121 Peer Support
for fellow DELINQUENTS.
Peer support is a practice of community care relating to our lived experiences and how that can help others. Peer support does not come from the alienating, superior angle of Western psychotherapy but acknowledges you as the authority of your own experiences and understands that we can only speak to what we know.
What is my practice of support?
My practice of 121 peer support recognises systemic oppression as trauma and knows both the body and mind are affected by this. In this offering, I am specifically focusing on age-trauma which “describes an experience specific to anti-child ageism when our autonomy, ability, articulation, emotions, opinions are constantly doubted, called into question or seen as ‘cute’.” — from my zine Has Oppression Found A Home in You? A reflective introspection on age-trauma.
I gravitate towards somatic support tools that can help us young people manage whilst we don’t have much agency and work towards eventual/continual liberation.
I am total liberationist, school abolitionist and DELINQUENT. This means I stand for the freedom of all, emancipation from carceral systems and rebellion by any means necessary. This is integral to the way I approach peer support.
I am going to start using [the word ‘DELINQUENT’ to describe] myself as a reclamation of how ‘misbehaviour’ and ‘disobedience’ has been used as a capitalist tool to weed out rebellion. Delinquency is weaponised to specifically exclude and oppress Black, neurodivergent, queer and poor teenagers who are labelled as ‘too much’ before we’ve even walked in the door. I am a delinquent in solidarity with all the delinquents across the world who experience state repression through the school system, foster care system and ‘juvenile’ detention/prison system. DELINQUENTS for school, state and prison abolition rise up ??.
– Aiyana’s Instagram, 2021
My core values of giving support
Accountability
for ourselves, systems of oppression and the state and adults around us (including parents, teachers and family).
Autonomy
by respecting our boundaries, letting you lead the sessions and (re)learning that young people have agency.
Collaboration
that focuses on your goals and needs in a way that is supportive, connected and warm.
Who is it for and what can I help with?
I can support individuals who are 14-18 with navigating ageism within the school system, family structure, transitioning to adulthood and more.
I am also available to support parents, teachers, and adults with their questions and thoughts around raising and educating young people (especially those who are queer, neurodivergent, Black and DELINQUENT.), the school system, adult privilege and much more, from my perspective as a teenager.
I aim to set boundaries with you (e.g. whether you need me to hold space or want my ideas on how to cope) and support your wellbeing through an intersectional, political and anti-ageist lens. Each session is a tailored, non-judgemental and confidential.
My lived experience.
I am not a therapist (yet!). I am a 16-year-old human who wants to support others. I have lived experience of:
- (internalised) ageism age-trauma;
- ageism in activism;
- parental/familial/cultural disconnection;
- secure parental relationships;
- being a big sibling;
- being raised by a single parent;
- anti-Black racism, anti-queerness and anti-neurodivergency (and how it relates to ageism);
- the UK school system;
- home-schooling/unschooling;
- issues with peers and teachers at school;
- detention and exclusion.
I have completed multiple workshops and trainings by a range of somatic trauma therapists, activists, researchers, writers and organisations. They are as follows:
- Anti-Carceral Approaches to Suicide Training with Project LETS
- Crisis Response Training with Project LETS
- Carrying Ourselves Home: Getting to Know Our Parts with Margeaux Feldman
- Carrying Ourselves Home, Part Two: Tending to and Befriending Our Parts with Margeaux Feldman
- How 2 Say It: Boundaries Edition with Margueax Feldman & Natalie Boustead
- Boundaries for BIPOC with Nisha Mody
- Creative Tools for Coping with Grief with What’s Your Grief?
- Broken Connections: Experimental Strategies for Trauma and Attachment with Dr. Diane Poole Heller & The Embody Lab
- Resilience & Re-visitation with blue light academy & Spring Up
- Centred Accountability Course with Accountability Mapping
- Re-Thinking Mental Health with IDHA
- Liberatory Art Making with IDHA
- Feelings 101 with Varvara Erochina
- Feelings 102 with Varvara Erochina
- Healing Trauma Online Course with Dr. Peter Levine
- Somatic Attachment Therapy Certificate with The Embody Lab
- Showing Up As Our Best Selves: Practices for aligning actions with social justice values with Dr. Beth Berila and The Embody Lab
I will always do additional research whether or not what you need is outside my scope of lived experience.
What are my boundaries?
- This offering is tailored specifically for ageism-related issues (and if other things come up as part of our discussion I am happy to help!).
- I ask that we use content warnings when communicating outside of sessions.
- I am not a service so please be patient.
- Whilst I will of course do my best, I may not be able to be all you are looking for. I can only speak from my perspective and lived experience.
How does it work?
121s can be done over skype, text or email. Please use the contacts page to enquire and answer these questions…
- what would you like to discuss?
- how would you like to communicate?
- would you like me to hold space and affirm you, or share my thoughts/ideas?
- what other support tools/coping mechanisms do you use?
I will then let you know if I have the capacity. If I do, we can arrange a time and date. Sessions will last up to 40mins. I will also follow up each time with an email containing resources and my notes.
