Specialist Counselling

We offer specialist counselling for people who have experienced rape, sexual assault and sexual abuse. Our Specialist Counselling Service is accredited with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, and we follow its Ethical Framework.

What is counselling?

Counselling provides a space for you to gain an understanding of yourself, to help you to gain perspective on your experiences, and to help you to develop positive ways of coping.  Our specialist counselling aims to help you to find ways of coping with your experience of rape, sexual assault, and sexual abuse of any kind. Our specialist counsellors provide a trauma informed approach to therapy, focusing initially on stabilisation and emotional regulation before moving on to safely process your thoughts and feelings

If you choose to access therapy before your case goes to court, we adhere to guidelines from the Crown Prosecution Service. Click here to read their latest guidance on pre-trial therapy. 

We also provide therapy to people who have been through the Criminal Justice System, or to those who do not wish to report their experience to the police. Counselling is integrative, with a client centred ethos. We use different models of therapy to try to meet the needs of each individual, these models include: Person Centred Therapy; (Trauma Focused) Cognitive Behavioural Therapy; Solution Focused Therapy; EMDR; Psycho-education and Creative Therapy. We offer time limited therapy; sessions take place weekly or fortnightly and last for around 50 minutes.  Clients are offered a comprehensive assessment, followed by a referral to the counselling waiting list.  We recognise that it can be difficult waiting for your counselling to begin, and we are committed to managing waiting lists carefully to ensure that the service runs smoothly and efficiently.  We have an online trauma recovery programme available to those on the waiting list, as well as a wide selection of resources on our Self Help page.

Our counsellors will never pressure you into talking about anything you do not wish to. You and your counsellor will review your needs and expectations on a regular basis to try to ensure that your counselling is as effective as possible.

The counselling service is confidential unless we think that there is a risk of significant harm to you or to someone else, in which case we would discuss this with you in line with our Confidentiality Statement. Your counsellor will discuss confidentiality with you during your first session.

How can I access counselling?

You can access counselling by telephoning our information line; by email; or by completing our referral form for professionals or Self-Referral Form.

You can contact our information line on 0330 363 0063 to get more information and advice on any of the issues talked about in this section.