When school feels impossible.

What does school avoidance look like?

Sunday-evening dread. Monday-morning stomach aches that ease by ten. Tears, rages, or a child who simply will not get out of the car. In teens it can look like lateness that creeps, then absences that stack, then a bedroom door that stays shut. It is rarely defiance; it is almost always fear, and the fear has usually won several rounds before parents hear about it.

When should we seek help?

Fast, honestly. School avoidance strengthens with every missed day, because each day away confirms that away feels better. If mornings are battles more days than not, or absences are accumulating, it is time. You are not overreacting, and neither is your child pretending.

How does Sandra work with it?

First by finding what school has come to mean to this child: a friendship gone wrong, a subject that shames them, sensory overwhelm, separation fear, or anxiety with no single face. Then the work runs on two tracks: the child builds tools for the fear at their own pace, and parents get a workable morning plan, because the 7am doorway is where this is won or lost, gently and not in one leap. Sandra worked in London schools for years and knows the terrain from inside.

Sessions run in person in North Vancouver and online across the UK and Canada. Times and logistics live on those pages; every fee is on the fees page. Not sure counselling is what your child needs? Start with that question, or counselling vs coaching.