Si Martin promotes addressing your issues through creativity
At the age of 24, Si Martin juggles managing a rapidly expanding brand with a part time job. A brand that started out as an ethical clothing company, Heads Above the Waves has developed into inspiring a sense of hope in those struggling to face up to their underlying issues. A change that results from Si’s openness about discussing the growing issue of self-harm and his passion to address the way it is dealt with.
“I honestly have kind of fallen into being an entrepreneur, the starting point was this stat that hospital admissions will reach 100,000 by 2020, which is scarily high, our main goal is to at least half that. But the things we do now are changing, rather than just making t-shirts with a nice message behind them, as a brand we have evolved into sharing more people’s stories and the biggest change is going into schools to hold workshops.”
Drawing on individual experiences
The importance of treating people as individuals when offering advice is key to the work that Si does, by drawing on people’s past experiences and providing a space to share their stories. He is never one to shy away from sharing his own story, talking frankly about his struggles with self-harm as a teenager. The way he dealt with his own problems drives him to reach out to others, attributing his love of music as an influential part of changing his life for the better.
“I felt like I didn’t have a way of expressing myself, and I began to play the drums as a way of letting out that anger and frustration. But the real turning point was when I started writing my own music. Whenever I felt angry or frustrated I would pick up a pen. A lot of it was quite dark but the fact was, I writing stuff down and getting it out rather than taking it out on myself.”
Providing an outlet
When talking about the future of the brand, he shares his excitement about the success of the workshops taking place in local schools. These workshops continue to help give people a creative outlet to work through their own issues, as he did through his passion for music. The workshops are based on someone’s story. “We actually share that story in each workshop basing them on something they have done that has helped them from making collages to playing the drums,” he explains.
Reaching out to young people in a series of workshops
The workshops work on the concept that a major part of dealing with self-harm is getting people to start a conversation. With each workshop also involving a discussion in order to get people to identify the triggers that are bringing them down in their own life.
It is clear that Si has big things in mind for Heads Above the Waves and hopes he can continue to make a positive change to people’s lives by getting them talking about their issues.
“All good inventions are meant to come from you recognising a need for something, and I guess really with me it was the fact I never felt like I could actually talk to anyone, it was the fact I didn’t think my own problems were important enough. That’s been really key in hammering home that message its okay to talk.”
