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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Supporting the mental health and wellbeing of the youngest in our communities

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 her parent’s separation and mum’s low mental health, Tiana was living full time with dad and visiting mum. Before joining M2E, teachers praised Tiana for her kind and helpful behaviour, but also noticed that she would become increasingly anxious, tearful and bottle up her emotions. Both Tiana’s school and family wanted to address these challenges as they noticed it was affecting her potential in school and relationships with others.

“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 getTiana totalk 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. 

This included developing a vision board with Tiana’s hopes, wishes and photographs to illustrate each vision. The project was a great way for the whole family to be able to look at what Tiana wanted for her future, for herself and her family.  “Tiana’s hopes and wishes were for Mum and Dad to get along with each other, for Tiana to be a film producer or artist when she gets older, for her whole family to get along, the importance of family, and to let go of worries,” said Gail.  

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.  

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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.

“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.”

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.