- (028) 95 38 04 04
- hello@theparentrooms.co.uk
- @theparentrooms
The Parent Rooms supports parents from all over Northern Ireland with their mental and emotional wellbeing.
Welcome to The Parent Rooms, a safe and supportive space for parents navigating the challenges of mental health. We understand the journey you’re on and we are here to provide support and guidance to help you get to where you want to be.
Our charity offers tailored wellbeing programs, one-to-one advice and guidance, and where needed, counselling services which are designed to empower you towards improved wellbeing. Whether you’re seeking support, information, or connections with other parents, we’re dedicated to helping you thrive.
At The Parent Rooms, we believe in the power of parents supporting parents, and we invite you to join our community and meet others who are going through similar experiences to you.
Together, we can create a brighter future for you and your family. Take the first step and explore all that we have to offer. You’re not alone – we’re here for you every step of the way.
When you’re experiencing mental health difficulties, taking that first step towards well-being can be difficult. We’re here to support you every step of the way.
We work with parents to create your Parent Journey, a step-by-step plan that can help you move beyond your struggles and into a fuller, healthier life. Our Engage.Evolve.Empower. model allows you to take control over your own well-being by creating your own wellness plan with us supporting you every step of the way.
The first step is to register with us for support. This is the Engage stage and where your journey to well-being begins. Once you’ve signed up, one of our team will give you a call to discuss your experience and explore the best way to support you. You will also be added to a mailing list and given the option to join our WhatsApp group where we will share information, resources and details of upcoming programs.
The Engage stage focuses on helping you to meet others who understand what you’re going through, and giving you opportunities to try out some activities that may help you improve your mental health.
This might mean joining one of our social activities such as a coffee morning or walking group, or maybe taking part in a yoga class or trying some art therapy.
For many parents, this is enough to help support and improve their mental health and feel less lonely and isolated.
For those who need a little more, they will progress to the Evolve stage of our program.
Some people may need some additional support to help them overcome their difficulties. Parents in the Evolve stage are assigned a Parent Advocate, a person to help you untangle your difficulties and guide you through the process of getting better. Together with your Parent Advocate you will create a Wellbeing Plan that will help you identify the areas you need help with, and what supports will work best for you. You will be given a range of options to try out but the first step is usually taking part in our Space For Me program.
This program will help you learn the tools and skills you need to improve your mental health, while also connecting with others on a similar journey and building up your peer support network. Space For Me will help you build a self-help toolkit that you can use throughout your life.
At this stage, your Parent Advocate may discuss offering counselling or other therapeutic supports that may be helpful. You can also take part in any of our other activities such as social activities and wellbeing classes such as yoga. We try to offer free on-site childcare so you have time for yourself to learn new skills and enjoy time with other parents in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.
Congratulations! By the time you reach this stage you should be feeling happier, healthier and more resilient. You might be feeling now that you would like to help others on their journey to get to where you are. We call this the Empower stage.
In this stage, you can choose a number of options. You might want to volunteer to host social groups or offer peer support. You might want to join a committee or our Champions Network, or you might want to raise funds for us.
We will provide all the training and support you need to continue your wellbeing journey and get involved in our active community.
We want to ensure that all parents who have been through our service have the opportunity to influence what we do and participate in the design and delivery of all our programs and activities. Our service exists for you and we want you to feel empowered to help us reach our mission.
We want to make sure that when you reach out to us, you have the best experience possible and that’s why we feel it is really important to manage your expectations.
Parent Advocacy: We assign every parent who goes through the Evolve stage a Parent Advocate who can act as your guide throughout the process. You can expect to meet with your Parent Advocate once every 4-6 weeks to review your wellbeing plan and make any changes. Your Parent Advocate can also assist you with other issues such as housing, benefits support etc through partnership with other agencies. It’s important to note that your Parent Advocate is not a counsellor.
Counselling: If you require more therapeutic support such as counselling, we will do our best to facilitate this for you but there may be a waiting list. We are only a small charity with very high demand for our services so some services may not be immediately available.
Classes/Programs: We keep all of our classes very small with no more than 8-10 people at each to help you feel as comfortable and as safe as possible. All our classes are free of charge to any one who refers into us and free on-site childcare is provided for most activities. However, we often have waiting lists for all our classes. If you sign up to a class and can no longer attend, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer your space to someone else. There may be a waiting list for some classes, in particular our Space For Me program which is very popular but we will do our best to ensure you get a space as soon as possible.
When my health visitor recommended [The Parent Rooms] I never thought it would help me. BUT...how wrong I was! You are amazing at helping me feel less anxious and for helping me to realise that what I feel is normal. I don't feel so lonely any more. Especially my peer supporter Rachel, you have been amazing at helping me.
It means so much to feel supported and cared about. The work you are doing is so appreciated and meaningful to myself and lots of others.
I just wanted to say thanks for everything you've done to help me so far. I've been just blown away by all the support, and honestly I don't know what I would have done without finding you. I'm so grateful.
It has made a huge difference to me, having the option to take part in something like this. It is so valuable to have these services available in such an isolated time.
I can't speak for everyone else but the opportunity to be a peer supporter has helped me in my own recovery by giving me a purpose and an identity other than "mum". This opportunity wouldn't exist if you hadn't created it.
The peer support training gave me the tools to recognise when I was slipping again and helped me pull myself back out of it nearly as quickly as I went down. I'm definitely not the same women I was a year ago. I'm even better now and you had a major role to play in that.
I am a whole different person than I would have been had I not done the peer support course. Thank you so much for EVERYTHING!
Our volunteers our the beating heart of The Parent Rooms. They are all parents with their own lived experience who are investing their time and their passion to help other parents get to a place of wellbeing.
All our peer support volunteers take part in intensive accredited training so that they can use their experiences to provide safe, and compassionate support to others.
We also have volunteers who run our social activities such as toddler groups and coffee mornings, and who run fundraising events on our behalf.
Parent Group Host
Peer Support Volunteer
Board Volunteer
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