The Malaga City Council launches a free emotional well-being service for teenagers and young people: activities and applications

The Málaga City Council has launched a new free emotional well-being service aimed at adolescents and young people aged between 14 and 35 years. The initiative, named 'BIEM' (an acronym for emotional well-being), includes socio-educational interventions in secondary education centers in the city that request it through the 'Creating Connections' group workshops, aimed at reducing social isolation, 'Youth Coaching' sessions, and a new edition of the 'Psychological Café' that has been offered since last year to young people during their leisure time at La Caja Blanca.

This new service, which will benefit 3,000 young people in Málaga, aims to provide tools to adolescents and young people to improve their emotional well-being. Through the proposed actions, it aims to prevent and combat certain behaviors that can lead to situations of unwanted loneliness, isolation and social pressure, school bullying or cyberbullying, among others.

The proposed actions, which will be free for the recipients, are focused on prevention and the creation of safe spaces where young people can feel an integral part, express what happens to them, and build healthy relationships that protect their well-being. The planned activities will be communicated directly to the secondary education centers that request them, while the schedule, locations, and registration requests for the sessions of the Psychological Café will be published on the Youth website (www.juventud.malaga.eu) and on the social networks of this City Council area.

Activities

- 'The Psychological Café' is a group space where young people can openly talk about emotional health while sharing coffee and snacks in a close and non-judgmental environment. Its purpose is to normalize talking about everyday situations that may cause discomfort, break the silence that often surrounds issues like anxiety, and generate peer support. Sometimes, discovering that others feel the same is the first step to reducing loneliness and regaining balance. Six sessions of three hours each will be held, with about 1200 places available.

- 'Creating Connections' is a group activity aimed at fostering healthy bonds, authentic communication, and trust-based relationships. The goal is to prevent isolation and strengthen belonging as a direct way to reduce risks associated with anxiety, bullying, and emotional disconnection, responding to the reality of young people who are digitally hyperconnected but increasingly alone in real life. Seven sessions of three hours each will be offered, with a total of 175 places available.

- 'Youth Coaching' offers individual and confidential support directed at young people who need their own space to understand what is happening to them and find tools to handle it in a healthy way. This service focuses on emotional well-being, strengthening self-esteem, proper management of emotions, and responsible decision-making. It provides close and professional support that allows for preventive intervention. Fourteen individual sessions of one hour each will be offered, complementary to the educational work, and will be developed on demand from secondary education centers, adapting to the specific needs of each center and each young person.

- Socio-educational intervention in Complex Classrooms. This service acts directly in educational centers, where situations of conflict, bullying, or deterioration of coexistence may arise. It starts with a general coexistence workshop that allows analyzing the reality of the classroom and identifying specific needs. From there, more specific interventions, individual support, or educational mediation can be developed, always adapting to each situation. Seventy-five workshops of two hours each will be carried out, with a potential of 2,250 adolescents and young people.

Councilor for Youth, Mercedes Martín, along with professionals from the youth association 'Diversivas' who will lead the sessions, presented this new service on Wednesday, which adds to other activities developed by the Youth Area such as workshops on anger management, 'what my backpack weighs' workshops about the risks of mobile addiction, avoiding addiction to harmful substances (vape and energy drinks), prevention of school bullying, emotional management, conflict resolution, and violence among peers, or the use and abuse of ICT, among others.