Q&A with our new therapist lead, Nina

1) What's your role at Play for Progress and what does a normal day look like?

I am the new therapist lead at Play For Progress. A normal day at PFP for me would be coming in to open up the space and prepare the main space for our CAT group session. On Tuesdays, we offer a Creative art therapeutic group space. I work alongside a wonderful team of Drama Therapists, we use creative and embodied medium/techniques to explore emotional content alongside the young people. Each session looks different, sometimes it incorporates relaxation techniques, sometimes body work, and other times story or imaginative play. All our work is trauma-informed. We plan and check in before each session. Every session ends with a picnic that we share with the young people, this is a great opportunity to hang out and break bread. After the session ends we all tidy up together, then the therapists split up into individual therapy spaces to see our one-to-one clients. I overlook the smooth running of all therapeutic offers and related admin.

2) What's your favourite thing about the role?

I get to come to my favourite place every week and work with a wonderful and skilled team. There is a lot of love, support, respect and warmth in our space. And seeing the wonderful faces of the young people each week is definitely a highlight. It’s our own special community.

3) How do you think your work has an impact on the young people at PFP?

I think our work impacts the young people positivity, we co-create a warm, inviting and non-judgmental space where the young people get to be in community with their peers and explore together, sometimes there’s joy, sometimes challenges and big life questions that need tackling. They get to do that in and amongst a community with attentive and qualified adults who really care about their wellbeing, and I think that it  is felt, in fact we often hear this from the young people.

4) Do you think your work has an impact on the young people's mental health and wellbeing?

I do think our work has a positive  impact on the young people. For many of the young people who join our space, they are far away from their homes, families and what’s familiar. A sense of belonging  contributes to positive wellbeing/mental health and psychological safety. I believe our space contributes in part to that feeling. 

5) What's one unique thing about you that others might not know?

I’m an internationally published poet and spoken-word artist outside of my role as a therapist. I have been writing and performing for 10 years in the UK and internationally at venues including South Bank Centre, GOMA and the Apartheid Museum in South Africa.