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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.
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.
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 card game, 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, and that you're not alone on the journey.
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.
In sessions, 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 support with.
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.
Peer Support will be offered to you as part of your journey at headspace. It's optional, but we recommend you give it a go as it can be so helpful to connect with someone who's had similar experiences.
You can also reach out to us to ask for Peer Support.
CALL headspace Southport on 5509 5900
EMAIL us at reception@headspacesouthport.org.au
ASK your Clinician to help you book a peer support session or for more details
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.