Counselling

Counselling is different from other forms of help; the focus is to enable you to clarify the issues about which you are troubled. This will involve you in exploring those issues in private with someone who is trained to listen and has no other role in your life.

Through this confidential process, your counsellor will be seeking to enable you to clarify your thoughts and feelings.

Counselling is a positive process, which is often associated with times of personal crisis.

It may involve talking about painful parts of your life and therefore, you may feel worse before you feel better.

It is also a very effective way of developing personal potential.

Counselling and psychotherapy can be helpful for a wide range of difficulties such as:

depression
relationship problems
stress
anxiety/panic attacks
low self-esteem
eating problems
sexual problems
bereavement and loss
trauma resulting from accident, assault or abuse

National standards for counselling and psychotherapy

Under current regulations anyone can set themselves up as a psychotherapist or counsellor and charge patients for consultations. This leads to a wide variation in the level of competence and expertise available.

Until such time as statutory regulation is introduced, those employing counsellors should ensure that their recruitment arrangements are stringent and that therapists meet the training and supervision standards identified by the relevant professional organisations.

Those individuals using counselling services should be aware of what to expect from a counsellor and should be encouraged to work with counsellors who subscribe to professional bodies recognised codes of ethics and practice.

Finding a counsellor

The following organisations are available for information and assistance in making contact with counsellors in and around Merton.

The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) is the largest and broadest body within the sector and works to ensure that it meets the remit of public protection whilst developing and informing its members.

Counsellors and Psychotherapists in Primary Care (CPC) is a self-regulating membership association; and the names of individual members who reach the required standards for membership criteria are entered on a Register of Members. Its aim is to represent counsellors and psychotherapists working in an NHS setting and establish best practice for national standards and guidelines in further development of professional and effective counselling throughout the NHS.

The United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) is designed to promote the art and science of psychotherapy for the public benefit; to promote research and education in psychotherapy and disseminate the results of any such research; and to promote (or assist in the promotion, preservation and protection of public health by encouraging) high standards of training and practice in psychotherapy and the wider provision of psychotherapy for the public benefit.

Relevant websites:

Further information

For further advice and information regarding services for people with mental health problems contact:

The Community Mental Health Team on

020 8254 1030 (Morden area)

020 8254 1045 (Wimbledon area)

020 8687 4781 (Mitcham area)

Related webpages

Services for adults with mental health problems
Bereavement counselling
Care Connect

This page was last updated on Monday 16 March 2009

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