Communication Creativity Community
Catalyst Living Skills
960 Old Cooma Road, GOOGONG NSW 2620
Tel: 0413 451 589
Email: catalystlivingskills@gmail.com
ABN: 81 253 051 149
Catalyst Living Skills
Developing the skills to reach your full potential
Programs for adults and children
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Catalyst Living Skills offers several weekly programs for children and adults , with a focus on:
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Communication
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Self esteem
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Decision making
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Creativity
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Co-ordination and motor skills
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Focus and observation
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Relationships
To achieve our goals we mainly work outdoors, in a rural farm environment offering hands on activities and experiences designed to help individuals process emotions, gain self awareness and promote personal growth.
What's a life skill?
Catalyst Living Skills programs are guided by the six essential life skills identified by the World Health Organization (1999)
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- Decision making and problem solving .To understand problems, find solutions alone or with others, and then take action to address them.
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Creative thinking and critical thinking. To think in different ways about problems, and find new solutions, or generate new ideas, coupled with the ability to assess information carefully and understand its relevance.
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Self-awareness and empathy (emotional intelligence). To understand yourself and be able to feel for other people as if their experiences were happening to you.
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Assertiveness and equanimity, or self-control. To stand up for yourself and other people, and remain calm even in the face of provocation.
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Resilience and the ability to cope with problems. To recover from setbacks, and treat them as opportunities to learn, or simply experiences.
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To develop these abilities Catalyst Living Skills programs take an interactive approach using games, puzzles, and other teaching techniques to keep the participant wholly involved in the sessions where their focus is on having fun rather than on learning something new.
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What we do
Catalyst Living Skills delivers individual programs designed with the client or carer to suit their interests and needs. The programs are tailored to support individuals with wide ranging disabilities that aim to enable people to reach their full potential through the development of key life skills. Activities are delivered on a small 18 acre rural property in Googong.
Catalyst uses a variety of experiential techniques: encouraging communication and self-expression through indoor and outdoor play; utilising materials like paints, discovered objects or clay for self-expression and exploration; working with animals to facilitate emotional healing and personal growth; or undertaking farm activities to build confidence and life skills.
Our activities are mainly undertaken outdoors as we see a reduction with internalising and externalising behavioural problems in children and adults. Outdoor activities can be effective at reducing anger, depression, disassociation and aggression as well as improving self-esteem, self-confidence, attention-span and social interaction.
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About Ruth
Owner and Lead Facilitator
At Catalyst Living Skills I have combined my educational experience with my experience of living and managing a small rural farm for the last 25 years, to create a unique and creative learning experience for both children and adults. We work to create focus.build communication empathy and social skills
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I have over 30 years’ teaching in the United Kingdom and then ACT, in schools, colleges, special education and alternative settings with extensive experience in designing programs for children and adults that meet their individual needs. I am currently undertaking a Diploma in Counselling and hope to be a registered Counsellor in the near future.
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