We are a group of professionals with backgrounds in Mental Health Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Teaching, Clinical Psychology and Consultant Psychiatry and the world of Business Management who have worked in under 18s health care and education for decades! Our time in health and education services has brought us an abundance of experiences working alongside children, young people, their families and professionals.
We stand in awe of human beings, inspired by how we all navigate some of the toughest personal challenges. We are inspired by hearing and observing how we all strive to find our balance to grasp a more settled future. A future where we aim to know safety, acceptance, love and happiness. A future fueled by contentment and ambition but most importantly, an inner strength to recover from our experiences and face new hurdles ahead.
Our undeniable passion for providing an effective Early Intervention and Prevention Mental Health Service has brought us Normal Magic.
Sarah Lewis and Steve West are both Mental Health Nurses specialising in Child and Young Person Mental Health Care. Individually and together they have spent a collective 5 decades building and delivering mental health services.
Sarah founded the Normal Magic programme in 2016 aiming to demystify and destigmatize ‘mental health’ and raise awareness of our unique ways of mentally healthy living, loving and learning. Initially the programme was designed for staff teams in schools and colleges however this soon became an effective framework to support children, young people and their families in their search for emotional stability. In 2016 we were part of a multi agency service commissioned for 3 years to develop an early intervention service. As a result of working in partnership with education, the Normal Magic model was born and consequently highly celebrated by commissioning teams and receivers. Sarah received a Service Star Award in recognition of her extensive work and leadership. By the end of our commission in 2019, over 300 schools had engaged and added their brilliance to their use of the Normal Magic framework.
Over the years Steve has been a significant part of delivering and researching this model across schools, colleges and in his work with children, young people and their families. Sarah and Steve have received an abundance of feedback which underpins Normal Magic’s evidence of effectiveness. This evidence has helped us refine and develop every aspect of the programme. Our ongoing research and work continues to hold effective and efficient clinical practice at the heart of everything we do. We continue to develop a quality assured service and use our abundance of passion and energy to drive the Normal Magic message forward, far and wide.
The wider Normal Magic group bring an abundance of perspective, knowledge, energy and passion. It is this professional diversity from both health and education that we welcome, value, respect and adore.
Our team of parents, children and young people keep us inspired as we collaboratively develop our resources through both the design and creation stages. They are individuals in our Normal Magic world with an expertise in life and surviving. They all bring an honest voice that we hugely welcome, value, respect and adore.
A massive extra thank you to the very gorgeous Bo for her most excellent voice overs on our videos. Huge Gratitude and Love to you Bo from us x.
Thank you to the brilliant and patient Jason at the Group of Seven who has been more than amazing bringing our concept to life in our loved videos, resources and website. Big Love to the brilliant Group of Seven Team x.
Normal Magic thrives because of the diverse contribution to development as described above. We sincerely thank everyone who brings their energy, passion, motivation and expertise to this service. Big Love to each and everyone of you.