Isla’s Story

I’m Isla and I’ve been working with Beth who is the children’s worker from Finding Freedom From Abuse.

Beth came into school to meet me after she had spoken to my mum and my school about seeing me. Mummy told me it was because of the way Daddy used to talk to me. She introduced herself and told me that her job was to come and speak to children like me that had seen not very nice things or had experienced nasty things at home. Beth told me that our room was a safe place where I could tell her anything and I wouldn’t get into trouble. Beth said that it would be ‘confidential’ which means that she didn’t have to tell Mum or Dad what we spoke about unless I wanted her to, or if she thought that I was going to get hurt. If I tell Beth something that makes her worried that I’m going to be hurt then she has to tell other people like school and Mum.

The first time I met Beth we played some games to get to know each other better, my favourite was snakes and ladders because I won! We asked each other lots of questions that were on some special dice that Beth has, like what is your favourite ice-cream – we both said chocolate!

Beth told me what kind of things we would be working through and asked if there was anything I really wanted to work on – I said that I get angry quite a lot and would like some help on how to stay calm.

I made a worry diary which is where I write down everything that upsets me or that I’m worried about throughout the week so that the thoughts stay still on the paper instead of running through my head and each week Beth goes through them with me and we find a way of working through them together. I find this really helpful because I can understand how I’m feeling better when I write it down.

Together we made a safety plan which is where I wrote down everything that I can do to stay safe like go next door to see Tracy or call the police if it gets really scary. I’ve only had to go to Tracy’s once so far but it made me feel really safe to know that I could go there and she would look after me, and we even had chicken nuggets for tea.

We made a support plan too which is all about my feelings, my friends, my school and lots of other things. Beth asked me what was good and what was not so good about all these different things and we talked about whether this is something that could be changed, or how I can react differently to them – like not shouting at Mummy when she does something I don’t like.

I like to see Beth because it feels good to talk about how I am feeling which I don’t like to do at home because Mummy gets sad when I talk about Daddy. Beth said that it’s okay for me to still love Daddy and that all my feelings matter. Beth read me a story called ‘How are you feeling today Baby Bear’ which is all about big feelings and helped me to understand mine better.

I feel like talking to Beth has helped me understand how I feel more and makes me feel safe and listened to and I look forward to seeing her every week.