Nia’s Story
“I’ve had someone to talk to, to help me through the hard times. I’ve been able to discover who I am and who I want to be.
[Before I started working with Bridges, I was] kind of like lost, floating, existing in life. I felt like I had no control over myself. I didn’t feel like I knew what I was doing with my life. I was just going through the motions of being alive.
[Now] I feel pretty good! I’m having a good time now, I’m thriving. I’m on the road to living my best life.”
— Nia
Nia was referred to Bridges Project by one of East Lothian Council’s Mental Health Youth Workers. Nia was experiencing increased levels of anxiety in social situations and was looking for support to attend university.
Anxiety had always been a factor in Nia’s life, however this came to a head in her high school years. Her school environment, combined with her parents’ separation, led to her experiencing anxiety and developing nervous tics such as making involuntary jerking motions with her head and shoulders. Her parents’ split was particularly acrimonious, with Women’s Aid supporting the family due to domestic abuse within the family home prior to their split. At times Nia self-harmed.
Nia was referred to CAMHS at 14 and was diagnosed with anxiety, however she then felt abandoned and unsupported by them.
Despite her anxiety, Nia performed well academically, achieving the grades to attend Edinburgh University to study Maths.
Nia and Grant hit it off quickly, finding shared interest in movies. Nia also shared that she had a huge interest in hair styling and creating costume outfits.
At the time Grant and Nia met, she was due to enter second year of university and was dreading the prospect. For that reason, Grant suggested that together they look at her motivation levels, and do some coaching to help her rediscover her goals and her drive to work towards them. During their next meetings, Grant and Nia started working through the Bridges Foundation work book on Motivation.
At this point, Nia had restarted university, however her experience continued to be poor and detrimental to her mental health. She was considering dropping out as she felt “burnt out all the time”. Grant offered some coaching to help with making this decision, which Nia accepted.
With Nia’s goal to reach a decision on whether to stay in university or do something else, together they looked at her experience of university life and her motivations for signing up in the first place. Nia shared that a big part of her reason for choosing Maths was to get her Dad’s approval. Nia saw that her options were to “stay and be miserable”; switch course or drop out on a permanent or temporary basis.
She decided to take a few days to make her decision, and after speaking to her mum, she chose to leave university, feeling a mixture of excitement, relief and pride in her decision.
Nia’s priority was now to continue to make decisions for herself and in her own best interests, and she decided to pursue hairdressing as a career.
Grant supported Nia to prepare a CV and Cover Letter, and subsequently hand in speculative applications to salons around East Lothian. Nia used the skills and confidence she gained from this to cold-call salons in Edinburgh, eventually landing an interview, trial shift and apprenticeship with a highly-reputed salon in Edinburgh’s Old Town!
A key outcome from their work together was Nia’s achievement of an apprenticeship post in her chosen field, as well as numerous increases in her wellbeing indicators.
Throughout the year, Nia also reviewed her progress by completing employability-focused surveys. Her self-reported employability scores improved remarkably – from 67 out of a possible total of 100 to 91 out of 100. Nia did this by maintaining each of her strengths, whilst making improvements to her self-esteem, her self-confidence, her knowledge of her own skills and strengths and her motivation levels.