This can take place at a local GP practice or wellbeing centre, or, if it suits you better, we can arrange a phone or video call. When booking, please let us know if you have any accessibility or additional needs. You’re also welcome to bring a parent, carer, or friend with you if you’d like.
During the appointment, the practitioner will talk with you about your pain or fatigue and how it affects your everyday life. The appointment usually takes up to 45 minutes.
We’ll tell you about the different types of support available, give you some useful information, and invite you to come back for a review appointment to decide what’s best for you.
You can choose to have individual sessions, where you’ll learn skills to manage pain and fatigue. We also run a young person’s group, where you’ll meet others going through similar things. Being part of the group can help you feel understood and supported.
Persistent, or long-term pain can happen for lots of reasons. It might start after an illness, surgery, or because of a health condition. But sometimes, it happens without a clear cause.
When pain lasts a long time, the nervous system (your body’s message system) can become extra sensitive. This means you might feel a lot of pain from things like small movements or everyday activities that wouldn’t usually hurt. Visit our Pain Rehabilitation page to learn more about long-term pain and how to manage it in everyday life.
Fatigue means feeling very tired all the time, even when you’ve had sleep or rest. It can happen after being ill, having surgery, or because of a health condition. Sometimes, doctors don’t know exactly why it happens.
When you have fatigue, parts of your body don’t work together as well as they normally do. This can make you feel really tired, even after doing small things like walking, getting dressed, or going to school. Sometimes, you feel more tired later on, which makes it hard to know what caused it.
Our service is for young people who have been diagnosed with ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), not general tiredness. The information on this page is here to help you learn more about ME/CFS and the type of tiredness it causes. You might need to look at or watch the resources a few times, as they explain a lot.
Common symptoms of ME/CFS include:
Some people with ME/CFS may also experience other symptoms, such as muscle or joint pain, headaches, a sore throat, feeling like they have the flu, dizziness or sickness, and fast or irregular heartbeats.
Meet the team:
We plan for 12 people in our group. This is a good number to allow discussions and gives everyone time to share their ideas and experiences.
We love to see you, but you do not have to have your camera on.
We do want to know you are there, being present matters in this approach!
We need to ensure the group’s confidentiality is maintained, and we’ll remind the group about this each session.
You won’t be put on the spot in sessions.
Some people feel more comfortable talking in groups, others less so. You might find you feel more comfortable talking as the group progresses.
We use the chat function on zoom too, and most people like to use this if they don’t want to speak.
The group uses a model called DNA-V, and is an approach to help you build skills to deal with challenges.
DNA-V stands for abilities we will focus on.
Discoverer: Helps you to look at your comfort zone, habits you have and step outside of these to grow you world and confidence.
Noticer: Using your body as a sensitive instrument to become aware through your senses and feelings, to build inner wisdom and calm.
Advisor: Your inner voice, that can both help and hinder you! Working on this ability helps you to recognise the advice you are getting from within and make choices about whether you take it.
Values and Vitality: Living with pain / fatigue we can move further away from what matters. Being aware of our values can help you make important plans again.
The group runs in the afternoons.
Its a 6 week programme running every week at the same time.
Usually this is 1.30pm -4pm.
It lasts for 2 1/2 hours but we have a good break.
We run the first 5 weeks on Zoom, then in week 6 we meet in person at the Broadway Cinema in Nottingham, in a studio room. (You can still join by zoom if you are unable to make it in person).
No humans!
This is to maintain confidentiality for the whole group.
We love to meet your pets though!
If you are having individual appointments you can bring someone along to support you.
We offer refresher sessions after the group has finished. These are opportunities to keep your skills, knowledge and practice topped up, and connect with others who have completed a group with us.
Lots of groups stay in touch after the sessions using social media platforms, as they have found connecting with others helpful.
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