Spotlight on… NESSie
NESSie is a not for profit, child first, family focused organisation, supporting families and school staff to ensure positive emotional health in children and young people.
Who are we?
Originally set up in North Herts in 2015 in response to increasing mental health need in schools, NESSie now has a large team including counsellors, art, music, drama and play therapists, autism specialists and 0-5 parent/child therapists. NESSie has developed to become a county-wide organisation, providing online or face-to-face therapy for children and young people, support and resources for families, and training and tools for education professionals across the whole of Hertfordshire.
Our mission: to help improve the mental and emotional health of children and young people, enabling them to live happier healthier lives.
What do we do?
The child’s needs are always at the heart of what we do.
NESSie specialises in supporting children and young people (0-25 years), who struggle to access mainstream mental health support. We offer arts therapies and counselling to help children and young people to deal with their emotional and behavioural problems. These could be for any reason such as bullying; bereavement; anxiety; low mood or self-harm. These issues might affect their daily lives, and their relationships with family or friends, and in turn affect their ability to learn and thrive.
We provide regular funded, free online workshops for parents and carers. As well as focusing on relevant information, the workshops offer parents an opportunity to mix with others experiencing the same challenges, and share ideas and tools that have helped with each other.
NESSie also provides training and support for education professionals, equipping them with the knowledge, skills and resources to support positive emotional health within schools and the classroom.
How are we funded?
NESSie is funded by Herts CC to provide some of our services, enabling many families and professionals in Hertfordshire to access the service free of charge. In addition, NESSie’s team of therapists are available directly to families or educational settings at an affordable cost. NESSie has also received funding this year from the Brian Lesley Racher Charitable Trust; John Coates Charitable Trust; and local District Councillors to be able to provide Counselling and therapy to children and families whose income has been affected by Covid -19.
We are continually applying to trusts and grant making organisations to find the money to expand our work more widely. We continue to seek funding to support children, young people and their families who otherwise would be unable to access quality assured mental health support. If you would like to support NESSie either by donation or by volunteering to help raise much needed funds please contact us.
If you would like to know more about our work in schools, parent workshops, private affordable counselling, or anything else, please see our website: www.nessieined.com; or email our founder Rachel Lambie directly on: rlambie@nessieined.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/NESSieinEd
Instagram: www.instagram.com/nessieinedcic
