How I became a peer mentor

I first completed the State of Mind 10-week wellbeing course in the summer of 2019. Nearly a year later and I was still in contact with the lovely people from my group and I was offered a chance to complete a level 2 accredited Peer Mentor training with a group of people like me.

Don’t doubt yourself

At first, I was really excited and jumped on the opportunity to do it, but then I began to worry. I really wanted to help others and give them the same opportunity as I had, but thoughts such as ‘What if I’m not good enough?’ or ‘What if I get overwhelmed?’ started to pop into my head. The lovely people running the training reassured me that I didn’t have to do anything that I didn’t feel comfortable with and that my wellbeing came first.

Be Excited!

I’m so glad that decided to do the training. Since we were in lockdown, our group completed the course on Zoom over 2 weeks and I can honestly say that I looked forward to our sessions every day. Although I was learning valuable mentoring skills, it was so casual and just fun to speak to people with the same objective as you.

Here are just a few things that I personally benefitted from the peer mentor training:

  • Met kind and caring people who understand me
  • Improved my confidence and communication skills
  • Increased my ability to empathise
  • Given me hope
  • Felt supported
  • An accredited course that I can add to my CV
  • Given me new and exciting opportunities to help others

You can be involved too!

In a few weeks, I will help run the next State of Mind 10-week wellbeing course along with my fellow peer mentors and I can’t wait! If you are considering becoming a peer mentor with State of Mind I would definitely encourage you to do so. If you have any questions about the course, please email youngpeople@platfform.org and they will be happy to help. ‘