Mental Health Informed Island!
This isn’t just a new label; it represents a deep commitment to understanding and supporting every individual who steps onto our mats. But what exactly does it mean to be ‘Trauma and Mental Heath Informed’, and how will this enhance the experience and benefits for our members?
How a Trauma and Mental Health Informed approach helps our members
Warrior Spirit Martial Arts offers classes for children and adults in Llangefni and Beaumaris. Our programmes are designed to be fun and friendly no matter what age or ability. For children, this means tailored programmes that help them develop skills through games and exercises, fostering confidence, focus, and strength. Adult classes are great for fitness, self-defence, or trying something new in a fun, friendly environment.
Integrating a trauma-informed approach enhances these existing benefits in several ways:
- Deeper Understanding Instructors trained in trauma and mental health have a greater understanding of why some individuals might behave in certain ways or face specific challenges. This allows for more empathy, patience, and tailored support.
- Enhanced Safety Creating a “mentally healthy for all” culture means prioritising emotional safety alongside physical safety. This can involve paying attention to how instructions are given, how conflict is managed, and ensuring the environment feels predictable and secure.
- Effective Support The Trauma and Mental Health Informed framework, provides “vital tools and techniques” for responding to distress and helping individuals make sense of their experiences. While martial arts instructors aren’t therapists, being trauma-informed means knowing how to offer relational support and understanding, and more importantly, knowing when to seek support or refer on to mental health professionals.
- Building Resilience There is a strong focus on recovery and building resilience. This directly complements Warrior Spirit’s goal of helping members develop vital life skills like confidence, kindness, and mental resilience. Martial arts naturally teaches discipline, self-control, and perseverance, and a trauma-informed perspective ensures these are built upon a foundation of emotional safety and understanding.
- Reducing Barriers For individuals who have experienced trauma, traditional environments might inadvertently trigger anxiety or difficult responses. A trauma-informed club actively works to minimise these potential triggers and create an environment where everyone feels welcome and able to participate fully.
Testimonials from our community already highlight the positive impact of Warrior Spirit, mentioning the “nice friendly family atmosphere”, instructors who are “brilliant with the children“, lessons that are “always fun“, and the development of skills like self control, defence, concentration and respect. They also praise the environment for helping people “work out and improve your fitness” and being “amazing and friendly” for fitness and self-defence. Becoming trauma-informed builds upon this strong foundation, adding a layer of skilled understanding and support.
By adopting a trauma-informed approach based on the Level 5 Diploma that Jon has achieved, Warrior Spirit Martial Arts is better equipped to fulfil its mission: empowering individuals through martial arts and personal development in an inclusive and welcoming community. It underscores a commitment to the well-being of every member, helping them not just learn martial arts techniques but also thrive, build resilience, and feel truly safe and supported.
Jon and our other instructors are continuously working to ensure we are all sensitive to, and aware of, trauma, mental health and supporting neurodiversity in our community, and discovering the best ways to incorporate this awareness into our lessons and interactions.
Understanding the qualification: The Level 5 Diploma
The foundation of this achievement lies in a rigorous educational programme: the Level 5 Diploma in Trauma and Mental Health. This isn’t a short course; it’s an intensive programme requiring a significant commitment to attendance and additional work. The course is designed to be practical and skills-based, firmly supported by evidence-based research studies.
The primary goal of the diploma is to inform and empower staff to effectively respond to children and young people who have experienced trauma or are facing mental health issues. It provides key insights into the psychology and neuroscience of mental ill-health and challenging behaviour. Participants gain vital tools and techniques to respond to a child’s narrative of difficult life events, with the aim of helping them make sense of these experiences. The focus is on delivering interventions addressing mild to moderate mental health problems with a clear pathway towards recovery.
The qualification is designed for adults working in a professional capacity with children, expecting delegates to be working with or supporting children and young people. It requires participants to be emotionally robust due to the challenging topics covered. The course goes beyond supporting individuals, aiming to foster whole organisation cultures that are mentally healthy for all. It covers transformative relational interventions, the use of creative media, and how to support young people dealing with issues like depression, anxiety, self-harm, and challenging behaviours. Completing the diploma involves practical work, such as implementing learning and demonstrating it through presentations, rather than written exams.
More than training: Reshaping Culture
As the diploma description states, this qualification is “more than training” – it’s an opportunity to reshape school and community culture for the better. This aspect is particularly relevant to Warrior Spirit Martial Arts. The course focuses not just on individual support but on changing whole organisational cultures to be mentally healthy.
At Warrior Spirit Martial Arts, we’ve always been an inclusive and welcoming community. We aim to empower individuals to become their best and strongest selves through effective martial arts and personal development. This trauma-informed framework deepens that commitment. By understanding the underlying psychology and neuroscience of behaviour, instructors are better equipped to create an environment where everyone feels safe, understood, and supported.
The diploma training provides insights that can help prevent the “medicalising of distress with psychiatric labels and medication” by offering alternative ways to respond to painful life events. This aligns with Warrior Spirit’s focus on holistic development, helping individuals build confidence, kindness, and mental resilience.
