Community Counselling

Catholic Care offers free counselling to people experiencing life’s difficulties. Good mental health is an essential component of a fulfilling life, and it’s important to have someone to turn to when things feel overwhelming.

Counselling is offered to the general public as part of our Community Services; this is distinct from the counselling and support we offer through our Schools, Children and Family Well-Being Services, and Mental Health Supported Living Services.

What is counselling?

Counselling, or psychotherapy, provides a space for you to talk to a trained professional about your issues and concerns. A therapist helps you explore your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours in a safe and confidential space so that you can develop a better understanding of yourself and of others.

For more information on counselling, visit the BACP website.

There are different types of counselling. The majority of Catholic Care’s counsellors offer humanistic therapy which sees you as the expert on your own life and helps you explore your relationship with the world around you.

What Catholic Care offers

Catholic Care’s counselling service is available to anyone living within the geographic area covered by the Diocese of Leeds (primarily West and parts of North Yorkshire, including Leeds, Bradford, Settle, Ripon, Halifax, Selby, Ilkley, Harrogate, and Kirklees).

Up to 8 sessions (normally 1 hour per week) are offered, free of charge, though donations to the charity are welcome.

Counselling is normally delivered online, or face-to-face at our Head Office in Headingley, Leeds.

Our counsellors are:

• suitably trained or in training
• registered members of professional counselling bodies (such as BACP)
• safeguarding (DBS) cleared
• accountable to their own professional supervisors and Catholic Care’s Community Manager
• covered by professional indemnity insurance

Whilst Catholic Care is a Christian charity, our counselling service is available to people of any faith or none. Our counsellors may or may not be people of faith, and whilst religion/spirituality is something you might want to discuss, our counsellors do not have a ‘faith agenda’ or push a particular religious standpoint.

Referral and assessment process

Catholic Care’s social workers in schools and other services may signpost people to our Community Service counsellors.

Adults living within the geographic area covered by the charity (that is the Diocese of Leeds; primarily West and parts of North Yorkshire) can refer themselves to us for counselling. We offer counselling to people of any faith or none.

To ensure that we can offer counselling appropriately, those who self-refer will be assessed by a member of the counselling team. This involves a conversation (possibly over the phone) about what brings the person to counselling, If the assessor thinks that Catholic Care can be of help, a counsellor will then be allocated.

In their first session, the counsellor and client will agree how they will work together (‘contracting’).

Self-referral form ???

Asking potential client to provide:

Name

Phone

Email

Address [please note that we can only offer counselling within the West/North Yorkshire region]

Date of birth

Gender

Employment status

GP details

Emergency contact

Reasons for referral

Consent to store data

Feedback form ???

If you’ve received counselling via Catholic Care, we’d welcome your feedback. <<Link to feedback form>>

Student placements

Catholic Care welcomes applications from volunteer student counsellors (Level 4 and above) seeking a practice placement with us. Please contact our Community Service Manager (see below) with details of your course, your level of experience (including current hours and any qualification in online counselling), your professional body registration number, and your DBS status. Please note we are unable to guarantee consistent hours, and some training bodies limit the number of hours that can be completed via video counselling.

Further information

Please contact Michelle Vink, Community Service Manager.

Email: michelle.vink@catholic-care.org.uk
Tel: 07739 975000