Surviving or Thriving?

There are never two days the same at A Way Out – our working days are always unpredictable, sometimes frenetic and usually eventful.  The lives of many of our beneficiaries follow a similar pattern – theirs can be a result of a mixture of vulnerability, addiction and exploitation. 

We support these women in all aspects of their recovery, working with partnership agencies and our own internal services.  Psychotherapeutic Counselling is one in-house provision that A Way Out is proud to offer.

This week has been Mental Health Awareness week and within our centre we made a conscious focus upon this year’s theme – ‘Surviving or Thriving?’

As I write a pot plant sits on an opposite windowsill – it’s roots are parched, cracked and dry, the plant has faced the cold winter and now the harsh glare of the early sun, neglected and forgotten and yet still battling to sustain life, to produce just one more flower bud.   

We often talk about ‘survival mode’ – whether it’s just getting through a bad day or persisting through adversity; enduring, we try to press on.  This is a battle that can take its toll both physically and mentally, right to our very roots. 

During this week of mental health awareness A Way Out’s counselling service provided relaxation and mindfulness sessions for beneficiaries and for our hard working staff - a peaceful haven of reflective calm, rejuvenating and refreshing.  

The aim was to encourage us all to thrive and learn to sustain this perspective each day.  This approach fits perfectly with A Way Out aims to encourage all of our beneficiaries to look positively upon their future in order to flourish and ‘grow well’.