The faces behind the blog...

There are a bunch of people who write for SelfharmUK, but if you've ever wondered who's holding it all together, here's a peak behind the platform. Find out who's been running it all, and who's taking over for 2020...

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Hi. My name is Jess and I have been working for SelfharmUK (which is part of a bigger young people's charity called Youthscape) for over three years now. As well as running this website, I also spend one day a week running face-to-face groups and activities with young people either in school or here in the Youthscape building in Luton.

Sadly, my time working for Youthscape and running the SelfharmUK website has come to an end, and I am going on to work for a bigger mental health organisation called MIND. Before I go though, I want to say a few things…

The first is thank you. Thank you for reading the blogs we posted, sending in photos for the campaigns we ran, raising money for us and giving us feedback on our resources. Thank you for commenting on our Instagram and Facebook posts and for sharing our posts on Twitter. Thank you for helping me to grow in my understanding and knowledge about self-harm and why it’s so important we keep talking about young people’s mental health and raising awareness. But most of all, thank you for just being you! Thank you for being brave enough to get in touch with us and ask us for help. And if you haven’t yet, it’s not too late. 

The second is no matter what’s going on in your life right now – have hope. Have hope that things can get better. Have hope that even though you can’t see a way out of whatever’s causing you pain right now, it won’t last forever and you will become a stronger person because of it.

 Take care of yourself.

 Love Jess x

PS. Let me introduce you to my lovely colleague Jenny, who will be taking on the running of the SelfharmUK website from now. Take it away Jenny!

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Hey there.

My name is Jenny Flannagan and I’ll be running things over here at SelfharmUK for the next little while. Jess has done such an amazing job here over the last few years that I can’t quite imagine living up to it, but I’ll be trying hard to not let things fall apart once she goes!

Let me tell you a bit about myself. I live in Luton, which means I can walk into work whilst listening to podcasts (#winning). I love living in this brilliant town – even though it doesn’t have the best reputation – and I think some of the world’s best people live here. I even get to work with some of them.

I am passionate about everyone – and especially young people – finding the support they need for getting through the challenges life throws at us, and especially when it comes to our mental and emotional wellbeing. Because of that I’m training as an Arts Psychotherapist on the side – which means that I love finding really creative ways to help people express themselves and work through their struggles. I used to be an actress and had a little theatre company in London, and will happily sing you an entire musical if you have the time.

I also run our Alumina programme – we run online support groups for 14-19 year olds who are struggling specifically with self harm. If you’ve ever thought it might be something that’s helpful for you, please drop us a line and find out more.

Other than that I love…movies, reading novels, singing, making stuff, cooking, coffee, being in the fresh air, learning new things, long chats with friends and lazy weekends with my family.

ALUMINA

Alumina is a free, online 7 week course for young people struggling with self-harm. Each course has up to 8 young people, all accessing the sessions from their own phones, tablets or laptops across the UK. The courses take place on different evenings of the week and are run by friendly, trained counsellors and volunteer youth workers. You don’t need an adult to refer you or sign you up, and no-one will see or hear you during the sessions – you’ll just join in via the chatbox. We want to help you to find your next steps towards recovery, wherever you are on your journey.

Find out more