A Case Study from the Flourishing Minds Project

By Colin Whittaker, Wellbeing Coach at Lancashire Mind

The following article is taken from a series of real coaching sessions. We have changed names to protect privacy and are extremely grateful for the opportunity to share this lived experience. **Trigger Warning: please be aware this story mentions stress, anxiety and low mood.

What is Flourishing Minds?

Flourishing Minds is a community based, tiered service that empowers people to learn?self-care and coping skills to enable them to better self-manage their mental and emotional health, alongside other health conditions.?

Lancashire Mind?are working in partnership with Age UK , One Voice Blackburn ?and The Wellbeing Service to provide a variety of activities and support to Blackburn with Darwen residents. All activities are designed to enable people to better understand their mental health and wellbeing and learn how to look after it.

The overall aim of the service is to improve mental wellbeing across the population of Blackburn with Darwen. The Flourishing Minds project will identify and focus on the strengths and skills that exist in local neighbourhoods and use these resources to support lasting change. This approach will enable local people to discover and share their talents and resources to make long-term improvements to their community and their wellbeing.

Background

Melissa is going through a divorce. Her relationship with her ex-husband is very unpleasant. Melissa is also having to sell the home they resided in and look for somewhere else to live.?

The whole situation has affected her daughter who as a result has been struggling with her mental health. In addition, Melissa is also due to have an operation.?

All the above issues mean that she is unable to work. As a result low mood, stress and anxiety are very prevalent in her life.

What wasn’t working?

Being isolated and experiencing a negative thought pattern. This has resulted in Melissa not being able to motivate herself into completing the tasks she wants to do, causing low mood/stress and anxiety.

What was the problem?

Since the splitting up with her husband, who was an alcoholic, Melissa has experienced health issues. This has produced negative thought patterns manifesting itself into low mood, anxiety, and stress. Overall, this has resulted in her being unable to complete tasks and things in life they need and want to do.

How did we approach the problem?

Initially we approached the issues by looking at how Melissa was coping. Spoke in depth about coping statements and about living in the present enabling Melissa to think with clarity rather than confusing herself with thoughts of the past and the future. We then spoke at challenging her negative thoughts.

"I would definitely recommend Flourishing Minds in the future to someone who is facing similar issues." (Melissa)

What solutions did we offer?

We looked at coping statements and mental grounding techniques. With coping statements, I spoke about staying in the present, remembering thoughts are not facts and remembering what you’ve got through in life. I then spoke to Melissa about mental grounding such as using the five senses, thus ensuring when anxious or stressed Melissa took herself away from what was making her stressed for a short period, using their five senses, before going back and dealing the with situation which was making them anxious.

We also worked together on challenging thoughts. Melissa started to use a diary and when she had a negative thought, she needed to think of an alternative one. This focuses the mind on thinking positively.

We also completed the Five Ways to Wellbeing ensuring Melissa identified and completed the five ways making her feel happier and contented. Over the weeks Melissa has consistently used the five ways and is starting to think alternatively. As an example she felt they had dealt with a Universal Credit query positively, when they could have gone into a negative mindset. The Five Ways was having a positive impact.

We then completed a personal strengths exercise. What came across was Melissa’s love of the outdoors and keeping fit, her ability to show empathy and the desire to improve herself and learn photography i.e. something new. Melissa also spoke of learning from the mistakes of the past and ensuring in any new relationship she had her own individuality in it. We looked at personal relationship self-care and ensured she was looking after herself properly.

"I have learned being staying in the present is important and using the techniques provided I feel I will move forward positive in the future" (Melissa)

What impact did our services have on the problem?

Over the period, Melissa became a lot more confident and learnt a lot about herself. She was thinking more positively about situations, remembering to engage with friends regularly, thus avoiding isolation and ensuring she were completing tasks she enjoyed i.e. walking the dogs. As a result she felt a lot less stressed and anxious, and able to deal with any difficult situations a lot better.

"Colin made sense and I felt connected in all sessions." (Melissa)

Who can access Flourishing Minds??

Flourishing Minds is funded by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council Public Health. You can access Flourishing Minds if:

• You are 18 or older
• You live in Blackburn or Darwen
• You are registered with a GP in Blackburn or Darwen
• You are struggling to maintain positive wellbeing

Contact us for more details: [email protected]??

or visit: Flourishing Minds | Lancashire Mind