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We are excited to announce the opening of our Adult Generic Counselling Service for the adults of the Borough of Wigan.  The service is designed to provide support across a wide range of emotional and mental health challenges, rather than focusing on a specific issue or group. We are here to help adults navigate various personal difficulties in a safe and supportive environment.

Sometimes, coping with day-to-day life can feel overwhelming, whether due to current circumstances or unresolved issues from the past. While it is often possible to address these challenges on your own or with the support of friends and family, there are times when speaking with a counsellor can be invaluable.

Counselling offers a safe, confidential, and non-judgmental environment to explore your thoughts and feelings. Working at your own pace, you and your counsellor can collaborate to identify challenges, develop coping strategies, and work toward achieving your personal goals.

Family Welfare is proud to offer this amazing project by opening our doors and providing invaluable support for Trainee Counsellors. This initiative allows us to nurture the next generation of professionals while expanding our services to the community. Family Welfare has been diligently working behind the scenes for several months to bring this project to life. This offer reflects our commitment to supporting both the community and the next generation of counsellors.

We have been working closely with colleges and universities that have conducted the necessary checks, including health and safety assessments, and have officially accepted us as a preferred placement provider for their students. This collaboration ensures that we maintain high standards of care and support while offering valuable learning opportunities for trainees.

All our students have not only passed their education provider’s stringent tests to ensure their Fitness for Practice but have also completed our own formal application and interview process as well as our in-house induction. This includes safeguarding training, risk assessment, and a thorough introduction to our policies and procedures, ensuring they are fully prepared to provide safe and effective support to clients.

All our trainee counsellors will be supported by our dedicated Counselling Coordinator who is also a qualified experienced Counsellor, who has been employed specifically to guide, support, and work alongside them to ensure best working practices. Additionally, we have a Safeguarding Team of four experienced professionals who have completed all relevant training and continuously update their knowledge to maintain the highest standards of care and protection for both clients and trainees.

We are also excited to announce that we are now able to offer sessions with our Trainee CBT Therapists, further enhancing the range of support available to our clients.  Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a structured, evidence-based form of therapy that helps individuals identify and change unhelpful thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. It focuses on developing practical coping strategies to manage challenges such as anxiety, depression, and stress. CBT is goal-oriented and works by breaking down overwhelming problems into smaller, manageable parts, enabling individuals to develop healthier thinking patterns and responses.

CBT is a type of talking therapy that looks at how your thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and even physical sensations are all connected. Often when we are having negative thoughts either about ourselves, others or the world, it can have an effect of the way we feel and behave, which in turn can make us feel worse. This then becomes a negative cycle, which can feel really difficult to get out of. However, CBT helps us recognise and change those patterns so we can feel better. We can do this by breaking down big problems into smaller, manageable parts. CBT aims to give you a mental toolkit of skills and strategies to help you manage your thoughts, feelings, and overall mental health more effectively.

To find out more about this service you can call us direct on 01942 867888 or click here and send us a message using our enquiry form.

Single session therapy is a new counselling service launched by Family Welfare this year. It’s designed especially for young people, to help you get access to a trained counsellor quickly.

NHS England waiting lists for counselling currently stand at 18 weeks. For some problems, the wait is simply too long. Single session therapy means you don’t have to join a waiting list. You can contact Family Welfare and get the help you need so you can tackle your challenges head on and move forward in your life.

What is single session therapy?

Single session counselling is a face-to-face talking therapy session with a qualified counsellor that lasts one hour. If you’re stuck, we can help you find solutions. If you’re struggling to cope, we can help you find ways to manage the situation. If you just need someone to offload to, we will be your listening ear.

80% of young people find that a single counselling session is enough to help tackle a specific challenge or problem. Your counsellor can also point you to further support if you, or your counsellor, thinks it would be beneficial.

Who can access single session counselling?

The service is available to young people aged 7 to 18 who live in the Borough of Wigan. No matter how big or small your problem, know that there’s someone here who wants to help. You might be living with problems at home, worried about friends, family, school or college, or don’t feel like you can move forward from something that happened in your life.

If you have been keeping a worry inside for so long and want to set it free, single session counselling might be right for you. It’s a safe, confidential space to share your problem with someone you can trust.

How to prepare for single session therapy

1. To make the most of your time with your counsellor, think about what you want to get out of the session in advance. Most people have a specific problem or issue they want to talk about.

2. At the session, be prepared to talk and answer lots of questions. Your counsellor will make sure you focus on the problem and leave with a plan of action and some tools, techniques and actions to make it happen. For example, your counsellor might ask you to try acting out a conversation you need to have to give you the confidence to have that conversation.

3. Because sessions are short and focused, you might be able to manage your problem without the need for further counselling support. If you feel you need more talking therapy just tell your counsellor – we are here to help.

What happens after the counselling session?

After your session, take some time to think about what you talked about. If you take away just one action or step you can take towards solving your problem, this is a positive outcome.

Think about the action plan you made with your counsellor and what you need to do next. Maybe you agreed to contact another organisation, read about a subject, practise a technique, or have that talk with a friend or family member that you’ve been putting off.

Book a single session appointment

You can book an appointment with a trained counsellor on 01942 867888. Sessions are available from Monday to Wednesday 3pm-7pm and on Thursdays from 1pm-5pm.

If you’ve read our post on what to expect from counselling, you might be intrigued to understand more about how counselling works. We’ve written this blog for people who are considering, or about to embark on, counselling therapy sessions.

We’re going to explore two common counselling techniques, both forms of talking therapy used by our team at Family Welfare. One looks back at the past and the other deals with present day emotions and behaviours. We’ll look at what’s involved, what it’s used for and how each one can help.

What is Psychodynamic counselling therapy?

Psychodynamic therapy helps you to identify the unconscious thoughts and defence mechanisms that may be preventing you from healing. A lot of the time, these are thoughts and behaviours you have been storing up since you were young.

We use psychodynamic therapy in a variety of scenarios, with both adults and children from the age of 4. It’s particularly helpful for people going through bereavement, depression and anxiety, or if you’re stuck and simply need to find a way to move on with your life.

How psychodynamic therapy works

Your counsellor will encourage you to think about your past experiences, often stored in the unconscious mind from a young age, and explore them fully. Together you will talk about how these experiences or thoughts hamper or help your route to healing. With your counsellor’s support, you will build coping strategies based on what has worked for you in the past.

Through sharing your thoughts and talking about your experiences you’ll learn a lot about yourself and your strengths and weaknesses. More importantly, you’ll understand why you feel the way you do and react in a certain way.

What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a structured form of talking therapy that can help you manage your problems by changing the way you think and act.

It’s a long name so let’s break it down

Cognitive describes how you think – the way your brain works, Behavioural is the way you act and behave, Therapy is talking about both of these to find solutions that work for you!

CBT helps you to explore the connection between how you think and behave. It helps you to identify how making changes in your thoughts and actions could help you manage your anxieties.

CBT is a useful for clients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of a particular life event or something that was done to you. It can also help you to manage overwhelm, negative thoughts and feelings, stress, depression, perinatal anxiety, and change unhelpful or unrealistic thought patterns and behaviours.

How CBT works

Rather than reflecting on past experience, CBT deals with present day thoughts and behaviours. Your counsellor will encourage you to talk about your feelings and emotions and explore these.

It might feel uncomfortable at times. But remember, you’re in a safe, private space with your counsellor and nothing you share will go beyond those four walls.

With the help of your counsellor, you will identify changes you can make to improve your current situation and state of mind. They will ask you to practise making changes to your actions and thoughts in your day-to-day life, and to share how you got on.

The idea is to build up the frequency of the changes until they become a daily habit and help you to improve or enhance your life. Once you finish your counselling sessions, the hope is you will continue using these new habits until they become part of your new mindset. Part of the new You.

Free counselling therapy in Wigan

These are just two of the many life-changing counselling techniques you might experience with Family Welfare’s counselling support. We offer free counselling across the Borough of Wigan to help people manage a range of mental health issues from anger management to child bereavement. Take a look at our Services to learn more.

So you’re thinking about counselling but not sure what to expect?

The fact that you’re reading this blog is hugely positive. Doing research about counselling is a significant step towards getting the support you need. It’s a sign you’re ready to move on from a difficult life experience and find solutions to manage your feelings and emotions.

Now you’re in the right place, let’s take a look at what counselling with Family Welfare involves and what you might expect from the experience.

Person-centred therapy – what it is and how it works

Family Welfare’s counsellors practise a form of counselling known as person-centred therapy. In short, it’s all about you. There’s no set process or framework applied to what we do, and there’s definitely no ‘one size fits all’ approach to counselling with us.

The idea is that you (the client) set the ground rules and boundaries with your counsellor. You decide what you want or need to achieve from the counselling. That forms our contract with you and we stick to it.

Every time we meet we’ll discuss the things that are important to you. Every session is based on how you’re feeling, and what you want or need at that point in time.

So, what does the experience of person-centred counselling look and feel like?

You’re in control

It’s up to you where and how often we meet, what we talk about (and what we don’t talk about). Your counsellor wants you to feel comfortable and at ease, so if you’d rather chat on Zoom than in person, that’s fine. It’s your call. We won’t ever pressure you to meet at a certain place or time.

You can also bring a trusted friend or family member along to your sessions if that makes you feel more confident and supported.

We see things from your perspective

Person-centred counselling is based on empathy. Empathy is a skill that helps us to see events from your perspective. That means your counsellor will take a walk in your shoes to genuinely understand how you’re thinking and feeling. They will listen and consider every situation through your eyes before helping you to explore the possibilities or the barriers stopping you moving forward. We’re here every step of the way to help you find your own solutions and develop actions to help you reach your goal.

It’s not a lecture or a quick fix

Our counsellors aren’t here to judge you, tell you off or fix things for you. The counsellor/client relationship is an equal partnership. This means we’re here to listen to whatever you want to share with us and we genuinely care about getting you the support you need to make positive steps forward – without criticism or judgement.

You can choose the number of sessions you have, but don’t expect to have all the solutions at the end of the first session. Counselling takes time and commitment from both parties.

You can trust your counsellor

Everything you discuss in the counselling room (in person or virtually) is confidential. It’s a safe, secure environment where you can open up and be honest about your thoughts and feelings. In return, your counsellor will be honest with you. Counselling is a two-way conversation.

There may be tears

Tears are part of the healing process. Counselling is emotional and can bring to the surface suppressed feelings and emotions that could take you by surprise. It’s natural to get upset when recalling difficult memories, events and experiences. Sometimes we need to release these emotions to move on in life.

Your counsellor is here to help you understand why you feel a certain way and to support you to work through your emotions. As part of their role they might suggest some useful tools and techniques or complementary services to help you cope.

Ready to take the next step?

We hope reading this post has helped you understand what’s involved in our counselling services. The Family Welfare counselling team supports adults, adolescents and children with a range of personal, social, behavioural or psychological issues. Counselling is free to access.

If you’d like to speak to one of our team, you can call us on 01942 867888 or complete our confidential enquiry form.

The impact of being involved in a crime can be far reaching.

Without the right support, crime can cause lifelong damage to its victims. The mental, emotional and physical impacts of crime shape our behaviours, anxieties and attitudes to life. If you’ve ever been a victim of crime, you’ll know just how deeply it can affect a person, and in some cases, even stop you living the life you dreamed of.

Young victims of crime are a growing area of concern in our community. Victims are unable to process their experience and living in fear, dealing with anger, loss and depression as a result.

Family Welfare is always looking for new ways to support families in the Borough of Wigan. When the opportunity arose to create a new programme to support young victims of crime, our team grasped the opportunity.

Counselling for young victims of crime

Funded and in partnership with Wigan Local Authority using Home Office Funding, counselling for young victims of crime started delivery in early 2022. We receive referrals from the Police and CAMHS as well as self-referrals from victims of crime and their families.

The programme is led by Chellie Minney, one of our counsellors who’s experienced in developing support for victims of crime. Her objective is to help young people heal from the effects of crime they’ve been a part of, and ultimately find closure from their trauma.

When might someone need counselling?

Crime can affect victims directly or indirectly. Both types of victim are likely to suffer some degree of trauma and anxiety linked to the crime.

Direct victims of crime (who have witnessed or had a crime committed against them) can suffer mentally, emotionally, physically and financially depending on the nature of the crime. Examples include bullying, harassment, sexual crime, in-family fighting, and escalated disagreements between families or other groups of people.

In indirect cases, the victim may have not been part of the crime but is still impacted by the aftermath, e.g. by losing a friend or loved one, or been affected by the actions of people they know who are involved in crime.

Common feelings young people might present with include:

• Suppressed anger
• Dealing with loss and/or a bereavement
• Depression and withdrawal from social situations
• Anxiety, especially if the perpetrator has not been caught
• Fear for personal safety and reluctance to leave the house or go to school/college
• Fear for the safety of friends and family
• Difficulty processing the memory of a crime

However someone has been impacted by a crime, they should never have to live with these sorts of feelings. Counselling is a safe, neutral and confidential space to share memories of crime and work through the feelings and impacts the experience has left.

Who is eligible for counselling?

We can currently offer counselling support to up to 20 young people aged between 5 and 18 who have been directly or indirectly impacted by crime. Each individual can have up to 8 free sessions with a qualified counsellor. There are spaces available on the programme. Contact us on 01942 867888 to talk to a member of our team.

Our counsellors put the victim at heart of the process, and build the therapy around the person and their preferences. We use the five core techniques of counselling and other creative ideas to build trust and help young people discuss what’s happened to them. We agree on language they’re comfortable with and maintain the victim’s dignity at all times.

If the victim needs further support, their counsellor will signpost other specialist services from partner organisations. The counselling model is designed to help the victim to process their feelings and find the strength to move on with their life.

Where do counselling sessions take place?

This is a personal choice as we flex our service to suit the individual. We can offer counselling by telephone, online, in school, at our offices, or in community venues such as a local library or Start Well Family Centre. It’s all about helping the person feel at ease.

Living with the impacts of crime can prevent young people from achieving their dreams and lead to problems in adult life. Our counselling programme is still in its infancy and so far the signs of success are positive. In the future, we hope to extend the programme to link in with other local crime support organisations such as Witness Support and Victim Support.

If you, or someone you know, has been a victim of crime and is open to counselling to help them process their feelings, please get in touch confidentially on 01942 867888.

Supporting young people’s wellbeing is a key strand of Family Welfare’s work. Through counselling and advocacy, our team help children through a range of issues from coping with anxiety and trauma to anger management and bereavement.

Our new home in the Leigh Adult Learning Centre provides us with opportunities to expand our range of support services for young people. The building has a number of event spaces, which are all available for hire by local community groups at reasonable rates.

We want every section of the community to use our building and get involved in activities. It’s great to see several partner organisations already using these rooms for their youth groups. You can read more about them and how to get involved below.

Heart Communities Arts Group

Heart Communities is an arts education and wellbeing group based at Spinners Mill in Leigh. On Monday evenings between 4-7pm, 15 young people are embarking on a 10-week course on stop frame animation using just mobile phones. If you’ve ever watched Wallace & Gromit and wondered what it takes to create your own animated film, the first activity in this group could be for you.

Contact heartcommunitiescic@gmail.com or follow @heartcommunitiescic on Facebook and @HeartComCIC on twitter for more information.

Global Friends

Representing young people in the BAME community, Global Friends meets every Tuesday from 4.30-6.30pm. Run by Everything Human Rights, the group supports young people aged between 11 and 17 whose families have come to live in the borough from countries all over the world.

Global Friends promotes diversity and inclusion and brings together young people from different cultures and backgrounds to learn, collaborate and make friends. Activities are designed to support young people from migrant ethnic minorities living in Wigan and Leigh to integrate into their communities.

Email reachout@ehrcg.org.uk or follow @RightsCommunity on twitter and Facebook for details.

Youth Steering Group

On Wednesday evenings, our young people’s mental health steering group meet to plan and organise their monthly activities and celebrate their achievements. The group is led by our Family Welfare Youth Worker, Dan Zahler. Read more about their work here.

We currently have one opening for a young person to join our steering group. If you’re interested in helping to shape activities for young people across Wigan and Leigh, Dan would love to hear from you on 07917 307357 or dzahler@familywelfare.co.uk.

Wigan Care Leavers

Run by Wigan Council, Wigan Care Leavers is a support group for young people who are leaving care and taking steps to live independently. They hold regular meetings in our Comfort Cafe to form friendships, access support to develop relationships, and learn skills to help them in their new circumstances.

As you can see, there are plenty of activities for young people taking place in Wigan and Leigh – with lots more to come. Our aim is to create safe spaces for young people in every section of the community. We’d love for every room in our building to be used by local groups every weekday afternoon and evening with a range of activities to support the mental health and wellbeing of younger people.

Are you interested in using our meeting rooms or Comfort Cafe for your local group?

Room hire is free for registered local family and children’s charities. Other groups are welcome to hire space for a small charge. All proceeds raised go back into funding more activities for young people in the community.

You can hire our Community Room for £15 per hour and the small meeting room for just £10 per hour. The Community Room has a capacity of 35 and the small meeting room seats up to 15. View full details and booking information for all our rooms on our website contact us on admin@familywelfare.co.uk

In November 2021, we strengthened the Family Welfare team with the appointment of our fantastic Youth Worker, Dan Zahler, on a year-long secondment. With his background in youth work and listening to young people’s voices, Dan is helping us to understand more about what young people want and need from our services.

Through our Youth Steering Group, we consider mental health matters from a young person’s perspective. This post outlines what they’ve told us and how they’re helping us to shape our future service provision.

Creating a Youth Steering Group

Dan set up our Youth Steering Group to guide us in developing the concept of a mental health cafe. Dan’s challenge was to recruit 15 members to represent all the different communities that young people in Wigan and Leigh feel part of.

With representatives from Young Carers, the Youth Cabinet, social care, the BAME community, sport, health and wellbeing, local schools and colleges, we have a truly diverse and committed steering group.

Shaping the Comfort Cafe

The first project Dan consulted the steering group on was naming our mental health cafe and shaping the activities, services and menu we would deliver. Young people told us they wanted it to be a place where they could relax and feel at ease. We listened and have delivered. The Comfort Cafe launched at the start of February 2022. Read more about it here.

Dan says,

“Our priority is to listen to young people’s voices so they can guide us and shape the services the Comfort Cafe provides. They’ve played a really important role, firstly in naming it and also in telling us what they want from the space. As a result of our conversations and with support from the Youth Inspiration Fund, our steering group created the Comfort Corner in the cafe; an enclosed safe space with games and activities. I’m so proud of what they’ve achieved together so far.”

Guiding our youth events programme

Having played an instrumental role in setting up the Comfort Cafe, our Youth Steering Group has moved on to developing a monthly events programme. This will see a series of events and celebrations for young people taking place in the Cafe. The events will bring together young people from different backgrounds across the Borough with the aim of celebrating differences and starting conversations. Each one will encourage young people to open themselves up to new ideas and experiences and learn about different cultures.

Dan suggested the group start by considering issues and events that were close to their hearts, and matters that were important to them and their peers.

They looked at the calendar to see what was coming up during the first quarter of 2022 and discussed all kinds of seasonal activities, settling on three key themes: Chinese New Year, LGBTQ+ awareness month and Young Carer’s Action Day in March. After deciding on these, they brainstormed ideas and came up with all kinds of fun and interesting activities linked to the themes. The group also discussed ways to link events in with other local community groups, musicians and performers.

Celebrating difference and raising awareness

Our calendar of young people’s events kicked off in early February with celebrations for the Chinese New Year of the Water Tiger. Activities included dressing the cafe with lantern decorations, a Chinese tasting menu using chopsticks, and screenings of Kung Fu films.

Throughout February the Comfort Cafe will be dressed in flags and bunting to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, with plans for face painting, rainbow cakes and a bold and beautiful fashion show.

The group also has big plans for Young Carer’s Action Day on 16 March. Keep an eye on our social feeds for details of what’s happening and how to get involved.

The steering group follows a four-week plan designed by Dan. They meet weekly in the Comfort Cafe. Week one is focused on planning, week two is when the event or activity is delivered, week three is for relaxing and gaming, and week four is all about celebrating success and the group’s contributions.

A snowy celebration

A fine example of celebrating success took place just before Christmas 2021. To acknowledge the Youth Steering Group’s work, we took 15 young people to experience an outdoor snow extravaganza at Manchester’s Trafford Centre. They enjoyed acrobatic displays in the Big Top, experienced a snow storm and tried their luck at ice skating. It was wonderful to see young people from such diverse backgrounds coming together to celebrate and form new friendships.

Thanks to our close links with Spinner’s Mill, future celebrations will include cultural trips to shows at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre, including six trips a year for isolated and vulnerable young people.

That’s a whistle-stop tour of our Youth Steering Group’s input to date. We’ve no doubt there will be lots more success to celebrate in the near future. Keep an eye on our social feeds for details of our young people’s events programme, and if you’d like to get involved, drop Dan a line at dzahler@familywelfare.co.uk.