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HELP Counselling Services

Uploaded: November 11, 2016

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From Monday to Friday, week in, week out, a team of volunteers dedicate their time to offer people from your parish a lifeline.

As professionally trained counsellors they support people through times of crisis or major change, offering free counselling sessions that help people face the problems created by issues such as childhood or domestic abuse, long-term or life limiting illness, family dysfunction, relationship breakdown, bereavement and loss, or poor mental health, and help alleviate distress, anxiety, trauma and overwhelm.

One of our clients told us recently, “I had been repeatedly let down, feeling there was nowhere to turn. I am not sure what would have happened to me without your service.” It’s something we hear time and time again because the people we support are not able to access or afford this help themselves because alongside the difficulties they are facing, they are often low waged, unemployed, elderly, disabled, lone parents or in poor physical or mental health.

Unresolved trauma produces wide ranging symptoms such as depression, chronic fatigue, panic attacks, addictive behaviours, chaotic lives and relationships, self-harming, sleeping problems and an inability to handle feelings like rage. Living with any of these behaviours or conditions is not good for them, their families or the community they live in.

The good news is that our results show that with counselling they are able to improve self-confidence and self-esteem and build the resilience to deal with difficult situations. The benefits are clear as they learn to manage their feelings, adapt to change, build strong relationships, participate more fully in family life, return to employment and function more confidently in the workplace and the wider community.

HELP Counselling Services
As a community charity based in Trowbridge, we have a team of 10 professional counsellors who volunteer their services free one day a week, enabling us to keep our costs as low as possible and make the project sustainable long-term.

Over the course of a year, each counsellor will deliver a minimum of 150 sessions to people over the age of 16, providing a safe, non-judgemental, confidential environment in which they can explore areas in life that are too painful to talk about with anyone else and start to deal with the impact it is having on them.

Each counsellor costs a total of £3,600 to provide the meeting rooms and facilities for their counselling sessions, admin support, supervision and travel costs, but to provide this vital support we need to raise the full cost of the service each year. We also need to expand to meet the huge rise in demand that we’ve seen this year.

Can You Help Us?
Help Counselling has been operating for 30 years now, and the rapid growth in the number of referrals to our service, which has more than doubled in the last year, is clear evidence that this project is still needed.

Social Services, Probation, GP surgeries and other local charities regularly refer people to us because our reputation has made us a trusted place and people are also able to self-refer through our website. Unfortunately our lists are so full now, that we’re having to tell people there is a 6-month waiting list. That’s a hard thing to do when we know they desperately need help now and that early intervention can stop a downward spiral into depression, hopelessness and longer-term problems.

Please help us by making a donation to our work so that we can offer the support residents of your parish need, at the time they need it. You will be helping them and their families to lead happier lives and developing a more resilient local community.

Amanda Wilkes
Service Manager
HELP Counselling Services
Kestrel House
7 Mill Street
Trowbridge
Wilts
BA14 8BE
01225 767459