Shuwheb moved into New Hope House and began a new 28-day detox, giving himself time to settle and to come to terms with where he was.
Rediscovering creativity with Cultivate
With support from the Cultivate team, he began a ‘growing for life’ therapy course, which helped him realise that he had been suppressing his natural creativity for almost two decades.
He really connected with the creative activities and planting out. Looking after one of New Hope House’s growing beds reminded him how much he used to enjoy gardening and watching things grow, especially in happier days with his mum.
Shuwheb began a mosaic project after remembering a community mosaic he had worked on with his sister at school, and these positive memories fed into his own ideas. With Cultivate staff and a woodworking volunteer, he built a table from reclaimed wood to be the base for his mosaic.
The Cultivate team are different from other keyworkers because they have time to sit and chat. It was always possible to just have a conversation without having to do anything else, and being able to talk things through helped his mental health so much.
Building trust
Shuwheb’s keyworker was very helpful too, and not just with the official work. Shuwheb admitted: “They just don’t take any nonsense from me. They’ll see straight past my humour, get down to the core and support me with my issues.
“My work with a coach who meets with me here once a week has been invaluable too. They’re really knowledgeable about getting back to college and to work, and giving me the things I need to help myself get there.
“They taught me to look at my behaviours, ways of thinking and feelings differently, making really challenging things seem easy and manageable. With all the people I’ve worked with here, we’ve built trust together. I feel like they have my back.”
Looking to the future
At the moment Shuwheb is having therapy to come to terms with and process past challenges. “I’m finding it really helpful and I’m really glad I have the safe space of New Hope to come back to.
“I want to be able to move out from here when I’m ready and into my own place with the support of New Hope: a place I can call home. I’d like to make contact with my children again. I need to be sober for a year and I think this is right for me, so that I can be the best version of dad. It’s really important that they see me as all right now and that I’m there for them.”
When he’s ready, Shuwheb wants to work for a residential rehab, helping other people who have walked in similar shoes, experiencing addiction and homelessness.
He added: “I’m working on my CV so that I can do some voluntary work to help me back into the swing of things. I want to help people, support the ‘whole’ of each person, good times and bad, and I think I could add real value to the field.”
