I went to London with the Young Women's Trust!
However if you're not familiar with Work it out, here are a few things you should know about this brilliant service:
- It's a free counseling service run by the Young Women's trust, for women aged 16-30
- You will be given advice and coaching over any thing you may be struggling with, whether that's looking for employment or just some general problems that seem to be stopping you from achieving your goals
- You have a total of 6 sessions over the phone, all an hour long to discuss everything that's on your mind
- You decide when to have the sessions, they work around you, even if it means you can only speak on an evening
When I first discovered Work it Out, I felt completely lost. Never did I think from using their coaching service would my confidence suddenly soar, and that months later I'd be sat in a conference room in Angel in London, on a balmy Wednesday evening sharing my experiences with other amazing and empowering women.
I've always been someone who's felt like I have enough confidence in everything I do, and that's true to some extent, I just always seemed to lack confidence in myself. I'm so good at dishing out advice to other people but when it comes to figuring out what's best for me I get a bit lost. My life coach's advice and reassurance really made me feel less alone.
As said in my previous blog about this service, my life coach would ask me questions about myself, questions I'd never been asked before. They were sometimes challenging but always insightful, forcing me to peel layers away of myself before getting to the core of what it was I truly wanted to achieve. I could suddenly see my strengths, and accept my weaknesses for what they were. She helped me to think straight, to look at obstacles in my life from completely different perspectives. I would come away from my counseling sessions with absolute clarity. Yasmin taught me so many amazing ways in which to deal with my anxiety, ways in which I can take through life with me to help me when the going gets tough.
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My trip to London was a very eventful one! I got to sit by myself on the train with a brew and my earphones in, admiring the beautiful countryside as it zoomed past me. Within two hours I arrived at Euston, and followed the signs to the Tube, nervous and excited all at once as I'd never navigated the underground by myself before! As a Northerner, it's always a bit startling at just how fast paced everything is in London. Every one is in a rush to get somewhere, people will barge past you without a care in the world, hundreds and hundreds of people in suits were running past me through the barriers, exasperated at my sole existence as I got in people's way. It was quite comedic to me, and I always enjoy a good excuse to people watch. And then of course the trip on the tube was interesting; no one even acknowledges your existence and minds their own business (up North that's alien to me, as everyone up here is nosey, plus I'm quite used to people staring at me with my bright pink hair 🙈)
The building where the meetup was, was only a ten minute walk from the tube. Although it wasn't very difficult to find it, I was proud of myself nonetheless for conquering my anxiety and getting there all by myself.
As soon as I walked in, I was greeted by the lovely Emma who is the participation officer for the Young Women's Trust. There was an entire table full of snacks; crisps, muffins, drinks and biscuits, all free and of course little stickers and markers to create our own name badges.
We all took our seats, and ten minutes later had a fun ice breaker session that had us all in fits of laughter. We got to introduce ourselves and tell our stories of how we came to find the Work it Out service. It was so interesting and amazing to hear of other women's experiences, and quickly afterwards the room was filled with chatter as we all got to know one another. Then of course the free pizza arrived, (truly made a pig of myself at this point) followed by a few discussions on how to tackle writing your first blog post for the Work it Out service.
The meet up then ended with each of us going round the table and saying what they liked about the person sat to the right of them, and how their general experience was throughout the evening. I won't lie, I teared up a little when I said mine! I don't want to sound like a wet blanket, but I honestly loved being surrounded by incredible, powerful and kind women. We all took the time to uplift each other, and I found it lovely that so many of us could all relate to each other's lives in so many different ways.
As for future meetups, I'm not sure if I'll ever get chance to meet everyone again, but we have a WhatsApp group to keep in touch, and to discuss completing our monthly ambassador challenges.
The Young Women's Trust do some amazing things, and there is always something going on in London for you to get involved in. I only wish I lived closer so I could be there to support my fellow girl gang 🙌
I just want to end this blog post with an enormous THANK YOU to Emma and the team, and to all of the lovely ladies I met that evening. I feel very blessed to have been part of it, and the meet up was a beautiful way to say goodbye to my sessions, and of course, self doubt. 💙
Until next time,
Violet x
P.S, if you want to get your hands on a 'In Women We Trust' t-shirt, you can buy them from the YWT website which is linked here :
https://www.youngwomenstrust.org/buy_a_ywt_tshirt
You can also follow them on Instagram @youngwomenstrust
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