MEET CIARA

Educator, Psychotherapist & Creator of the Student Wellbeing Guides

I'm Ciara O'Byrne, an educator and Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist with a professional background in student wellbeing, additional educational needs and inclusive education.

Working directly with young people in secondary-school settings has given me a real understanding of the pressures students can experience during their exam years — academically, socially and emotionally.

The Student Wellbeing Guides grew from a desire to bring those different parts of school life together. I wanted to create something practical that students could actually use: a resource that supports wellbeing while also helping them organise, study, revise and prepare for exams.

At the heart of the guides is a simple aim: 

to help young people feel supported, understood and better equipped to navigate their exam years.

The Experience Behind the Guides

My work with young people sits at the intersection of education, wellbeing and therapeutic support.

Alongside my work as an educator, I have professional experience in student wellbeing, additional educational needs and inclusive education, and I am a qualified and practising Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist. This combination has shaped how the Student Wellbeing Guides have been developed.

They are designed with an understanding that academic success does not happen in isolation. A student's ability to learn, organise, revise and prepare for exams can be influenced by stress, confidence, friendships, sleep, emotional wellbeing, additional learning needs and what may be happening in their life outside school.

That is why the guides look at the whole student — not simply the exam candidate.

Why I Created the Guides

Working with students has shown me that wellbeing and learning can't really be separated.

A young person who is overwhelmed, struggling with confidence, finding friendships difficult, navigating an additional educational need or simply unsure where to begin with revision doesn't experience those things in separate boxes.

Yet the support we give students can sometimes be divided that way — wellbeing in one place, study skills in another, exam preparation somewhere else.

I created the Student Wellbeing Guides to bring those pieces together.

My hope is that each guide feels like a reassuring companion through an exam year: somewhere students can turn for practical strategies, information, structure and encouragement, whether they're having a difficult day, trying to get organised or preparing for an important exam.

Above all, I want young people to know that looking after themselves and working towards their goals are not competing priorities — they can do both.

Ciara O'Byrne 

MA Integrative & Creative Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy 

PGDip Play Therapy  ·  PGDip Special Educational Needs & Inclusive Education  ·  PGDE

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