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Peer Support
Feeling anxious about attending headspace? Our Peer Support Workers have been through challenges of their own. They use their experience to provide emotional support, practical advice and encouragement for young people and their caregivers. They can support you from start to finish at headspace.
How peer support helps
Connect with a Peer Support Worker to get the most out of headspace.
Empathize with what is happening for you.
Improve your sense of social inclusion and connection.
Build your knowledge with mental health information.
Bridge the gap between you and your clinical support.
Have you heard of peer support?
A Peer Support Worker is a person with lived experience dealing with mental health who can walk alongside you, no matter what kind of day you're having.
Some are young people, and some are the parents or caregivers of young people, who have travelled a similar path and can share relatable experiences. Linking up with a Peer Support Worker, as well as meeting regularly with your Clinician, is the best way to get the most out of your experience at headspace.
Our Peer Support Workers can provide emotional support, practical advice and encouragement.
What do Peer Support Workers do?
Peer support is an important step in the headspace journey. Studies have shown that people with common interests or experiences have always benefited from sharing and supporting each other. Peer Support Workers are trained to share their lived experience of mental ill health and recovery to support others going through similar stuff.
Benefits of a Peer Support Worker:
- Having gone through a recovery journey themselves, they can empathize with what is happening for you.
- They share their experiences so you can see where they were challenged and where they succeeded.
- They encourage you to work towards goals that will support your wellbeing.
- A Peer Support Worker can share information about mental health wellbeing, support you in building knowledge and encourage self-care.
- They can become a bridge between you and your clinical supports, to ensure a collaborative approach to your treatment and recovery.
Meet the Team
Our Peer Support Team has Peer Support Workers for young people and parents/caregivers. They are an absolutely amazing group of humans from all different backgrounds, identities, and lived experiences who have been where you are and can help you through it. Watch this video and check out our Instagram feed @headspacesouthport to get to know them!
Meet Calvin (he/him)
LGBTQIA+ Peer Support Worker, headspace Southport
I began meditating at the age of 10 and I have continued ever since. This really supported me when overcoming life's challenges and drew me to supporting others. Transitioning from a career in performance I chose to dedicate myself to personal and collective spiritual wellbeing out of my love and passion of people and everyone having the freedom to recover. What does Calvin never leave the house without? Watch this video to learn more.
Meet Ella (she/her)
Youth Peer Support Worker, headspace Early Psychosis Program
Within my role as a Youth Peer Support Worker, I can share with young people my experience and my journey of recovery with mental health issues such as psychosis, neurodivergence, generalised anxiety, major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. I can also give my knowledge relating to navigating school and university system, friendships, relationships and moving out of home and working. Other interests? Going to live music gigs and playing with my bulldog.
Meet Ebony (she/her)
Youth Peer Support Worker, headspace Southport & Upper Coomera
My biggest personal value is empathy, and I am so excited to be able to work with young people who are struggling with their mental health and provide the empathetic and relatable support that is peer work. Within my role, I have knowledge of and am able to share/support young people with generalised anxiety, major depressive disorder, OCD and distorted/obsessive thinking, relationship anxiety, experiencing/exposure to a traumatic event, chronic illness and admission to treatment facilities. What helps me stay in a healthy headspace? Self-care, journaling, and time with friends.
Meet Dom (she/her)
Parent/Caregiver Peer Support Worker, headspace Early Psychosis Program
In my role as the Parent/Carergiver Peer Support Worke for the headspace Early Psychosis program, I’m able to share my experiences of caring for young people and my own lived experiences to support others. Areas of experience include ASD, ADHD, BPD, & MDD, AOD, generalised & social anxiety, eating disorders, education & learning disorders, school refusal, medication refusal, diagnosis processes, self & young person advocacy, and caregiver fatigue, overwhelm, and self-care. Additionally, I have lived experience in family relationships and breakdown, domestic violence, separation and family substance use.
How does it work?
If you’re a young person...
STEP 1: Our Peer Support Team will email you
After your first headspace appointment, our Peer Support Team will reach out by email to see if you would like to meet up with a Peer Support Worker for a chat.
STEP 2: Attend your first peer support session
When you meet your Peer Support Worker, you are meeting with someone who has their own lived experience of dealing with mental health concerns as a young person. The Peer Support Worker will introduce themself and welcome you into one of the comfortable spaces in the centre. From there, your session will go over content led by you and the Peer Support Worker will help you celebrate your wins, empower you to embrace yourself, and validate your unique recovery experiences. They may also share some of their own story, to help normalise and validate your experiences.
STEP 3: Sign up for a group (optional)
Our Peer Support Team offers social and skills groups for young people and parents/caregivers of young people attending headspace. Plus, they're all free! Groups are designed to be paired with clinical sessions and peer support sessions to add extra value to your mental health support. Groups are optional, but we really recommend giving one a go to see if you like it and if it can help your recovery. If you're a parent/caregiver, groups are a unique space to find emotional and social support from others going through a similar journey.
Choose your favourite group and sign up online.
STEP 4: Peer support continues during your recovery
Whether your sessions involve having a coffee and a catch-up, playing a game of Uno, or doing a mindful colouring page, your Peer Support Worker will always support you to work towards your goals and remind you that recovery can be fun.
If you're part of the headspace Early Psychosis program, this program also has access to peer support for young people, but it looks a little different. Reach out to us directly or ask your clinician if you'd like to chat with a Peer Support Worker.
If you’re a parent or caregiver…
STEP 1: Our Peer Support Team will email you
After your young person’s first headspace appointment, our Peer Support Team will reach out by email to see if you would like to meet up with a Peer Support Worker for a chat. We offer peer support as part of our "wrap-around" service model, you can reach out to us any time.
Parent/caregiver peer support is available to anyone within a young person’s life that offers support for their wellbeing including parents, grandparents, siblings, kinship families, and partners.
STEP 2: Attend your first peer support session
Your first meet-up with a Peer Support Worker can be for a chat over a cuppa or something more formal if that's what you prefer. Either way, you are meeting with someone who is a parent or caregiver of a young person who has accessed mental health support.
Your appointment will be in a comfortable meeting space. In this session, the focus will be on your needs and how your Peer Support Worker can best support you during your young person's time at headspace.
STEP 3: Sign up for a peer-led group (optional)
Our Peer Support Team offers skills and social groups for young people and parents/caregivers of young people attending headspace. Plus, they're all free! Groups are designed to be paired with clinical sessions and peer support sessions to add extra value to your mental health support. Groups are optional, but we really recommend giving one a go to see if you like it and if it can help your recovery. If you're a parent/caregiver, groups are a unique space to find emotional and social support from others going through a similar journey.
Choose your favourite group and sign up online.
STEP 4: Support continues during your young person's recovery
A Peer Support Worker can offer support in goal setting, sourcing or decoding information, navigating the mental health system, self-care, and other opportunities for you to engage with groups and your community. In the sessions that continue during your young person's recovery, your Peer Support Worker will let you take the lead and listen to what you need help with the most.
If you're part of the headspace Early Psychosis program, this program also has access to peer support for parents/caregivers, but it looks a little different. Reach out to us directly or ask your clinician if you'd like to chat with a Peer Support Worker.
More information
A Peer Support Worker has travelled a similar path and can share relatable experiences. They can walk alongside you, no matter what kind of day you're having. Peer support is delivered by our Peer Support Workers, people trained to share their lived experience of mental ill health and recovery to support others.
Peer support sessions involve sharing your experiences with someone who has gone through similar situations or challenges. Our Peer Support Workers can provide emotional support, practical advice and encouragement.
headspace offers Peer Support to all young people and caregivers engaged with our service. They can offer support through individual one-on-one sessions, peer-led groups and online forums.
When you meet a Youth Peer Support Worker, you are meeting with someone who has had their own lived experience of dealing with mental health concerns as a young person. The Youth Peer Support Worker will introduce themself and welcome you into one of the comfortable spaces in the centre.
From there, the rest of the session will focus on stuff that you want to talk about. The Peer Support Worker will help you celebrate your wins, empower you to embrace yourself and validate your unique recovery experiences. They may also share some of their own story to help normalise and validate your experiences.
Whether the session involves having a coffee and a catch-up, playing a game of Uno, or doing mindful colouring, the Peer Support Worker will always support you in working towards your goals and remind you that recovery can be fun.
After your young person's first headspace appointment, our Peer Support Team will contact you and offer parent/caregiver peer support as part of our wrap-around service. Parent/caregiver peer support is available to anyone within a young person’s life who offers support for their well-being including parents, grandparents, siblings, kinship families, and partners.
Your first meet-up with a Peer Support Worker can be for a chat over a cuppa or something more formal if that's what you prefer. Either way, you are meeting with someone who is a parent or caregiver of a young person who has accessed mental health support.
Your appointment will usually be in a comfortable meeting space. In this session, the focus will be on your needs and how your Peer Support Worker can best support you. A Peer Support Worker can offer support in goal setting, sourcing or decoding information, navigating the mental health care system, self-care, and other opportunities for you to engage with groups and your community. In these sessions, your Peer Support Worker will let you take the lead and listen to what you need help with the most.
Parent/caregiver peer support is available to anyone within a young person’s life who offers support for their wellbeing including:
- Parents
- Grandparents
- Siblings
- Kinship families
- Partners
People with common interests or experiences have always benefited from sharing and supporting each other. Peer Support Workers go a step further and draw on their lived experience to encourage and support young people or their parents/caregivers.
The benefits of peer support include:
· Having gone through a recovery journey themselves, they can empathize with what is happening for you.
· Sharing their experiences so you can see where they were challenged and where they succeeded.
· Encouraging you to work towards goals that will support your wellbeing.
· Sharing information about mental health wellbeing, supporting you to build knowledge, and encouraging self-care.
· Becoming a bridge between you and your clinical supports, to ensure there is a collaborative approach to your treatment and recovery.
Plus, there is a bunch of research that says that having connections to Peer Support Workers can improve your sense of social inclusion and connection, reduce self-stigma about mental ill health, increase your self-esteem, and empower you to feel confident to take control of your recovery.
After you attend your first headspace appointment, our Peer Support Team will reach out by email to see if you would like to meet up with a Peer Support Worker for a chat.
You can also reach out to us in your own time to organise a peer support session by calling the centre or emailing peer.support@liveslivedwell.org.au. If you want to join a peer-led group, visit our Groups page to learn more about what's currently on the go and sign up. You can also call, email, or ask your Clinician for more details about groups or peer support.
Contact our Peer Support Team:
CALL headspace Southport on 5509 5900
EMAIL us at peer.support@liveslivedwell.org.au
ASK your Clinician to help you book a peer support session or for more details
Book a peer support session
After your first headspace appointment, our Peer Support Team will reach out by email to see if you would like to meet up with a Peer Support Worker for a chat. You can also reach out to us in your own time to organise a peer support session or join a group.
Contact our Peer Support Team:
EMAIL us at peer.support@liveslivedwell.org.au
CALL our headspace Southport centre on 5509 5900
ASK your Clinician to help you book a peer support session