Few people today might disagree that we experience a world too connected to technology and too far removed from personal interaction and meaningful, supportive relationships. As a result, people of all ages tend to experience more anxiety, depression, and loneliness even in the physical company of others, who often direct their attention not to those present around them but to their electronic devices.
With a multitude of interactions occurring between person and screen rather than between people, anxiety and depression can become deep-rooted emotions involved in relationships with self and others. Young people often more intensely feel isolative and anxious emotions, internalizing them, as they compete with the unattainable illusion of reality surrounding them on screens and in daily interactions. One local woman hopes to help adolescents learn to navigate those emotions and build better relationships with themselves as well as others through her ministry: Safe Space for Teens.
Retiree and grandmother of six, Elga Walker moved to Bristow to be nearer her family. A few years ago, she opened her own health-centric business, B & E Health Essentials, on East 7th Avenue before the COVID-19 pandemic forced her to close. As a grandmother, Elga observed preteens and teens experiencing emotional isolation, anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation due to a drought of real connection and self-awareness. After reading stories of young people tragically having committed suicide, her passion for reaching out to adolescents gained a foothold in her life. Safe Space for Teens was borne by that passion.
By creating a safe space with healthy acceptance, Elga strives to boost adolescents’ self-confidence and self-esteem through helping them become more self-aware, teaching them what healthy boundaries are and how to implement and manage them, and helping them form interpersonal connections to form healthy, supportive rela- See Safe Space, Page Three how to implement and manage them, and helping them form interpersonal connections to form healthy, supportive relationships. She will offer Safe Space for Teens as a supportive mentor with an inward-focused approach to help them identify their emotions and how those emotions affect their relationships. The safe space will be available for free after school for those adolescents who have aged out of Home Alone and will offer kids the opportunity to connect and learn through safe conversations. All attendees will be asked to commit to a confidentiality pledge. Safe Space for Teens will meet at her building on East 7th Avenue, immediately east of Cornerstone Church.
Although she offers teens supportive mentorship for free, Elga is also a life coach. She asks that no one be dissuaded from participating in her free support offerings as she will not solicit coaching clients or pedal coaching services. Instead, she will only make her coaching services available for hire by specific parental request only. Her passion is to help teens break free from isolation, anxiety, and depression to find themselves and real connection.
For more information, email Elga at Elga.SafeSpaceCoaching@ gmail.com or check out her Facebook page: “Safe Space Coaching”.