A young person, who for confidentiality purposes will be known as ‘George’, has recently benefitted greatly from the Targeted Support Services of Positive Futures. This specialist intervention has allowed her to access emotional support for her anger and aggression issues.
‘George’ was referred to Positive Futures (PF, after struggling to manage her anger and aggression both in school and at home. The intervention from Positive Futures commenced at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown, meaning the traditional face-to-face sessions had to be adapted to a virtual delivery, in order to still support ‘George.’ However, she dealt well with this and still engaged with the process.
The Youth Development Worker started off with some baseline assessments which helped ‘George’ reflect on her current feelings and behaviours. ‘George’ completed an Outcome Star, Goal Based Outcome document and 1-2-1 agreement. This initial piece of work gave the Positive Futures Youth Worker a deeper understanding as to ‘George’s’ current situation, and where the PF intervention could best help.
It soon become clear that ‘George’ was struggling with a lack of confidence, and felt under a lot of pressure as a young person to fit in with society ‘norms’. This pressure and lack of confidence was manifesting itself as anger and aggression towards others in an array of settings, as ‘George’ battled to feel comfortable and accepted.
The Positive Futures Worker used a Getting to Know You Questionnaire which promoted self-awareness and reflection with ‘George’. This led on to exploring ‘George’s’ confidence and self-esteem, and the impact that this was having on her day-to-day life. The support used Comfort, Stretch and Panic Zones, and ‘The Most Confident Person’ scenario work to support ‘George’ in exploring her attitudes, behaviours and perceptions. Through this piece, the duo also explored body image, after it became apparent that ‘George’ had a negative perception about her own image. ‘George’ worked with her Youth Worker to explore ‘Who I Am,’ which encourages self-reflection and allowed her to explore what type of person she is and how her behaviour affects and impacts others.
“I feel much happier and I now feel proud of myself”.
A few weeks in to the sessions and ‘George’ has also opened up about her struggles dealing with the death of a close relative and how this has made her feel angry. Through the process of exploring her emotions and self-awareness, ‘George’ has become more aware of the long-term impact that this trauma had on her, and the subsequent impact it has had on her emotional state. To support her to safely explore and begin to deal with these feelings, she will now access bereavement support from Positive Futures which is another service offered as part of their Targeted Support Services.
As lockdown measures are eased, ‘George’ is going to start having some face-to-face sessions with her Positive Futures Youth Worker. She now knows and understands more that her anger and aggression stem from grief and lack of confidence. She plans to continue working with the Positive Futures Team to learn how to express emotions in a safe and controlled manner.
Since the lockdown came into effect at the end of March 2020, the charitable youth development organisation have delivered over 316 hours of targeted 1-to-1 support, supporting young people to access specialist support including Counselling Skills, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Neurodiversity.
