Mental Health Programme

Sesame Organisation’s Mental Health Programme (Phase 2) has been funded by The National Lottery Community Fund. The programme aims to expand mental health support to members of ESEA communities through a wide range of services. These services include group support, 1:1 counselling sessions for support workers and nurses, cultural competence training to various service providers in England, and a befriending project for newly arrived ESEA students in the UK. Please note, these services are not set up for crisis.

Group Support

We offer free-to-access online spaces where members of the ESEA communities can talk, socialise and seek support. Our spaces are judgement-free and supportive.

Other members of the group often help you come up with specific ideas for improving a difficult situation or life challenge, and hold you accountable along the way.

Group support sessions are facilitated by trained, culturally competent and accredited therapists from ESEA heritages. The sessions are confidential and free.

Individual Counselling for Support Workers, Nurses, and Trans ESEA folk

Individual counselling is a therapeutic process where a person works one-on-one with a trained counsellor or therapist to address personal issues or mental health concerns. This confidential and supportive environment allows individuals to explore their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, developing coping strategies and working towards personal growth. All of our therapists are accredited by BACP or UKCP and identify as ESEA.

Currently we offer free individual therapy for the following groups:

  • Support workers working with the ESEA communities

  • NHS workers who also identify as ESEA

  • Trans ESEA folk

Befriending Project

We support incoming international students from East and Southeast Asian countries by providing them with a community through the befriending project. This supports their well-being in a new country and makes them feel less isolated and lonely. It also gives befrienders a meaningful opportunity to volunteer, make a new friend and learn about a new culture.

If you want to partake in this rich cultural exchange, either as a UK-based volunteer, or an ESEA international student, sign-up using the buttons below.

We conduct training with all our befriender volunteers.

Cultural Competence training

In 2023 we partnered with The Anti-Discrimination Focus (#TADF) to provide cultural competence training to 170+ psychotherapists, counselors, nurses and support workers from the NHS who support people with ESEA heritage. We can work with any service providers, schools, universities, charities interacting with an ESEA audience to design and deliver bespoke trainings for their specific teams.

Training sessions are facilitated by TADF professionals who have spent years working in the field of mental health.

Cultural competence is the ability to understand and interact effectively with people with different cultures. By equipping you with the awareness, skills, and strategies to understand a person’s cultural context(s), worldviews and differences, we will be able to work more deeply and empathically by understanding cultural contexts and personal belief systems.