Life can be difficult and challenging and sometimes it is hard to cope. We can get depressed, angry, anxious, be suffering from historical trauma or one of many other issues.

At Women’s Work we recognise that mental and emotional health is as essential to well-being as good physical health. We are committed to providing professional, confidential and empathetic therapy to the women that come to us for help, offering a warm, inviting atmosphere and a friendly face.

We have a team of committed volunteer counsellors with varied experiences and training. Following a full assessment of their needs, each woman is allocated a counsellor to help them work through their issues and manage the difficulties they are facing. Our counsellors use a variety of modalities, fore example, Person Centred Therapy, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy or Psychodynamic Therapeutic approaches, according to the client need.

Clients are benefitting greatly from this service which has been reflected in the feedback.

“For so long I’d been stuck living in the past with all these trapped emotions not believing in myself, not seeing a future. Counselling has changed all of that for me. I was able to open up all my emotions and let them go. It’s brought me to the back to the present. I’m now feeling more confident and more positive looking at the future.”

If you would like to refer to the counselling service, please click here.

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer counsellor, please click here.

For one woman our counselling service helped turn her world around…

Sharon, a single parent of two boys, had experienced extreme trauma as a result of domestic violence and abuse in an 18 year relationship. 18 months after the relationship ended she was experiencing flashbacks, pure panic, shame and felt swamped. She felt embarrassed and hated herself for having put up with the abuse for so long. At an assessment for counselling in July 2020 she presented as withdrawn, silent, and lost. Soon after starting the counselling she took sick leave from a job she loved.

Sharon had moved into a new home that she was slowly redecorating, but found herself ‘hanging around, standing, doing nothing, just thinking.’ When asked why, her default response was ‘I don’t know’. Over 15 sessions the counsellor challenged this response and introduced CBT interventions which addressed negative and defeatist thinking. Once Sharon realised that ‘hanging around doing nothing’ was a new behaviour that had developed because she was used to being controlled and bullied she could work on re-building her confidence, discovering her self-worth and value, and trusting the process of self-efficacy with the counsellor. As Sharon gained confidence in making decisions for herself she confronted her own sense of worthlessness and inadequacy, and challenged the lies that she had been given from her ex-partner, that she was no good, and would not amount to anything.

In her 20th session Sharon said that she was ready to return to work. She wanted to move on with her life and be the best parent to her two boys. In following sessions she affirmed that she had no intention of returning to her ex-partner. Positives aspects of her character were explored, and the lighter humorous side of her that had been gradually snuffed out by her ex-partner slowly started to emerge. She returned to work following her 25th counselling session.

When asked how she felt about the counselling experience Sharon said that although hard at first, she knew that she had to talk about what had happened. She said she felt safe, and was aware that although the memory of the abuse she had experienced would be with her for the rest of her life, she was not going to let it stop her from moving forward.