Sitting on a plastic chair in the middle of an east London community hall, I carefully sneak a peek at the scene unfolding around me. There's a group of five children sitting in a circle with their eyes tightly closed, hands stretched out in their laps. The soothing sound of pan pipes is playing in the background, while life coach, Usha Chudasama, in her softly spoken tones, gives us a set of visualisation instructions to follow.

This isn't an ordinary summer workshop; it's a relaxation class for stressed children. According to Usha, a special-needs teacher and qualified neuro linguistic programming (NLP) practitioner, children are more stressed than ever before. "They're stressed because their parents are stressed.

"And sometimes, parents simply don't have the skills to help their children. What my workshop does is to give children a head start into thinking in a new, more confident way," explains Usha.

The kids around me do look relaxed, and after the ten-minute visualisation, it's on to massage and then, colouring and drawing. It's all part of the Healing Feeling workshop, which consists of five, four-hour sessions, teaching children techniques to help them handle stress and anxiety.

"Kids are stressed because their parents are stressed. And sometimes, parents simply don’t have the skills to help their children."

The sessions are based on Louise Hay's book You can heal your life , which Usha found solace in after she was struck down and confined to her bed with chronic fatigue in 2000.

"After reading the book, I started to try the things that Hay talks about, like the positive affirmations, and yes, amazing things did begin to happen," explains Usha. Slowly, she began to feel better and returned to part-time teaching. She also started running adult workshops based on the Hay method.

"What I found was that a lot of the problems people face stem from their childhood and their belief system. I decided to go to the root cause, and adapted the work I was doing for adults, and wrote a similar programme for children." A year later the Healing Feeling workshop was born.

The workshop incorporates meditation, tai-chi, dance, massage, visualisation, positive affirmations and much more. Not exactly the usual things children are taught, but Usha is quick to defend her alternative methods. "Young children learn everything through imagination and play. But as they grow older, there is less time for play at school and at home.

"By discussing an imaginary journey with a child for example, will help them develop their language skills, help them learn and it connects the left and right sides of their brain," advises Usha. And her technique has seen results.

Jack is eight. He appears to be confident, but when he's in a group he becomes shy and aloof. But after completing the workshop activities, on the final day, he confidently speaks in front of a group of adults and children about what he enjoyed the most, something his mum believes he wouldn't have done before.

"Children learn everything through imagination and play. But as they grow older, there is less time for play at school and at home. By discussing an imaginary journey with a child will help them develop their language and help them learn."

Another child, Mia, has a visible disability. She is often name-called by children at school. But here at the workshop, she feels safe and happily interacts with the other children. "Mia is an interesting example," explains Usha, "When she was visualising, she imagined she was surrounded by a bubble and all the names she was being called, simply bounced off the bubble.

"Through this technique, Mia learned that other people's problems are their own, and that she didn't have to listen to what they were saying to her."

Confidence is a big problem for many of the children, but Usha also deals with more severe cases. "I worked with one boy recently who was self-harming. He had been bullied so much that he had low self-esteem and that spiralled into him harming himself.

"After 18 weeks of working him and his mum, he is a totally different child. We looked at bullying, why people bully, and also, we went through visualisations which made him feel more confident about himself. He can stand up for himself now," smiles Usha.