A Tamworth man is taking his knowledge of sport and fitness training and applying it to mental health.
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Managesport founder Peter Annis-Brown will next week launch his BOUNCEuP program in high schools and communities all over NSW.
The program is billed as a sport approach to resilience, and uses the same principles of proactive and preventative training seen in sports and fitness regimes, and applies them to mental health.
"Just like your body, your mind can be trained and improved," Mr Annis-Brown said.
"We have built a program about what resilience is, as well as developing and practising skills to help people overcome the ups and downs of life.
"We will have interactive sessions and workshops around things like what strengths you do and don't have, as well as learning practical skills that people can use everyday."
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The program uses terms like 'curve ball', and 'falling off your bike' in order to relate the education to the community, and just like learning to ride a bike, Mr Annis-Brown said the more you practice the better you become.
"It is like physical conditioning - the more you practice, and the more you train the better that you become at it,"
"From a self care perspective the experts are saying that you should be looking at three to four sessions of self care a week - that could be as simple as taking ten minutes out just to catch you breath on a busy day."
The BOUNCEuP program has been backed by Clubs NSW, and will see Mr Annis-Brown run the 90 minute sessions for schools across 30 locations starting with a workshop in Armidale on May 29.
There will also be nine sessions held for community members in drought affected regions, including one in Tamworth next week.
