Content warning: mentions of trauma and intrusive thoughts.
Jorge’s journey with The Nest allowed him to use his creativity and affinity for art to express and better understand his emotions. Jorge’s sessions with the Nest offered him a space where he could express his emotions, vulnerabilities and experiences as an asylum seeker living in the UK.
Jorge was referred to The Nest by the Family Early Help practitioners as a result of the anxiety, emotional dysregulation and intrusive thoughts. Currently, he is a college student living in a residential setting for asylum seekers with his mother, maternal grandmother and his siblings. Jorge’s goals were to manage and support his thoughts and emotions, control his anxiety, reduce his intrusive thoughts, better connect with those around him and to develop effective coping strategies.
Jorge had expressed anxieties relating to his and his family’s uncertain statuses as asylum seekers in the UK and difficulties creating friendships due to cultural differences. Previously, Jorge had witnessed domestic abuse in his home country and expressed moderate psychological distress pre-intervention.
Initially, Jorge and the practitioner focused on laying the foundation for a trusting therapeutic relationship to begin to properly understand the root cause of his anxiety and intrusive thoughts. Jorge’s passion for creativity led him to attend seven dance movement psychotherapy sessions at The Nest. Dance movement psychotherapy integrates metaphors, supporting people like Jorge to visualise and externalise their emotional state and the challenges they might face. It was through dance movement psychotherapy that practitioners supported him in creating a structured daily routine, beginning with meditation and visualisation in the morning to reduce overthinking and his hypervigilant state. It was important for the practitioner to consider cultural awareness while working with Jorge – in his home country, ideas surrounding masculinity meant that men often found it harder to open up about their emotions.
As the day progressed, Jorge was tasked to do one act of self-care a day, which might include taking a walk in the park or having a conversation with someone close to him, like his siblings. Finally, by the end of each day, Jorge would check -in with himself, writing down the main takeaways of the day, and the emotions he had experienced. By the end of the intervention, Jorge could accept his own emotions and vulnerabilities, and felt comparatively more aligned with the norms in Britain when expressing them.
Jorge’s intervention emphasised the importance of self-care and self-discipline. Through the creation of his daily routine, he was able to set aside a specific part of his day for self-care and processing his emotions. By the end of the intervention, Jorge experienced a healthy amount of distress. Jorge commented that he had the “[ability] to distinguish my problems” and he highlighted the empathy of The Nest’s staff: “my psychologist really understands, even sharing experience.”
