Danielle is 17-years-old. She is in her final year of high school before she moves to to study sociology at university. Danielle has anxiety speaking over the phone, and in situations where she must speak with people she doesn’t know very well. Danielle feels intimidated when put in situations where she knows she should assert herself but doesn’t to avoid conflict with her peers. This often leads to Danielle feeling insecure, which causes her low mood.
Danielle comes to the BounceBack program feeling passive, nervous and overwhelmed about starting university in the fall.
With the help of her coach, Danielle learn how to assert herself at school and express what she is thinking in a clear, honest and direct way, which empowers her to feel more confident in her relationships at school. This helps improve her mood and self-esteem, and boosts her confidence in her upcoming university studies.
She learns how to:
- Face situations and conversations that once made her feel uncomfortable by breaking down her fears and tackling each one slowly to overcome them.
- Notice her unhelpful thinking patterns that were affecting her relationships with her peers. For instance, when she’s having extreme thoughts that others don’t want her around, Danielle acts against them by reaching out to her friends anyway so that she can disprove them and change the outcome. As a result, she reported a healthier sense of self-esteem.
- Assert herself in group projects at school. She said that normally she would do all the work in a group project and then feel resentment towards the other group members. But after speaking with her coach and reading the workbooks, she reported standing up for herself and having everyone contribute equally to the group. This helped with her self-confidence.