Zena had been moving round hostels for years. A few months ago she was in proper supported accommodation and was making some progress. But her behaviour was difficult for staff – she was close to being asked to leave and risked going back to square one.
For anyone, frustration and anger can come to the surface. Zena’s caseworker explained that the trauma she’d been through in childhood could affect her responses to some situations.
Zena wanted to know more about how her brain worked and wanted to be able to connect to more support in her life.
Starting counselling was a really brave decision – what comes up can be scary to talk about and committing to the process can give real fear of failure. But she did it and she’s already learned so much. None of it is her fault and it’s amazing to see Zena start to own her feelings and to choose calm.
Since then, Zena’s done a detox to avoid using drugs to manage her trauma. She’s got a lot of stuff organised and has started to recognise other negative patterns she wants to address.
She still has so many painful challenges in her life. But she is strong and resilient, and we know she will continue to learn to love, rather than blame herself.
We’ll keep showing her the love we know she deserves.
