Let's be Real - Mental Health for Young Minds
Let's Be Real equips schools, educators, parents, and young people with the skills to recognise, understand, and respond to mental health challenges.
Childhood and adolescence are tougher than ever. Social media, identity struggles, and disconnection have left many young people without the tools to thrive.
Many adults are left without the tools to help. We believe it doesn't have to be that way.
Why Let's Be Real
Let's Be Real - Mental Health for Young Minds was founded in 2024 by Jacqueline Klemke and Nick Praulins to give whole school communities a shared language for mental health, and practical strategies to use it.
Every young person should be surrounded by adults who can recognise what they are going through, hold the conversation, and know where to go next.
A Youth Mental Health First Aider, systemic coach and MBA, and a school leader with over twenty years in international education - two perspectives on the same problem.
Our curriculum is independently developed, inspired by Mental Health First Aid, and grounded in WHO adolescent mental health data and peer-reviewed research on literacy and destigmatisation.
Our approach
It's not something you teach to one group. It becomes real when students, educators, and parents share the same language.
A student who has the words to name what they're feeling, but goes home to parents who don't, is still alone. A teacher trained to spot early signs, in a school where those signs aren't discussed openly, is still working in silence.
Everything we do exists to put that shared language into the space where students, educators, and parents meet.
Two sides of the same coin
Our Youth Mental Health Response training and our Mental Health Literacy programme are the same coin seen from either side. One builds the courage and the skill to respond; the other builds the understanding and the self-awareness that make responding possible.
Recognising the signs and symptoms of mental health challenges, and having language that makes it ordinary to talk about them. This is where stigma quietly loses its grip: what can be named can be discussed, and what can be discussed can be supported.
Understanding your own brain, identity, and limits, and having practical tools to look after yourself and to ask for help early. Literacy without self-awareness stays theoretical; self-awareness without literacy stays private.
And this applies to young people as much as to the adults around them. A school where students can name what they feel, but staff and parents cannot, has only turned half the coin over.
The evidence
Stigma is one of the most consistently reported barriers stopping young people from asking for help, and literacy is what turns concern into a useful response. That is why we work on the two together. When schools do the same, the trials show knowledge rises, stigmatising attitudes fall, and young people become measurably more willing to seek support.
97 trials
A 2025 review in JAMA Network Open brought together 97 high-quality studies on reducing stigma, covering 43,852 young people aged 10 to 24.
Crockett et al., JAMA Network Open, 2025Knowledge grew most
The biggest change was in what young people knew about mental health. Their attitudes shifted too, and so did the way they behaved towards peers who were struggling.
Crockett et al., JAMA Network Open, 2025More willing to ask
The same review found young people became more open to asking for help, and more likely to say they would - the step that comes just before actually reaching out.
Crockett et al., JAMA Network Open, 202550% by age 14
Half of all mental health conditions start by age 14, yet most are never spotted or treated - which is why the school years are the moment to act.
World Health OrganizationPooling many studies, researchers in Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health found that anti-stigma work clearly reduced stigmatising attitudes in young people. Both teaching about mental health and meeting people with lived experience helped.
Song et al., Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health, 2023A review of mental health literacy programmes in primary and secondary schools found pupils knew more and judged less afterwards - and several of those gains were still there when pupils were checked again later.
Amado-Rodríguez et al., Children, 2022In the Guide Cymru trial, Year 9 pupils were taught a mental health curriculum by their own teachers. Compared with pupils who were not, they knew noticeably more and held far fewer stigmatising views.
Simkiss et al., BMC Public Health, 2023The SchoolSpace trial with UK secondary students found a school-based programme improved understanding and reduced stigma - a reminder that where a session happens, and how it is run, matters as much as what is taught.
Chisholm et al., BMJ Open, 2016MHFA International oversees the Mental Health First Aid programme now running in more than 25 countries. Evaluations of youth MHFA consistently show trained adults know more, hold fewer stigmatising views, and feel more confident helping a young person. Our Youth Mental Health Response training is inspired by that model and adapted to school roles.
MHFA InternationalThe World Health Organization estimates that around one in seven 10 to 19 year olds lives with a mental health condition, and that half of all conditions begin by age 14. WHO recommends school-based promotion and early identification as a core response - which is exactly the layer schools can own.
WHO, Mental health of adolescentsThe same reviews are honest about the limits: most trials measure short-term change, and long-term follow-up is still thin. That's precisely why we build for sustained, whole-community work rather than one-off assemblies - a single session shifts a survey score, a shared language shifts a school.
Questions we hear often
Find your pathway
The same shared language, four different starting points. Pick the one that describes you and see what the work looks like from there.
You are responsible for a whole community.
You want to help at home, not hand it over.
You are the adult in the room when something surfaces.
You support young people beyond the school gate.
What we offer
Pick one, or combine them into a programme that fits your calendar and your community.
Educators, pastoral staff, school leaders
Youth Mental Health Response - our MHFA-inspired, independently developed certification in NOTICE, HOLD and LEAD tiers.
Explore Youth Mental Health ResponseAges 9-18, class or year-group sized
Age-appropriate sessions on emotions, stress, help-seeking and supporting a friend - built from our Mental Health Literacy modules.
Explore Mental Health LiteracyParents and carers
An evening session that gives parents the signs to NOTICE, the words to start the conversation, and a clear sense of when to seek help.
Explore the NOTICE parent workshopWhole-school or single phase
A short, structured read on how your community is really doing - anonymous input from students, staff and parents, returned as findings and priorities you can act on.
Enquire about a Wellbeing Pulse CheckHeads, SLT, board and governors
A focused session for the people who set the tone: staff wellbeing, escalation routes, safeguarding overlap, and what good looks like across a school year.
Enquire about a Leadership Wellbeing SessionFind what you are looking for
People search for different words to describe the same need. Here is what our programmes are called, and what you might have typed to find them.
A school that has worked with us has a common vocabulary for mental health that runs from the classroom to the kitchen table, staff who can hold the first conversation, and parents who feel equipped rather than sidelined.
Programme One
Shared language for your whole community.
Six workshops that build understanding, confidence, and a shared vocabulary for mental health across your school community. Delivered in classrooms, staffrooms, and parent sessions, with content adapted for each audience. Schools can run the full programme or combine modules to match their own priorities.
Upper Primary
Ages 9–11
≈ Upper PYP
Lower Secondary
Ages 11–14
≈ MYP 1–3
Middle Secondary
Ages 14–16
≈ MYP 4–5
Senior Secondary
Ages 16–18
≈ DP
How the brain develops, and why feelings and decisions shift as it does.
Who am I, and how do I fit into a community that isn't always mine?
What makes relationships feel good or go wrong, and how to look after yourself in them.
How scrolling shapes self-esteem, and how to stay grounded in it.
Practical strategies for handling stress, setbacks, and hard days.
Naming what we've been talking about, and how to recognise when something more is going on.
Programme Two
Practical skills to act when it matters.
A purpose-built response training for the adults around young people in international schools. Delivered by qualified trainers, structured in three tiers so the depth of training matches the depth of the role.
The three stages
Parents · 4 hours
Recognise the early signs and start the conversation.
Teachers · 1 day
Stay present in the conversation and connect to help.
School leadership · 1 day
Build the systems that let support take root.
Depth of training matched to depth of role
For Parents
For parents who want to recognise what their child might be experiencing, and hold the conversation when it matters. Practical skills, honest framing, no jargon.
2 x 2 hours (online or in person)
For Teachers
For classroom teachers on the front line of student wellbeing. Builds confidence to spot early signs, stay present in a supportive conversation, and connect a young person to further help.
4 x 2 hours online or 6 hours in-person
For School Leaderships
For heads of pastoral care, deputy heads, and school leaders. Goes beyond first response into the systems, policies, and whole-school conditions that let mental health support take root.
1-day HOLD workshop is the prerequisite for LEAD. LEAD is in-person only.
Outcomes
We agree the outcomes with you before we start, and we measure them. These are the four we track in every programme, using short pre- and post-programme surveys for students, staff, and parents.
Confidence
Staff and parents report higher confidence in starting a conversation about mental health and staying in it, rather than passing it on straight away.
Measured: self-rated confidence before and after training
Earlier identification
Trained staff recognise early signs and raise them through the school's own routes, so support starts before a situation escalates.
Measured: recognition scenarios and referral timing in school records
Help-seeking
Students say they are more willing to speak to an adult or a friend, and can name at least two people and one service they would go to.
Measured: help-seeking intention scales, pre and post
Parent-child talk
Parents report more frequent and less anxious conversations with their children about feelings, stress, and asking for help.
Measured: parent survey at the workshop and eight weeks later
Baseline and follow-up data stay with your school. We report the change, not individual answers.
How it works
Every school runs differently. Different timetables, calendars, cultures around parent engagement, staff development rhythms. Our job is to fit the work into your operational reality, not ask you to bend around ours.
What we bring
A fixed backbone
What your school shapes
Everything operational
What we bring
A fixed backbone
What your school shapes
Everything operational
The depth of training is matched to the role, and the durations reflect what's needed to reach certification at each tier. This is the one part of the work we don't flex, because a half-trained responder is worse than an untrained one.
Mental health & neurodivergence
Around 15–20% of people are neurodivergent - autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, dyspraxic, Tourette's and more. They experience anxiety, depression and self-harm at markedly higher rates than their peers, and much of that gap is not intrinsic to being neurodivergent. It comes from years of being misread: masking to fit in, being disciplined for distress, being told to try harder at things that cost them far more effort than anyone can see.
Shutdown, meltdown, school refusal, rigidity or apparent 'attitude' are frequently distress signals, not behaviour problems. We teach adults to read the function beneath the behaviour before they respond to it.
A young person who copes all day at school and collapses at home is not fine. We help staff and parents compare notes across settings, so exhaustion is spotted before it becomes crisis.
When everything gets attributed to autism or ADHD, treatable anxiety, trauma and low mood go unnoticed. Our Youth Mental Health Response training explicitly checks for what's being missed.
Let's Be Real have helped ISF equip our staff with a shared language, skillset, and strategies through 'Mental Health First Aid for Youth', while supporting the development of wellbeing practices woven into the DNA of our school. This work is central to ISF and SABIS globally, preparing students academically and holistically for success in today's world. Nick and Jacqueline are a pleasure to work with – professional, collaborative, and insightful.
David Harrison, School Director
ISF - International School Frankfurt, Germany
The Mental Health First Aider Course (Level 3) with Nick and the Let's Be Real team was phenomenal. The content broadened my perspective on mental health and gave me the confidence to better support both staff and students. Nick's delivery was passionate, authentic, and deeply empathetic. He created a safe space for open and honest conversations. I left feeling inspired, empowered, and truly equipped to make a difference.
Michael Blunn, Head of Pastoral Care
Internationella Engelska Skolan Hässelby Strand, Stockholm
The two-day Mental Health First Aid course with Let's Be Real, led by Nick, provided an incredibly valuable experience, fitting seamlessly into the framework IES Solna already has in place. Nick's engaging approach made important topics easy to understand and directly relevant to the school. The course provided useful tools and insights to help build a more supportive community for both students and staff.
Hannah Southwood, Head of Year & Classroom Teacher
Internationella Engelska Skolan Solna, Stockholm
Trusted by
Our work sits inside school communities across Germany and Europe, in English and German.
Primary through secondary, working with teaching staff, pastoral teams and leadership.
PTAs and parent associations hosting evening workshops for families across year groups.
Networks and member organisations, including ECIS, bringing training to their schools.
Delivered by qualified Youth Mental Health First Aiders, alongside our own independently developed curriculum.
Upcoming workshops
Open sessions you can book directly. In-school dates for Youth Mental Health Response are scheduled around your calendar.
Frankfurt, in person - English
An evening for parents and carers: the signs to notice, the words to start the conversation, and when to seek help.
Book the September NOTICE workshopFurther dates - English
The same session, running throughout the school year. Pick the date that works for your family.
See all English NOTICE datesFurther dates - German
Our parent workshop in German, for families who would rather have this conversation in their first language.
See all German NOTICE datesNOTICE (1 day), HOLD (+1 day) and LEAD tiers run on request for schools and organisations, in English or German. Tell us your term dates and we will build the schedule around them.
The people behind Let's Be Real
A small, practitioner-led team. Every programme is designed and delivered by qualified mental health trainers who work directly with schools, students and families.
Owner & Co-founder - Mental Health and Wellbeing Consultant
Jacqueline is the owner of Let's Be Real. Her training as a Life and Business Coach, and as a Couples and Family Counsellor, led her to pursue further training in this field. In Q4 of 2026 she will also complete her training as a psychotherapist (non-medical practitioner).
Mental health - and giving tweens and teens, including their teachers and families, the tools and support to become resilient adults - has been at the forefront of her work at Let's Be Real – Mental Health for Young Minds, which she co-founded with Nick Praulins in 2024.
LBR takes a whole-community approach. As part of that, parents are included in the conversation around mental health at schools.
Co-Founder & Associate Partner - Communication and Educational Consultant
Nick co-founded Let's Be Real with Jacqueline because schools are on the front lines of a growing mental health challenge, yet most lack the tools, training and shared language to respond effectively. The result is stigma, silence and strain across entire school communities: students, teachers, staff and families alike.
Through this work he designs and delivers training that helps communities talk openly about mental health and build practical strategies for support.
By profession he is a senior communication and educational consultant working with European organisations across countries, languages and cultures. He specialises in helping leaders and teams navigate moments of change, turning strategy into communication and learning experiences that people actually understand, trust and use. His work is informed by over 20 years of experience in education and leadership, including time as a school leader.
Whether in classrooms, boardrooms or cross-cultural teams, he focuses on creating psychologically safe, resilient and high-performing communities.
Our story
Back in the day, Jacqueline was a parent at the school Nick was heading. She walked into his office - unannounced - and asked whether she could make a proposal on how to improve social skills and social wellbeing. He said: “Go for it.”
What she did not know at the time was how important those issues already were, and still are, to him. Let's Be Real is the continuation of the work they started back then - and the rest, as they say, is history.
Jacqueline had always been deeply passionate about children and their mental health, but life took her on a different path first: twenty years as a conference interpreter, a profession she still enjoys today. Along the way she tutored children and adults, trained as a Life and Business Coach, and then as a Systemic Couples and Family Coach, after seeing how often people's struggles ran deeper than language - into core beliefs, expectations and cultural norms.
Nick came to the same place from the other side of the desk: over twenty years in education and leadership, including time as a school leader, watching schools carry a growing mental health load without the tools, training or shared language to respond.
In 2024 they founded Let's Be Real – Mental Health for Young Minds to give whole school communities - students, educators and parents - that shared language, and practical strategies to use it.
Free guide
A short, practical guide for parents and educators: five openings that work, what to say when you get a one-word answer, and how to stay in the conversation without pushing.
Typography
Every word on this site is set in Lexend, an open-source typeface designed to reduce visual stress and support reading fluency. It is a small design decision with a real effect: the people who most need this information - young people, parents and busy school staff - should never have to work to read it.
Lexend is used at comfortable body sizes with generous line height throughout, and pairs with our contrast and focus standards described in the accessibility statement. Choosing a dyslexia-friendly typeface is a small measure - but a meaningful one. Inclusion is built from decisions like this, made before anyone has to ask for them.
Next steps
No pitch, no obligation. Twenty minutes to hear what your school is dealing with and tell you honestly whether we are the right fit.
A few lines about your school, the year groups involved, and what prompted you to get in touch.
A short reply with the formats that fit your calendar, indicative timings and costs.
Pick a slot that works for you. You leave the call with a clear recommendation and next steps in writing.
We reply to every enquiry within two working days, Monday to Friday, 9:00-17:00 CET.
Interested in working together? Tell us about your school or family and we will be in touch shortly.