At MacIntyre, we continue to be inspired by the young people we support and Bryony is no exception. When we first met Bryony, she was extremely shy and found talking to others quite challenging. Not only this but being out in public spaces, such as shopping centres, would cause Bryony to feel incredibly anxious; fearing what others may think of her.
Starting with MacIntyre No Limits in 2016, Bryony began to learn techniques to take control of how she was feeling and express her emotions through Lego Therapy.
Writing in her blog, Defeating Disability, Bryony shared:
"I worked with my Support Workers on something called Lego Therapy, this is when you choose a lego brick colour that best represents an emotion. For example, yellow was my happy colour and green my safe colour, whist black ones represented the emotion scared. This was a great way to show others how I was feeling when I couldn’t express my emotions verbally or when my thoughts are going round in my head at 100 miles an hour."
This technique would help Bryony to feel safe in public spaces. Over the course of three years with us, Bryony began to develop domestic skills, harnessed her talent for cooking by coming up with her own social enterprise project selling baked goods and took part in several worked experience placements in her local community. Bryony was finally confident in her self and her abilities:
"Through my time with MacIntyre, I have really grown in confidence and I now have skills to help me be more independent in everyday life!"
She added:
"I have achieved things that used to make me feel extremely anxious and scared. But now I am able to do things around and about my community with more confidence.”
Inspired?
Do you know someone who could benefit from support by MacIntyre No Limits? Get in touch!
