Our Children and Young People Services
Our Children and Young People Services
Are you feeling really stressed about food, eating, or how you look? Are you feeling worried that you might have an eating disorder? Or are you worried about someone you love who might have an eating disorder?
We're here to listen to you.
Our friendly team of children and young people's therapists can support you in a number of ways.
Get to know more about the team here: Meet the Children and Young People's Team.
Watch this video to learn more about services and how we can help you and your family.
When you reach out to SWEDA for help, you will be offered a 'Support and Guidance' chat with one of our team. It’s a 'getting to know you' chat about:
- What's going on for you?
- Anything you might be worried about?
- How SWEDA can help.
- What are our next steps?
- What can we do to help you feel at home whenever you visit SWEDA?
We can have this 'getting to know you' chat in our friendly offices in Shepton Mallet, or you can meet with a member of our team closer to you where you live. We can meet in-person, or online, it's up to you.
You can also bring someone with you: this could be a friend, parent or anyone else that might help you feel more comfortable.
After this chat, SWEDA will set you up with what we think will work best for you. This might be counselling or support calls.
If we are supporting a lot of people, we may need to ask you to wait a while before we can start working with you. We will check in with you a few times to listen to how you are doing while you wait for counselling to start.
Counselling is a kind of one-to-one chat with someone who can listen to your worries and understand what you are going through. We will pair you up with a member of our Children and Young People's team, who will meet to talk with over several sessions. Together you'll talk about what you are feeling, finding ways to move forward.
This might be in the form of ‘tools’ to help you in day-to-day life. It will also be a chance to understand any difficult things that may have happened to you. Counselling helps you to gain an understanding of how you came to be where you are, and how to move forward. It can help you learn more about your ‘triggers’ or finding ways to take care of yourself when things are difficult.
Support Calls are another form of support, usually 6 x 30-minute calls over a few months. These can be weekly or every 2 weeks.
A support worker will meet you on your calls; you will agree with them what you want to work on together. Here are examples of goals you may wish to work on:
- Having some space to talk and be heard.
- Exploring your worries and thinking about whether you want to seek extra help at this time.
- Exploring if you are ready to recover (this is always your decision).
- Learning more about eating disorders and how they are affecting you.
