Hello, I'm Kelly, I am a mum to three amazing grown up children, nana to one beautiful grandaughter and a qualified Mental Health Counsellor.
I have worked with children for over 25 years as a nursery nurse in various settings such as schools and nurseries. During that time I've had my children, been married and then divorced! Being a single parent was very difficult for my family emotionally and financially. Trying to juggle work and family took its toll and affected all our mental health in one way or another. There were times when I felt all these plates I was juggling were going to come crashing down but I was determined to support my family, build a career for myself and most importantly, make my children proud! I had wanted to become a counsellor for a long time so I decided to retrain.
There were many reasons I wanted to train as counsellor. Firstly, I wanted to help children and families through difficult times and secondly because I am passionate about mental health. However my inspiration to finally take the plunge and retrain came from children; my sons for how they dealt with their dad leaving but mostly my daughter. She lost her dad suddenly when she was eleven years old. Watching her go through that bereavement was so difficult, even with the loving support of our entire family. I was so proud of how she coped but it made me think of the children and families that don't have support. Knowing the pressure and stress it causes within families when a child is struggling, I knew counselling was the path I needed to take.
It has been a long journey to get here and I have worked with many children and families over the years. My hope now is for The Listening Tree to not only offer children and families support but to bring people together so they don't feel so alone.
Hi, I'm Mandy. I'm a mum of 2 children, a wife
and a fur mum!
I've had to learn what mental health means over many years of dealing with my daughters struggles.
She started to show signs of anxiety when she was around 8 years of age but I didn't realise at the time what these signs meant. I was a single mum at the time to my daughter age 7 and son age 3. I divorced from their Dad when they were 5 and 1 year old, they saw him most weekends until the new year of 2007 when he just didn't turn up to visit. Over a few months of me trying to make contact, I had to give up and concentrate on the children who were my one and only priority. We were a little gang off 3, our own little family making the most of every day.
At 13 years of age, my girl had a full breakdown trying to just get herself through the gates at high school which then snowballed into what felt like a dark and very lonely black hole. It was years before she could be seen at CAMHS and I was completely lost as her mum... I just didn't understand what she was going through and what to do. After CAMHS initial assessment I was floored, they said she just wasn't at rock bottom, she wasn't ill enough and just needed to get on with life and school. I was devastated!! I knew it wasn't just that so I went back to the GP and had another referral back to CAMHS. By this time she was at rock bottom. She was assigned a lovely young lady counsellor who really understood my daughter and what she was experiencing. Between us, after a lot of time, tears and patience, we came to some conclusion that she had tried to take on the role of the second adult in the house with me and this was causing her immense worry and anxiety. She loved her talking therapy and it was just what she needed to help her to make sense of what she felt and thankfully, she's now in a great place in her life.
It took many years and lots of listening to make things feel more back to normal and now I'd love to help people who feel like I did. With our team, we want to guide you through and give you hope and a light at the end of what can seem like a very long, dark tunnel!