The LYP One to One scheme launched in September 2015 and has been successfully delivering counselling and mentoring to young people during the last school year. Travelling throughout Mole Valley, our team meet with those whose needs are considered early help. Below is a case study of a young person (name has been changed to protect identity) who was referred to the scheme.
Jason was referred to the one to one service because he was struggling with anxiety and was having friendship difficulties. He was visually very anxious and was clearly distressed by his friendship difficulties, so our first session was a combination of hearing his concerns and making a plan for our work. In our second session we focused on trying to alleviate his anxiety symptoms, by using some CBT techniques and exploring his responses in different situations, for example working through a thought record and doing some psychoeducation.
As our work progressed we moved on from anxiety management, to explore how different aspects of life were contributing to his anxiety. Here it was evident that his anxiety and his friendship difficulties were very much entwined. We explored how these difficulties were affecting each other, and made some plans about how to develop his social confidence, including talking through some scenarios and discussing some strategies to try.
During our work Jason would often bring a new smaller concern each week alongside his main concerns. For example, he felt he didn’t chat to his family enough. As we explored and discussed this concern together Jason was able to suggest some strategies to work on. Discussing situations like this helped Jason grow in his capacity to manage his concerns and grow in confidence to deal with future issues.
Jason and I completed 10 sessions together. Over this period he rated his anxiety dropping to a manageable level, his social confidence growing significantly, and him becoming a more active and enthusiastic member of society. As we worked towards an ending, Jason shared that he was happier with how life was progressing, and also said he felt he was better able to understand others and to communicate his own needs.
