Therapy for 20 suicidal young people in Hackney

With just over £9034.00 raised, we would like to thank all the fantastic supporters who have donated.  £9,000 enables us to provide much needed therapeutic and suicide prevention support for 9 x young people for 6 months. Last year, 59% of the young people that we supported were suffering with moderate to severe mental health issues. 32%of these young people had battled with suicide ideation or had attempted suicide. We want to reduce this by at least 15% in the next year. To do this, we need your help.

Last year we saw an improvement in 84%of the young people we supported within 6 months.

Please meet Martha (her name has been changed for her protection):

When we first met Martha she presented with high anxiety levels, particularly around her friendship peer groups and her exams. She was experiencing a lot of pressure at school and with exams coming up, found revision had increased her anxiety and stress levels.  

Martha’s parents separated when she was 9, however she has a good relationship with her father. As well as managing the impact of her parents separation, Martha also had to cope with her mother’s depression over the years since she was 12 years old. In early 2015, mum had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was receiving treatment.

Martha found it very difficult to cope with her mother’s more difficult emotions well as her own, and that of her younger sister. Martha started to contemplate whether she should continue to live.  This had a huge impact on her low self-esteem and she felt changed and had become shrouded with an air of sadness.

Mixed with the emotional difficulties of her past experiences she was going through the transition stage of adolescence, emerging into a young woman as she turned 16 during the course of her therapy with us. This added to the internal conflict about her identity, sense of self and sense of worth.

During therapy, Martha became really committed to her sessions and really made use of the space. She began exploring her anxieties and fear of living. She was no longer afraid to question things and with a healthy curiosity asked questions. Sometimes, her therapist was unsure whether she was avoiding particular issues around her mother’s cancer and depression, however, we worked with her to bring these difficulties into our sessions. This is when Martha showed growth in her ability to explore her feelings and think about the impact of these serious issues upon her life, her behaviour and her emotions.

Martha was very prolific in her art making. She was naturally gifted in this area and engaged really well. She found expressing herself through art therapy gave her an insight and profound explanation of what things meant to her. The artwork was multi-layered and said so much about her.

Martha was very imaginative and often spoke in the metaphor which was wonderful to work with. She was also very open and receptive to what was said to her and explored within the sessions.

She beautifully described the role of the art making, in the metaphor, to be like ‘background music’ and that helped her to control her anxieties. Through therapy she decided that her life was worth living. She decided she wanted the ‘background music’ she learnt to help manage her life though art therapy, to be the soundtrack.

We work tirelessly and passionately to ensure that every young person who walks through our doors, receives the best care for their mental health issues.

Every child deserves support to be the best they can be. We can’t do this without the support from people like you! We implore you to support us and help young people like Darius, have a chance to be great!

Thank you from everyone at Off Centre!

Links:

• Therapy for 20 Suicidal Young People