Signpost offers accessible and affordable counselling to active carers. We have years of experience in delivering counselling to carers and understand the challenges your caring role brings. Through counselling support, we work with you to alleviate some of the distress your caring role may bring you.
Counselling is a talking therapy that provides you with a safe and confidential space to talk about your issues and concerns. Talking this through in a counselling session with a qualified counsellor can result in better emotional and physical health.
All our Counsellors are members of the BACP (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy) and attend regular supervision.
What issues can we help you with?
Stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness are often issues that people bring to counselling. Carers often talk about guilt, resentment, isolation, communication issues and loss. By the end of a set of counselling sessions, carers report they have improved emotional and physical wellbeing and gain a better understanding of themselves or the situation they are in, improved confidence or self-esteem, some coping strategies, some boundaries around their caring role and the list of benefits goes on.
How does it work?
To access counselling sessions at Signpost, please complete the referral form below. Within two weeks of receiving your referral, we will contact you to book you in for an initial assessment. The assessment takes place over the phone and takes an hour. You will then be placed on a waiting list. When a Counsellor becomes available, you will start your sessions. ++Please note that we do have a waiting list and the waiting times for sessions can vary from month to month. During the assessment, you will be advised about the current waiting times++
We offer short term talking therapy – six 1-hour sessions either on the telephone, on Microsoft Teams, in person at the Heatons Centre. We also offer Walk and Talk Therapy which provides a great way of having therapy in an outdoor setting and exercising at the same time. Your sessions will be with the same Counsellor, will be on the same day and same time each week.
What do I pay?
In order to keep our counselling service sustainable, we suggest a donation of £25 per session or you can pay for all six sessions in advance for a reduced cost of £150.
You can make your donation in cash or with your bank card at your session or you can donate either via bank transfer or our Just Giving page.
We do understand that everybody’s circumstances are different and we know many carers are not in a comfortable financial position to donate. If this is you, your counsellor will have a conversation with you and we will do our very best to accommodate your needs.
Further information
To find out more about our counselling service, please contact the Counselling Manager or the Carer Support Team on 0161 442 0442.
To help you understand what counselling is and isn’t, we’ve put together some common queries and concerns below…
It is not unusual to feel this way and it’s completely normal, particularly if you didn’t connect with your counsellor or were left feeling deflated after your sessions.
It’s important to remember – just because you didn’t find one Counsellor helpful, it doesn’t mean this will be the same with another. We like to offer flexibility – if you aren’t clicking with your Counsellor, you can request to move to another. The relationship between you and your Counsellor is important and should be one you feel good about, so please do not be put off by a not so positive past experience.
It also may be the last time you had counselling that it wasn’t the right time for you. Counselling requires you to attend each session consistently, be honest and committed to working through things. The more committed you are to your sessions, the more you will get out of them.
Counselling cannot fix all your problems for you. Unfortunately, Counsellors do not have a magic wand to wave to make things better. As mentioned above, you have to put in some effort to get the most out of your counselling.
Let’s face it, nobody really likes being told what to do. Your Counsellor can’t tell you what to do. They may present you with options based on what you have discussed in your session. Your Counsellor can also then support you with the outcomes of your choices and reflect on the decisions made.
Your Counsellor will not judge you. Your Counsellor will see people from all walks of life and to support everyone in the best way possible, it is important there is no judgement. Your Counsellor will offer compassion, empathy with lots of open questions and at times maybe asking some challenging questions to help you best work through your issue. An essential part of the practice is that the space is judgement free and confidential.
Your counselling sessions are confidential and throughout your counselling journey, the importance of confidentiality will be discussed with you by your Counsellor.
If you do speak about anything in your session where you or someone else is at risk or if you speak about something illegal however, then your Counsellor will need to raise this with their Manager. The Counsellor will inform you of this. Your counsellor may need to share information with your GP or an emergency service if required.
There also may be times when a Counsellor may discuss your case in supervision. Supervision is when Counsellors share best practice with each other and get support. This means that they can better support you. A Counsellor would not give your name and full anonymity is guaranteed. Confidentiality is of upmost importance.
Some people believe that counselling isn’t for them as they’ll seem “weak”. Or sometimes they “should” be strong enough to deal with things on their own but this is absolutely not the case. Counselling is a really effective way for you to receive support in not dealing with things on your own. The stigma attached to counselling has reduced in the past few years, it is much more accepted. Many people will have been to a Counsellor at one point or another in their lives. It also takes courage to go to counselling and begin working through what’s affecting you – it’s brave and requires strength.
Counselling can build your resilience, help you tackle things from the past that are holding you back, struggles with the present or prepare you for the future. It doesn’t need to be scary and especially as a carer it is important you take some time for yourself.
Counselling Self Referral Form
Please note you must be registered with us in order to access counselling. If you are not registered, we will not proceed with your counselling referral. To register with us, please click here – Register as a Carer
Once we receive your referral, we will contact within 2 weeks to book you in for a counselling assessment. The counselling assessment takes around an hour and is on the phone.
