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Counselling & Therapy

Safeline has a large team of counsellors and therapists dedicated to helping people who have experienced sexual abuse at any time in their lives. We work with adults and children aged five and upwards and offer our counselling services free of charge to anyone who may have been affected. This includes friends and family members.

If you had any questions about accessing our services then please don’t hesitate to call our general office number on, 01926 402 498 or email, office@safeline.org.uk.

How counselling can help you

If you or someone close to you has experienced rape or sexual abuse, it might feel very difficult to talk about it to your friends and family. This may be because your reactions are overwhelming or confusing, or you could feel like you want to protect others. Coming to counselling gives you a private and confidential space where you can talk to someone you trust about your reactions, thoughts, feelings and experiences.

After counselling, many clients report an improvement in their health and well-being. This includes an increased feeling of control over their lives, hope for the future and an ability to move on from their experiences and become the person that they would like to be.

Having counselling at Safeline

If you think you would benefit from counselling at Safeline, then you can self-refer to us by contacting the Safeline office on 01926 402498, email office@safeline.org.uk or fill in a self-referral form. With your permission, your GP or other professionals you may be working with can also make a referral for you. Our main office is in Warwick and we have a dedicated counselling service in Stratford-upon-Avon. We also see clients at centres across Warwickshire and Coventry including Nuneaton, Leamington Spa and Kenilworth.

Our organisation embraces diversity and our clients come from many different backgrounds, races and cultures. They have different gender and sexual identities, religions, belief systems, disabilities and life experiences. Safeline is opposed to any form of prejudice and we want to work with you, whoever you may be.

We may be able to offer you counselling by telephone or online if you are not able to travel to one of our centres. You will be able to discuss this at your initial meeting.

Different counselling and therapeutic approaches

When you come to Safeline for counselling, one of our Assessments Managers will meet with you to talk about your goals and expectations for counselling and discuss the type of counselling approach that is right for you. We can offer:

Face to face therapies

Types of Therapy

Many of our counsellors are person-centred and give you space to explore your thoughts and feelings. Others are cognitive behavioural therapists and take a more structured approach. Some therapists work creatively with toys, writing and drawing. We also have several qualified art therapists who use art-making alongside talking (you don’t have to be good at art to benefit from Art Therapy!)

Our various counselling methods are here to accommodate for your individual needs.

Our Counselling Rooms

Safeline is based in Warwick and has an office in Stratford-upon-Avon. We also provide counselling rooms throughout Warwickshire and Coventry to ensure that our service is readily accessible to you. All the rooms we use are private, discreet and welcoming.

Format

We offer counselling in blocks of twelve weekly sessions which are renewable. You and your counsellor will regularly review the counselling to ensure it continues to be appropriate for you.

There is no pressure or agenda, and you can take your time to work through your experiences at your own pace. We understand that counselling can be upsetting and bring back painful memories, your counsellor can help you work out ways of coping with these feelings.

Your counsellor will not judge or criticise, they will always listen and help you find a way through. You can move forward in your own time and you’ll never be rushed.

Telephone and online counselling

We offer telephone counselling and online counselling to adults aged 18 years and over in England and Wales. Online counseling is provided by video (similar to Skype), instant messaging or email through a secure encrypted platform called VSee.

Online and Telephone Counselling is proven to be just as effective as face-to-face counselling and has many benefits such as being more flexible and accessible from home. However, if you would prefer face-to-face counselling and live in Warwickshire or Coventry, then Safeline can help. Otherwise, we can signpost you to a service in your area.

If you decide to have online counselling with us we will send you all the information you need to get started and our telephone and online team can talk you through the set up process. You will need:

* To have a private and confidential space for your sessions

* To be a confident computer user

* To have good reading and typing skills (for using email or instant message counselling)

* Internet access on a computer that you can use privately for the duration of your session

* A headset (if you are having voice or video sessions)

* A webcam (if you are having video sessions)

How to access Telephone and Online Counselling:

  1. You contact us

Let us know you want to access the service by emailing us or talking with one of our advisers on the phone or completing a self-referral form found here.  You will then be sent a welcome pack with information about the service and further information about confidentiality.

2. Assessment

Assessment is about finding out more about you, what you would like to get out of counselling, finding the right kind of support for you and for you to ask any questions you have about counselling.  The assessment takes about an hour and you need to have a private confidential space for this. If other types of support are more suitable for you we will discuss this with you and may refer you to another specialist service.

3. Matching you with a counsellor

If, after assessment, telephone or online counselling is right for you we will match you with a counsellor for counselling sessions at times that are convenient for you.

You will then have regular counselling sessions with your counsellor. Sessions last about 50 minutes and most people prefer to have weekly sessions at the same time.  You and your counsellor will regularly review the work you are doing to decide what is right for you.  Counselling may continue for as long as is ethically appropriate.

4. Ending counselling

You can choose to end your counselling when it feels right for you and if, for any reason, your counsellor has any concerns they will explore this with you.

After you have finished your counselling sessions we will ask you if you would like to give feedback about the service.

Sessions for families

Some of our counsellors will invite you to work with another member of your family, for example a parent may want to have sessions alongside a child who has been abused.

Other services

Our assessment manager may also tell you about the other services at Safeline, such as ISVA (Independent Sexual Violent Advisors), Young people’s prevention and education services, or our Support groups. It is your decision to use as many or as few of the Safeline services as you like.

Our counsellors

Our face to face counsellors and therapists are all fully qualified or in the last year of their professional training. All of our telephone and online counsellors are fully qualified having undertaken additional training to work with Telephone and Online clients.

We make sure they work to high professional standards set out by Safeline and to the codes of ethics set out by their professional bodies, such the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) or the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

All counsellors who join our counselling team complete our specialist training course in working with survivors of rape and sexual abuse. Our counsellors ensure that they keep their skills and knowledge up-to-date by attending regular professional development sessions. If you are a counsellor, you may like to find out more about joining our team.

If you have a compliment or complaint about any of our counsellors then please let us know. You can also complain to the BACP if you are unhappy with the conduct of any of our counsellors.

Confidentiality & Data Protection

All the information you give us will be kept confidential within our organisation unless:

* You give us permission to share information

* The information is requested by a court of law

* There is serious risk of harm to another person, for example, a serious crime being committed such as terrorism, fraud, or a child protection concern.

* There is serious risk of harm to yourself, for example, a plan to take your own life.

To ensure good practice, all our counsellors have regular management and clinical supervision where they discuss their counselling work on an anonymous basis. Safeline keep counselling notes of each counselling session, these are kept securely for a minimum of 7 years and these notes are kept separately from personally identifying information.

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