Irina started getting support from Havering Emotional Support Team (HEST) when her son Bogdan started experiencing emotional difficulties at 5 years old.

HEST supports children and young people who may be experiencing mild to moderate emotional wellbeing difficulties in schools.

Here Irina shares her story about how she found the support helpful.

“Bogdan would run away from me at the park saying things like ‘I don’t love you’ and ’I don’t want to be around you’.

“I found this really hard so I reached out to the school about the problems we were having, and the school referred me to the HEST team, to start sessions to support my son for challenging behaviours and anxiety. The sessions were once a week for an hour, I was apprehensive before the first session and felt quite scared.

“When I met Leo, the mental health practitioner for the first time, it was easy because he was willing to listen and help.

“He gave me different strategies each week to try at home, some didn’t work but some worked. When it did work, I wondered why I hadn’t tried this before!

“Before getting support, we were struggling with emotions like Bogdan getting angry, not knowing how to take turns playing, and he would get upset because other children wouldn’t understand him.

“After the sessions, I was able to take him aside and support him to regulate his emotions. Before, I would have said ‘you are misbehaving, lets go home’, now I take him to the side, support him emotionally and then he carries on playing.

“Bogdan is so much happier now — I realised that he needed my emotional support and the only way he would get it, is if I got help myself.

“Every morning I meet parents in the playground with similar difficulties, I try to support them in any way I can and always recommend the Havering Emotional Support team.

“I’ve never had professional support before, it made me understand my own emotional difficulties and the importance of being vulnerable. I’m so proud of us, I know that the help we received will help us build a better future.”

Since her sessions with HEST, Irina started accessing support for her own mental health through Talking Therapies in Havering.

HEST supports children and young people who may be experiencing mild to moderate emotional wellbeing difficulties in educational settings as part of the Whole School Approach. The team currently works in 21 schools and 2 colleges across the borough, offering one to one support, group programmes and activity clubs.

For more information on Havering Emotional Support Teams website , please follow the link Havering Emotional Support Team (HEST) | NELFT NHS Foundation Trust