Blog
Ollie and his Superpowers Mentor training
Ollie Mentor Training 25 representatives from 12 different schools in Cambridge attended our most recent Ollie Mentor Training organised through the Red Hen Project. http://www.redhenproject.com/ Attendees learnt 'How to speak Ollie' and a number of different Ollie techniques that they could use in the classrooms on a daily basis. Everyone was completely buzzed by what they learnt. I just wanted to say I found today brilliant! I will be taking it back to my school tomorrow and talking to the head Really informative and empowering. I feel more confident and equipped to try these techniques and therefore empower the child to...
Learn to speak Ollie - Mentor training
Why do we over complicate things? Why do we tell a child they need to be more RESILIENT and get annoyed when the child looks at us without a clue? Why do we say, ‘stop being sad or angry’ and get annoyed when the child doesn’t? So many things we do and say around children in our adult language and view of the world that we forget that they are not us, can’t think like us, don’t have the resources and life experience to understand our requests. I truly believe there are no bad kids. I also truly believe that...
Ali nominated for a Best You Award
The Best Personal Development Author Ali has been nominated for The Best Personal Development Author Award with the winner to be announced at the The Best You Gala ceremony on the 4th March 2017. The award is in recognition of the most talented author that demonstrates an outstanding degree of groundbreaking achievement in Personal Development. Ali was nominated for Ollie and his Super Powers. For more information about the 2017 awards, the expo or to book tickets to the Gala event please go to https://thebestyouexpo.com/awards/ Ali would like to thank everyone who nominated her.
Ollie at Hinchingbrooke Hospital Fracture Clinic
Visiting Hinchingbrook Hospital Ollie and I had the honour of meeting the lovely nurses at Hinchingbrook Hospital Fracture Clinic last week. It was wonderful to walk into the children’s area and see Ollie already there with his books! The nurses had been using him and his super powers to help make children feel a little less afraid of having a plaster cast put on or worse – cut off. So Ollie and I donated some of Ollie’s brothers so the nurses could put plaster casts on their arms and legs and the children could watch them being removed and see...
NHS England Review
‘It was a pleasure to meet Ali and Ollie recently and hear about the work on addressing children’s emotional wellbeing. I know that Ollie will spread swiftly and am fully supportive of their excellent work and approach’ Kindest regards Kath Kath Evans Experience of Care Lead – Maternity, Infants, Children and Young People Nursing Directorate NHS England
All Behaviour Serves a Purpose
Getting to the root of things The Ollie concept is based on this key theory : All behaviour serves a purpose Many therapists take the presenting issue as the issue. We do not. The best way to describe this is my talking about trees! Imagine a tree with branches. Let’s put your issues on those branches, and let’s use a case study of a young lad of 7 to explain this approach. The young lad was bought to me with the label agoraphobic. For months and months various therapists had been working with him to get rid of his fear...
Why do they do what they do?
Giving a voice to kids’ inner bodyguards It’s only human to think the worst of bad behaviour, but that often means we miss what’s really going on. As a therapist who’s been helping kids for decades, I’ve seen my share of troubling tics and habits that people call ‘bad’. Luckily I have a secret ally in figuring out a habit’s true purpose: a small doll called Ollie. Annabelle, Princess of Thieves Expelled from one school after another, transferred from foster home to foster home, Annabelle was becoming her own worst enemy. She stole from her foster families, played the class...
Ollie flies high - Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust
Ollie gets to meet the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust. What a wonderful day out meeting with the guys from Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust. I was a bit scared at first of getting in the helicopter but I used my Brave superpower to overcome this and just jumped on in. I wasn't allowed to push any buttons but I did ask lots of questions of what they all did. The work this organisation does is awe inspiring and I hope to be able to have more photos sitting in the helicopter. But I hope never to...
Speak Ollie
What's it all about! Ollie is having an amazing time. He has been invited in to even more schools with his Ollie Coaches so we can help even more children take control of their superpowers! We are now teaching teachers to “ speak” Ollie and parents too so we can all help our children express their feelings and so we can understand what it is they are feeling rather than trying to guess! So many children are labeled angry or bad but really if you could see their superpowers you would see they are sad and frustrated. They want to...
Learn to speak 'Ollie'
An evening with Alison Knowles learning all about the concept of 'Ollie' Due to popular demand by parents and others we have arranged to do an event that introduces you the basic concept of Ollie and how you can use it in every day life. Ali is a great presenter with lots of tales to tell with reference to how Ollie began and then she will be able to show you some simple techniques of the 'Ollie' concept. Expect lots of laughter as Ali becomes more animated as the evening progresses and as you get swept along with the language of...
Ollie and the Golden Stripe - 5 Star Reviews
5 Star Book Reviews from Amazon. Below are copies of the reviews that have so far been entered onto the Amazon site. It is wonderful to see that people are not only ready the books but that they are using the concepts in the books in everyday life and that they are having a really positive effect. By David Thompson on 21 July 2016 Alison has done it again, we join Ollie on the next stage of his journey, this time he discovers Empathy and how he can use it to help himself and others. Alison has a...
Ollie and the Golden Stripe - Parent's Review
Book Review I picked this book up after my child told me about the Author that came to his school. I have to say I picked it up read and re read it and then read it again. We now have an Ollie doll and the first book as well. Both my sons aged 7 and 9 love Ollie and I do too because I only have to ask "what would Ollie do?" rather than my previous yelling at the top of my lungs to get them to stop and think. We are all waiting for the next installment! Well...
Ollie and the Golden Stripe Review
Dear Alison We are all Ollie converts in the Renolds' household and use our super powers. We have just read Ollie and the Golden Stripe. Yesterday I came home to find my 7 year old waking around in my shoes. His words, "I am using your shoes so I be daddy, its hard waking in daddies shows!" From mouths of babes. Keep it up Alison, brilliant work! Posted on facebook 24/07/16 6.54am
Ollie and the Golden Stripe Book Reviews
A readers review Alison has done it again, we join Ollie on the next stage of his journey, this time he discovers Empathy and how he can use it to help himself and others.Alison has a knack for for sharing knowledge through Ollie without lecturing.This book is a must read not just for children though, many adults do not have empathy perhaps the world would be a better and safer place if they did.The phenomenon that is Ollie is growing, he must reach into schools and other agencies that look after young people, please embrace this book. David Thompson -...
Find an 'Ollie' Coach near you
Ollie Coaches Our Ollie Coaches are highly trained, highly experienced therapists in their own rights and now they also know how to speak "Ollie”! The Ollie concept is designed around providing a method and a language that helps children to take control of their emotions rather than be controlled by them. It gives them a way of making emotions real and have substance so that they can choose what they want to feel and how much of that they want to feel. But most importantly why they are feeling it in the first place. So often we say that child...
Ollie Coaches first training day
Ollie Coaches Saturday 2nd July was our first training day for Ollie coaches. And what a wonderful day it was. In the morning we had Ali show us the techniques she uses with kids. This included lots of facial expressions, lots of hand movements, lots of jumping around, sitting on the floor and lots of laughter. Its amazing how adults can do very good impressions of 10 year olds when asked! In the afternoon we got a bit more serious going through the basics of Safeguarding, the responsibilities of being an Ollie Coach and then the opportunities that are...
Ollie and his Super Powers goes into Schools
The Launch of Ollie and his Super Powers. To coincide with the publication of Ollie and his Super Powers, Ali and Ollie went into St Lukes School, Cambridge, on Monday to talk to the kids of the school about how they can use their super powers to help them cope with everyday pressures of being a kid. Unprompted and unrehearsed, one little man wanted to tell Ali about how Ollie has helped him. What the teachers think "I think that Ollie is a really exciting opportunity to help children to explore some of those trickier things...
The Language for Children
Watch what you say - making sure you're speaking the right language Young children are very nominal in their thought process and language skills. By that I mean they either win a race or they lose, they are loved or they are not, its black or its white. They just don't "get" any grey elements of their reality. It’s important to know this and be mindful of it when working with children. They are very literal in their understanding. That's why things like : "your a bad kid" when what we mean is “what you did was not really the...
All behaviour serves a purpose…..
All behaviour serves a purpose I work with both children and adults and the above is very true in both. No matter what someone wants to change because its holding them back or causing them a problem, I can pretty much guarantee that the issue they are struggling with is actually trying to serve a positive purpose for them. Here’s an example. A young lass aged 10 was bought to me because she was suffering from acute IBS. Now IBS can be associated with medical issues which had been checked out and given the all clear, and of course it...
Ollie makes an awesome anchor
We use anchors in therapy to help you get to the emotional state you would like to be in an instant. What is an anchor? Well do you watch any sport? Lets say rugby. The number 10 – the person who kicks the conversions. If you watch an international game, well any game really, the kicker will go through a little routine before kicking the ball. What they are doing is getting themselves in the zone. They are cutting out all awareness of the crowds and the pressure. Chances are they have worked with a therapist like me to do...
How the concept of the super powers came about.
I like to think my body is a democracy but every now and then I have to step in and remind it. See I believe I am made up of parts - like fear, love, willpower, wisdom, and a hundred other parts that make me who I am. Most of the time these parts work well as a team. Fear acts as a body guard and keeps me alert but common sense stops fear taking over. Compassion wants to do good stuff but wisdom stops compassion giving my house away. So, by and large, all these parts of me steer me along...