For Young People
Welcome to The Roots – your new wellbeing service in Waltham Forest. We are from Groundwork London. Waltham Forest commissioned us to deliver free support services for children, young people and families in your area.
If you choose to access support from The Roots, you can expect a warm and supportive welcome. We are here to empower you and your family to thrive.
Who are we?
We are a team of therapists and practitioners – trained to deliver different types of therapy to support you. We understand the challenges that can come with having fears and worries, or from low mood. We know that our family relationships can be an important part of our wellbeing. We aim to empower you and support you on your journey to better wellbeing.
How can we help?
We have a range of services that might support your journey to better wellbeing. To start our support together, we will have a one-to-one meeting with you to find out the best way to support you. In this meeting, you can ask us any questions you have about the service and about the types of support that are available. You can also tell us anything you would like to focus on in our time of supporting you. This information will help us to understand how we can best support you and your family. If you want to, you can come to this meeting with a parent or family member if you feel that they can support you in starting your journey with us.
We are led by you. That means, you can tell us what you think will be most helpful for you. We will do our best to be guided by your needs and goals for our work together.
What is therapy?
Many of us have ideas about therapy that comes from movies or TV shows, or what people around us are saying about it. Some of these ideas might not be correct.
Therapy is a space where anyone can have a confidential space to talk freely and feel supported by a trained therapist. There are many reasons that a person might have therapy. Some people want therapy to help them work towards a goal, to change something in their life, or to get help with difficult feelings and thoughts. The focus of therapy is not guided by the therapist. It’s always guided by the person who is getting support.
Therapy is a space where anyone can have a confidential space to talk freely and feel supported by a trained therapist. There are many reasons that a person might have therapy. Some people want therapy to help them work towards a goal, to change something in their life, or to get help with difficult feelings and thoughts. The focus of therapy is not guided by the therapist. It’s always guided by the person who is getting support.
Therapy is not a place where you will be forced to talk about things that you don’t want to talk about. We might ask you to share what you can about the challenges and difficulties that brought you to therapy, but it is your right to set boundaries and decide what you feel comfortable sharing. We always respect your choices and what you want to keep private. We move at a pace that feels right for you, so that you can make the most of our time supporting you.
Therapy is not a place where you will be forced to talk about things that you don’t want to talk about. We might ask you to share what you can about the challenges and difficulties that brought you to therapy, but it is your right to set boundaries and decide what you feel comfortable sharing. We always respect your choices and what you want to keep private. We move at a pace that feels right for you, so that you can make the most of our time supporting you.
What is CBT?
CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. It is a practical type of talking therapy that uses problem-solving to find solutions together. It’s especially good for helping us understand fears and worries, and manage them, to be able to reach our goals and do the thing we want to do. In CBT, we set personalized goals together, so that we can notice if things are getting better.
CBT is based on the idea that our thoughts, feelings and behaviour are all connected. When we use CBT to manage fears and worries, we spend some time to think about how our unique and individual thoughts, feelings and behaviour interact.
CBT is also focused on helping us gain new skills and that builds our confidence over time. We share ideas to see what might work for each unique person. Some of these ideas will be to try real-world experiments that can be tested out in between sessions. When we meet in sessions, we’ll talk about how it felt to do the experiment, what we noticed and whether or not it was a useful experiment.
With CBT, we work at a pace that’s right for each person, and you’re always welcome to let us know if something doesn’t feel right for you.
CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. It is a practical type of talking therapy that uses problem-solving to find solutions together. It’s especially good for helping us understand fears and worries, and manage them, to be able to reach our goals and do the thing we want to do. In CBT, we set personalized goals together, so that we can notice if things are getting better.
CBT is based on the idea that our thoughts, feelings and behaviour are all connected. When we use CBT to manage fears and worries, we spend some time to think about how our unique and individual thoughts, feelings and behaviour interact.
CBT is also focused on helping us gain new skills and that builds our confidence over time. We share ideas to see what might work for each unique person. Some of these ideas will be to try real-world experiments that can be tested out in between sessions. When we meet in sessions, we’ll talk about how it felt to do the experiment, what we noticed and whether or not it was a useful experiment.
Our Services
Group Therapy
We provide group-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, to help with common challenges that many of us have, such as fears and worries, or difficult emotions. CBT is a type of talking therapy that helps us manage problems by changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviours. It’s based on the idea that our thoughts, feelings and behaviour are all connected. We explore these connections between thoughts, feelings and behaviour in our groups, and find strategies to make helpful changes.
Each group we run has between 6-8 people in the group. Everyone in the group is about the same age. We have one group for 11-14 year olds and another group for 15-17 year olds. Each group runs for 8 sessions. At the start of groups, the therapists do a lot of the talking to help everyone settle in and feel more comfortable as a group. You might hear helpful ideas that you can try at home.
Once everyone starts to feel more settled in the group, we will do some group activities, games, quizzes and discussions that are designed to help us problem-solve and figure out what can help us to work towards each person’s individual goal. We also do some real-world experiments that can help build confidence and take steps towards our goals in between our sessions.
You can watch this video to find out more about the CBT groups.
Your role in the group
Your role in achieving your goals is so important. Participating fully in the therapy is a really useful way to achieve your goals. Trying things out and having a go is where the real progress happens. Doing at-home experiments in between sessions and joining in our thinking and discussions together will help you get the most out of the time with the group.
Your role in achieving your goals is so important. Participating fully in the therapy is a really useful way to achieve your goals. Trying things out and having a go is where the real progress happens. Doing at-home experiments in between sessions and joining in our thinking and discussions together will help you get the most out of the time with the group.
We know that for some of us, the idea of being in a group sounds difficult. Just remember, everyone else in the group is also new – probably, others around us are thinking about similar worries when joining a new group. You can let us know how we can help you feel more comfortable before starting a group, in our one-to-one meeting before the group starts. You can also give us a feedback and tell us your opinions and needs at any time during the group. If you need a one-to-one check in, in between sessions, you can also tell us and we’ll make time for that.
We know that for some of us, the idea of being in a group sounds difficult. Just remember, everyone else in the group is also new – probably, others around us are thinking about similar worries when joining a new group. You can let us know how we can help you feel more comfortable before starting a group, in our one-to-one meeting before the group starts. You can also give us a feedback and tell us your opinions and needs at any time during the group. If you need a one-to-one check in, in between sessions, you can also tell us and we’ll make time for that.
We share lots of information in each session. You’ll get more from the group if you come to every session, so that you don’t miss out on important ideas that could be useful for you. We know that life happens and sometimes people can’t make it to a session here and there. Try to come to all the sessions if you can, and let us know when you might have to miss a session, if you’re unwell or on holiday for example.
We share lots of information in each session. You’ll get more from the group if you come to every session, so that you don’t miss out on important ideas that could be useful for you. We know that life happens and sometimes people can’t make it to a session here and there. Try to come to all the sessions if you can, and let us know when you might have to miss a session, if you’re unwell or on holiday for example.
Family Therapy
For some families, getting support altogether is the best way to work towards goals and manage challenges. Difficult emotions and experiences can affect everyone in the family, and sometimes these difficulties are connected to our relationships. We can work together over 8 sessions with the whole family to set goals, problem-solve and create helpful strategies. To help our discussions, we can use games, art and any other creative ways to share our ideas and experiences.
The aim of Family Therapy is always set by the family but each person in a family might have their own different goal for the therapy. We take time to hear everyone’s opinions and experiences so that the space is helpful for everyone in the room. Your Systemic Family Practitioner will guide discussions to focus on strengths and solutions, not using blame or judgement, to help everyone make the most of the confidential space to share their unique perspective and ideas.
You can watch this video to find out more about what Family Therapy is like.
Your role in the group
Family Therapy can feel like a new experience. It can feel unusual to discuss ideas together and talk about things that you might not usually talk about at home. We will never make you share anything that you would rather keep private. But you can use this space to ask questions of your family members, tell stories or come up with ideas together.
Family Therapy can feel like a new experience. It can feel unusual to discuss ideas together and talk about things that you might not usually talk about at home. We will never make you share anything that you would rather keep private. But you can use this space to ask questions of your family members, tell stories or come up with ideas together.
Family Therapy can be a helpful space to create changes in a family. Think about what you might like to do differently or change within your family. We can talk about your ideas for changes together.
Family Therapy can feel like a new experience. It can feel unusual to discuss ideas together and talk about things that you might not usually talk about at home. We will never make you share anything that you would rather keep private. But you can use this space to ask questions of your family members, tell stories or come up with ideas together.
When families come together for support, there may be questions, ideas or experiences you hear that surprise you. Family members might disagree about what is most important or what needs to change. That’s okay. Being open to hearing different ideas and perspectives from others in our family is part of what makes Family Therapy so useful.
When families come together for support, there may be questions, ideas or experiences you hear that surprise you. Family members might disagree about what is most important or what needs to change. That’s okay. Being open to hearing different ideas and perspectives from others in our family is part of what makes Family Therapy so useful.