Case Study - Counselling

How many does it support?

• 988 young people (10-16) have been supported by a young
people’s peer mentor since 2017
In 2018/19 this service has worked with
• Number of young people Identified (referred) – 294
• Number of young people recruited (appropriate referrals) – 283
• Number of young people taking up the service – 228

Case study - 11 year old male accessing the counselling service.

Background

J lived at home with his Mum, Dad, older brother and sister. A checklist was completed by a social worker for all the young people in the family following a child protection order for emotional harm. J had some special educational needs, moderate learning difficulty and some speech and language difficulties. J was not subject to an Education Health Care Plan but was on the Special Need Pathway. J was referred following concerns about the family’s ability to function effectively and mental health concerns. J had previously been witness to domestic violence and coercive behaviour from his father and concerns were raised following assessment about exposure to physical and emotional harm. J was discharged from CAMHS due to lack of engagement and it was considered alternative options may be more helpful. It was decided the parents be referred for parenting support via HeadStart and J and his siblings offered individual counselling sessions.
J received 11 sessions of counselling. Initially J was unsure why he had been referred for support. School contacted the service to express that they were having difficulties managing his behaviour in school including issues with lying and attending in not approved clothing to school.
J used sessions to identify that anger was a problem for him. He learnt how his thoughts and feelings interplay and how this may be affected by the people he is with and the situation that he is in. He was able to identify that anger came from a place of anxiety related to how he feels about his speech and language differences. He was able to explore these thoughts and feelings and identify ways
to manage them. J acknowledged his differences and learned how to identify what was triggering his reactions. J was offered different options to support him and asked that he be supported to share his fears with school so that they were aware and able to help him mange them better. J found this helped a great deal. J completed sessions and reported he felt more in control of his emotions and responses.
J felt he had a clearer understanding of the relationships he had and was more confident in school. He was able to recognise his emotions and what triggered them and learnt strategies to manage them. J recognised that he was no longer getting into trouble with school and was not fighting in and out of school.

Next Steps
J was offered further intervention, which he declined, however, Social Services remain involved with family support and the parents were referred for parenting work as agreed.

Feedback from J
J stated that whilst he was unsure if he wanted it at first, he was glad to feel more in control of how he felt and was no longer as anxious about being in social situations. He reported that he was no longer as worried about his speech and language difficulties now that school understood him better. He thought the best thing about his care was “being helped with his anger”

Feedback from young person accessing counselling
“Thanks for bringing my mum in to the session. It was the best thing I ever did”

Feedback from Staff working with young people accessing counselling
“I don’t know what we would have done had we not been able to ask you to advise us on the best way to manage when X is struggling in class. We were feeling a bit out of our depth before”

Feedback from parent of young person accessing counselling
“I hadn’t thought about everyone being involved before but it was nice to come away with a plan for all the family instead of having to attend lots of different assessments for each of us. We walked away with a whole family plan and that felt reassuring”