Marine photographer becomes children’s wellbeing practitioner

29-year-old Georgia Mutton is a children and young people’s wellbeing practitioner at YMCA Exeter. She’s trained to work alongside 5-18-year-olds struggling with low mood, anxiety and behavioural difficulties.

But this career wasn’t the original path she’d imagined.

“I never thought I’d work with children and young people,” admits Georgia, “I studied ‘Underwater Marine and Natural History Photography’ at Falmouth University. Every holiday I worked in Turtle Conservation in Cyprus and spent time in Hawaii and South Africa on a YWAM Discipleship Training Course.”

Moving back to Devon, Georgia joined St Matt’s church in Exeter and took on the role of Youth Pastor in 2020. She soon came to realise that the part she loved most was walking alongside young people and supporting them.

“I decided to sign up for an introduction to counselling course at the Iron Mill College in Exeter,” says Georgia. “It was really amazing and an incredible moment realising that specialising as a counsellor was definitely for me.

“Before I began the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy training with YMCA Exeter, I struggled to imagine how helpful it would be for children, but I’ve seen so much transformation in the young people I’ve worked with.”

When Matthew*, an 11-year-old boy, arrived for his first session with Georgia, his panic score was nine. By the time he had finished the sessions, it had dropped to an almost non-existent two.

Over eight sessions, Georgia worked with Matthew to explore his different anxieties, set clear goals on what he wanted to achieve and teach techniques to equip Matthew with the skills he needed to reach those goals.  

“I remember Matthew saying he really wanted to be able to do a sleepover,” says Georgia, “After going through our programme, he has reached his goal. To know I’ve helped him achieve that is so incredible and rewarding.”

During her time with YWAM, Georgia remembers receiving a prophetic picture of children lined up on either side of her, sitting in complete darkness. In the vision, as she began to walk through them, lights began to turn on above their heads.  

Back in Exeter, as Matthew’s sessions came to an end, Georgia received a hand-drawn picture from the 11-year-old with the image of a lighthouse and the words, ‘You are the light in the darkness.’

“Without even realising it, Matthew drew me a picture that was a fulfilment of this prophetic word from years before!” says Georgia. “It was incredible how biblical the image was and made me realise that even though we may not discuss faith with clients and their families regularly, we can still be that light in the darkness for them.”

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a talking therapy that looks at the link between thoughts, feelings and behaviours. YMCA Exeter’s sessions are aimed at children and young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties, such as low mood, different types of anxiety, OCD, phobias and behavioural difficulties.  

The free sessions aim to equip and empower young people with the skills and techniques to reach the wellbeing goals that they have set.

“Matthew’s specific needs were around reducing his worries,” explains Georgia. “We created a fun worry jar where he could pop his worries in, he learned breathing techniques and I also taught him about worry time.”  

“Worry time is a specific period when you think about the worries that can’t be solved. First, you learn to sort your worries into groups that are important and can be solved and others that are important and can’t be solved. Then you choose a time in the day that works for you. Clients tell me that the more they practice it, the more their worries reduce as they learn to regulate when to think about concerns.”  

YMCA Exeter’s wellbeing service supports over 160 children and young people every year. 68% of the referrals centre around anxiety, with over two-thirds of all applicants reporting a reliable improvement after finishing the sessions.  

Click the below button to find out more about YMCA Exeter’s wellbeing service for 5-18 year olds, or to make a referral to the service.