A healthy mind

Girl Got Mail

By September 25, 2018 May 21st, 2019 No Comments

We recently discovered a small project on Instagram called Girl Got Mail, a passion project created by the ever so kind, friendly, passionate and knowledgeable Lia and a few of her friends, and decided to get involved.

By day Lia is a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist in London with one foot in schools and the other in private practice. Collectively she works with young people aged 3-17, supporting them and their families, using creative arts to help them access their feelings.

After being asked by some of her friends for advice to help their own teenage sons and daughters struggling with mental health and unsuccessfully finding the right kind of project to support them Lia created Girl Got Mail. Specifically aimed at young girls the project encourages girls to write handwritten letters of support to other teenage girls.

Though still in its early stages she’s received  letters from across the world including the US, Germany, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and most recently Austria and Switzerland. Although these are written in English for now (mainly because Lia takes the time to read and check them all herself) there has been requests for the authors to write in their own language and have the project active in their own countries and communities. “Buzzing with ideas” Lia is just as passionate to develop and build the programme whether this is through social media or setting up workshops where girls can meet and create letters together in a fun and supportive environment.

There’s no rules per say to writing one of these letters except it HAS to be hand written. You can write from your own experience or just write some words of encouragement. The fact that you’ve spent the time to create them something will be so meaningful to them. Personally we created a workshop with three steps for the members of Speak Up Cornwall (formerly known as the CAMHS board) to get involved in.

1. The Creative Part

Instead of writing normal letters we opted to make postcards, allowing us to get creative. Using marbling inks we created unique and colourful designs with the aim of bringing a moment of joy to the reader.

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2. Adding the words

The main focus of the letters are the words (no pressure) but as much as the group were thinking of the young girls receiving their letters they we’re also thinking and reflecting on themselves. Looking back over the past few years and the struggles they’ve been through each person wrote words of encouragement which would have resonated with themselves and things they wish they would have known when facing their issues.

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3. How we’re feeling

Once completed it was important for the group to share how they were feeling as this process brought up a variety of different emotions.

All in all our group of young people loved the process of making these, hope they help the girls receiving their letters and are looking forward to receiving a letter themselves.

 

Check out all the letters we created here.

If you’d like to get involved then connect with Girl Got Mail.

Email – [email protected]

Instagram – @girlgotmail

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