All names have been changed to protect the young person’s identity.
Sara is a teenager, living with her grandparents in a large town in the Midlands. Her grandma says she has always been a “very quiet child, introspective” and adverse experiences in her childhood added to this. In the last couple of years there has been some instability in their home life, which has affected Sara and added to her anxiety. This sometimes leads her to pick and scratch at her skin.
Sara herself could sense that her grandma “was worried about me cos I don’t talk much about how I am feeling” (Sara). Although her family had sought help through Child Adolescent Mental Health services, she also wanted something different for Sara. Her grandma felt there weren’t many people that Sara could express herself with, or open up to. It could take her a long time to trust people, adults especially, and she felt that as though some services “stigmatise her” (Sara’s Grandma).
I wanted her to talk to someone, who isn’t sitting there with a notebook and pen like Social Workers do (Sara’s grandma)
Sara loved doing art at school, and so this all came together in the eyes of her caseworker at the Virtual School who had had a good experience of referring to the Creative Mentoring Programme before. They felt that Creative Mentoring would be non-threatening, focused on Sara, and doing something she enjoyed.
To give her that support while things were difficult … they’re not counsellors but somebody different to listen to her … time that was just set aside for her, where she was made to feel important … I thought it was something she would engage with because of the art (Caseworker, Virtual School)
Sara’s grandma jumped at the chance. She herself understood that because arts are expressive “it could be a way in for Sara” (Sara’s grandma). Her caseworker referred Sara for a Creative Mentor and The Mighty Creatives matched her with Anna.
Anna has been a Creative Mentor for nearly two years. After a career change into the visual arts, Anna works both as a painter with her own practice, but also runs creative workshops in schools, businesses and at social events. She has been “naturally drawn to working with people … not art therapy but using creativity to support people” (Anna).
Anna and Sara have been working together for about 18 months, and Sara says “I really like it”. They meet during the school day, but because there is little space at school, they go to a venue nearby.
Sara’s grandma wasn’t sure whether the Creative Mentoring would be a success, and thinks Sara was initially “a bit sceptical”. However, she was hopeful it would be different to some of the other experiences Sara had with services before, and knew that first impressions and personal connection mattered.
Before their first session Anna met with Sara’s grandma to learn a bit more about Sara’s interests, hobbies and what she might enjoy. This helped Anna think about what she would bring to their first session, both in terms of materials and ideas. In getting to know about Sara, Anna didn’t ask either Sara’s grandma or her caseworker for any extra information about Sara’s circumstances as a looked after child. Although she will ask for this information when needed, Anna prefers for her mentees to feel in control of what she knows about them:
I tend to say to them: ‘I do know you’ve been referred to me as you are living with’ and I’ll say who, ‘but I don’t know why that is and it’s not important for what we’re doing but if you want to talk to me about any of that that’s fine’. I kind-of spell out to them what I know so they aren’t wondering what I know about their personal life (Anna)
They had their first session in the kitchen at Sara’s home, where Anna brought a range of different arts and craft materials for Sara to explore. This began their work together.
Anna sees two tasks at the core of her work as a Creative Mentor: to build a trusting relationship with the Creative Mentee, and to help the Creative Mentee find and explore something they find exciting. Whatever activities they end up doing, they are in service of these aims:
Every time it’s led by trying to find out what they love doing … then once I’ve got that I literally go with whatever they are interested in. Building that relationship is the other consistent thing: it doesn’t matter what you are doing, you’re trying really hard to show them that you’re an adult in their life that they can trust (Anna)
Anna links these two aims together by making the exploration of different activities also an opportunity to show interest in a mentee’s life. However, both Anna and Sara’s grandma observed that developing the relationship and exploring activities that interest Sara has taken time:
When I met her, she was timid and quiet … I wasn’t convinced she wanted to be there … I felt I was in her space (Anna)
A common challenge for Creative Mentors is that Creative Mentees can find it hard to make choices, especially those with experience of being in care which can often take choices away. They may have lost the confidence, or even the knowledge, to know and ask for what they want. In Sara’s case, Anna responded to this by bringing lots of ideas, materials and options for her to try, as well as carefully noting “little things I’d picked up from her” (Anna) that might interest her. This meant that in their first set of sessions, they tried lots of different things together, though Anna would often choose what they did.
It was in their second set of sessions, which Sara had asked to continue having, that she began to make suggestions of her own. Sara had tried some Origami and wanted to show Anna what she had learned; then together they began to learn more. As Anna describes it, this moment was a shift:
We did that together and that was a real changing point for us … for one thing we were laughing quite a lot together when things went wrong. And the atmosphere just changed. It felt to me like she was in control of things finally (Anna)
After together exploring the possibilities of working with paper, Sara wanted to try working with clay. This has become the focus of their work since then, with Sara becoming “really quite masterful” (Anna) at making clay models of the animals in her life: her pet, and animals she has seen on family holidays.
However this shift in her confidence and expression goes both up and down. Anna reports that Sara is getting more confident in her choices, but there are still occasions when she has needed support to decide what to do next. Sara’s choices can come quite suddenly and part of Anna’s job is to continue to support her with options and ideas, but be ready to run with it when Sara has something she wants to pursue.
Sara has said that she “really likes” the time she spends with Anna and is happy that she started having Creative Mentoring.
When Sara was asked by her school if she wanted to continue her sessions, she clearly expressed her choice to have more. This is as well as asking to change the timing of sessions so that she didn’t miss one of her favourite subjects at school, which for her grandma suggests that she is comfortable and feels confident with Anna:
To have actually opened up and asked for that is something she wouldn’t normally do, so she was obviously comfortable to ask … I know she is happy; I know she is enjoying it because she wants to go again (Sara’s grandma)
Anna also feels that Sara’s confidence has grown within the context of their work together, and hopes, but doesn’t know, whether “it might extend outside of our sessions” (Anna).
Some of the professionals working with Sara thought that she seemed more settled compared with when Creative Mentoring was originally commissioned for her. This is likely due to wider changes in her home and school life, but Sara’s grandma thought that the sessions had contributed to that stability. Sara describes the particular activities they do as helping her feel calm and so more talkative:
We have done painting and sculpture which I find makes me calm and I chat more when I am calm (Sara)
I think just keeping Sara on an even keel and not as anxious and self-harming, and since she’s been with [Anna] this has slowed down and stopped. She can express herself (Sara’s grandma)
This kind of stability helps with family life too. Sara finds conflict difficult and her grandma knows that a day when Sara has been with Anna can be a good day to have what might be quite hard discussions for her, such as about tidying her room.
As well as this, Sara has developed her skills in working in clay in particular. Anna reported that she sometimes makes things to give to people, and her grandma thought that she was proud of her work, which is on display at home:
[Interviewer: Is she proud of her work?] Oh yes, we broke the tail off [one of her animal sculptures] and it had to be fixed. It had to be (Sara’s grandma)
Sara says that as well as the calming activities they do together, the way Anna relates to her makes a difference, and feels she can trust her:
Anna talks to me like a person and doesn’t treat me like a child or sit there writing notes about me all the time. I trust her not to tell other people about what we discuss (Sara)
Sara’s grandma echoed this. Some support services really hadn’t worked well for Sara, who is not always comfortable with authority. But the person-centred and open nature of Creative Mentoring has provided a different experience which is “not in a threatening environment … not being graded or looked at” (Sara’s grandma).
Whilst this is partly the design of the programme, it is also how Anna does it. She pays attention to the experience and needs of each Creative Mentee, including Sara, and has put her safety, comfort and especially choice at the centre of her work. She’s mindful of never telling her Creative Mentees they have to do something; she accepts them for who they are and puts them in control wherever possible. She feels it’s important that this is “different to the relationships that they might have with teachers and carers” (Anna).
How Anna does this, her personal skills and qualities is also important in having built a trusting relationship with Sara, and her wider family:
She’s very warm and approachable – asks open-ended questions, makes the effort to get to know us … And it’s working a treat (Sara’s grandma)
The choice to take part in the programme, and then to carry it on has always been with Sara. Whilst many working with her observed that she was more settled these days, they will be guided by Sara as to whether or not to continue with her sessions. What may change, as Sara begins to study for her GCSEs next year, is how this will fit-in alongside time in school.
Find out more about our award-winning Creative Mentoring service and how it can support your young people through challenging or transitional times.
