Kieran* had just left his family home due to a difficult relationship with his mother and disabled sister when he approached our network. Here he writes, in his own words, about his experience accessing EveryYouth’s Health Fund, and receiving specialist mental health support from his counsellor Nick:

I have been a client of Nick’s ever since he started working for Roundabout. Nick, as a counsellor, is very real and authentic which helps to easily build rapport. It’s very easy to open up to Nick as he creates a space where I don’t feel judged, with the non-judgement not being artificial, but as a result of Nick’s very genuine and open personality.

We meet once a week in Sheffield town centre. Through the Health Fund, you are guaranteed 6 counselling sessions with a possible extension to 12 upon review. I personally would value something more long-term, but I understand that there’s more than just me who require access to the service.

Nick shows genuine concern about my struggles with university and student finance, which makes me telling him about it all the more easier. It makes the sessions feel like empathetic discussions and not just me talking for an hour. This allows for revelations about myself to occur much easier which allows for the time within the session to be used more effectively.

Talking to Nick has improved a lot of things in my life. Just having someone to talk to in a confidential and non-judgemental manner is great, but he’s helped in other ways.

I feel a lot more confident about most things, such as with my academia, job-hunting and feelings of self-worth. Nick has done this by helping me realise I can achieve the things I want to achieve, shown previously with my A-levels. Nick’s also helped me be a much calmer person. Knowing I’ll be able to deal with issues due to my resilient personality has given me reassurance and some sort of inner peace. Of course I still get stressed out by things, but now I deal with the stress by being proactive in sorting whatever is causing it. These are all things that I was doing beforehand, but now Nick has enhanced them.

I feel it necessary to say that everything I’m saying is true. I’ve been struggling a ton recently with university, finances, regret and purpose, and Nick has helped massively with it.

You can read more about our Health Fund here

*name has been changed to protect his identity