Tiana* was experiencing high levels of stress and difficulty concentrating in school, partly due to her parent’s separation and mum’s low mental health. The holistic support aimed to improve Tiana’s confidence, emotional awareness, and relationships. From significantly reducing stress to implementing healthy habits, the support led to amazing outcomes for both Tiana and her parents.
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“I am able to talk about what is bothering me, and I have learnt that it’s better to talk about how you feel instead of holding your feelings inside.”
“The reason for the referral was that mum was struggling with Tiana’s behaviour because of mum’s mental health diagnosis,” explained Gail, our lead education practitioner. “We wanted to get Tiana to talk about her worries and emotions more because it seemed that she kept them all to herself, for mum and Tiana to have a good relationship and for positive contact to be able to be sustained.” Working closely with Tiana’s teachers and parents, Gail introduced a range of creative and holistic activities. In each session, Gail intorduced something interesting and creative to help Tiana focus on the activity and give her space to be open and talk about her emotions. They decided to make some sleep spray to which Tianna said, “This helps me sleep better and helps me to relax. I spray it on my pillow and in my room before bedtime.” They also made some lavender bath salts which Tiana used to give herself time to relax and shut off from the world for a bit.
Both Tiana’s parents and teachers have noticed that Tiana is happier and more confident… With 10 being the highest level, Tiana’s score for overall stress went from 10 to 2, emotional distress from 6 to 0, and hyperactivity and concentration in class from 6 to 1.
After just a few sessions, Tiana started to open up about what was bothering her and what she needed help with. Reflecting on the talking sessions, Tiana said that “this was good because it helped me talk about how I felt, and it makes me feel better in my time with Gail. I am able to talk about what is bothering me, and I have learnt that it’s better to talk about how you feel instead of holding your feelings inside.” Due to their consistently and hard work, the family played a key role in the success of the programme. Gail mentioned that the family implemented their new tools like the ‘emotion cards’ which helped them all express their feelings to one another, especially Tiana and mum. “I didn’t express my feelings at home but now with the emotions card I can pick one and we can just pick them up instead of just saying how I feel,” said Tiana. She adds, “Mum told me yesterday that she feels sad when I was leaving and this made me feel happy that she said this as she would never say anything like this to me before, so it made me feel that she really does miss me when I go.” Following the support, both Tiana’s parents and teachers have noticed that she is happier and more confident. Tiana is now able to talk to her parents about any of her worries and fears. “By expressing Tiana’s fears about Mum and Dad not getting on, both parents were able to look at their communication with each other,” said Gail. “And we gave advice and tools around how the family can use specific ways of communicating and talking to each other and feeding back to Tiana.” Based on the feedback from everyone involved and Kineara’s monitoring and evaluation model, the support led to some amazing outcomes. With 10 being the highest level, Tiana’s score for overall stress went from 10 to 2, emotional distress from 6 to 0, and hyperactivity and concentration in class from 6 to 1. Gaid added, “Both Tiana and her parents worked extremely hard to create positive change in their lives, and I wish them all the very best.” *Name has been changed to protect client identity. To find out more about our education support in schools or if you have any questions about the above, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us to arrange an informal chat at: info@kineara.co.uk or call 020 3976 1450. “I didn’t express my feelings at home but now with the emotion cards I can pick one and we can just pick them up instead of just saying how I feel.”