Project Description
Sometimes you might have questions about counselling.
We’ve covered some areas here but please get in touch if you need to know anything else.
What is counselling like?
Counselling is like having a conversation with someone who really listens to you, and takes what you say seriously. Your counsellor won’t judge you and will try hard to understand things from your point of view. It might feel strange at first, talking like this to someone you don’t know but counsellors are trained to listen with an open mind and let you take things at your own pace. You will have a chance to work out what your goals are – what you want to get out of your counselling sessions.
“It has been so helpful to be able to talk through my anxieties with a caring and sensitive person”
How can counselling help?
Sometimes we all have problems that are worrying. Think of a confusing jigsaw when all the pieces are difficult to match together. Talking about a problem in counselling is like sorting out all the pieces so we can begin to build a picture that makes more sense to us.
Counselling is different for everyone and by building a bigger picture it might help you to solve a specific problem or make difficult decisions, to learn how to cope better with difficulties, understand yourself and your feelings better or improve relationships.
Sometimes it’s difficult or embarrassing to talk to parents, friends or teachers about things that are making us anxious. A counsellor is someone who you can talk to in a different way, someone who will listen to you very carefully, who will not judge you or tell you what to do.
Counselling is about helping you to work things out for yourself, making decisions and choices and helping you to look at things differently. It can help you to feel better about yourself.
“In talking it through you might not have fixed it, but you might be sort of further in your thinking about it… it might be easier to deal with, cause it does kind of shift things inside you”
I’ve been offered an assessment – what is that?
An assessment is what happens in your first meeting with us and is where you get to explain your situation and what help you need. You will be asked some questions about yourself so that we can understand your difficulties and the best way to help you. The help we can offer will be explained and you can say what kind of help you would prefer. There is often a gap between your assessment and the start of any counselling or therapy, and this will be explained to you.
How many appointments can I have?
You can usually have up to 6 appointments. Sometimes the service can be extended if needed. Appointments are usually weekly at the same time, on the same day.
What if I need to cancel?
It’s OK, and we understand that sometimes people have to change their plans. We do ask that you let us know as soon as possible if you can’t make an appointment. You may risk all your appointments being cancelled if you don’t keep your appointment and haven’t contacted us to let us know.
What can I do if my situation gets worse?
If you are scared or worried about how you are feeling you could either see your Doctor or you could contact the following organisations:
Call 0800 11 11 (free of charge)
Call 116 123 (free of charge)
If you feel that your situation is getting worse, please contact your Doctor.
If you are scared about harming yourself or feel you are at serious risk to yourself you can call the emergency services on 111 – and choose option 2. A Mental Health Professional will assess your situation and will provide you with information on what to do or where to go.
Please also see our Need help now? page here.
What can I do until my first appointment?
Drop-in support
You can come to our ‘Someone to talk to’ drop-in service any time without an appointment. You can find times and venues here. The service is here for you to have a chat about anything that may be troubling you in a private, confidential space with a trained project worker.
What else can I do to help myself
There is all sorts of information here about issues that may be affecting you.
There are various websites you might find useful:
The Childline website has very helpful information across a wide range of topics. They also offer an online counselling chat service.
You can find a lot of information about where to get help in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough on the Keep Your Head website.
Young Minds has a website with good ideas about how you can look after yourself.
Cambridge University has a good overview of various issues and specific self-help ideas.
You can also find Apps for specific difficulties and issues:
Anxiety and depression..
If you are scared or worried about how you are feeling and do not want to come to our drop-in service then you could either see your Doctor or you can look here for where to get help now.
“I felt comfortable talking about my problems, it’s nice knowing that what I say is taken into consideration and isn’t ignored”
Will other people know what I have talked about?
The Centre 33 counselling service is confidential. It’s your time and your space to be with someone who is there for you and nobody else. If you want to talk to anyone else about what you have discussed in the counselling session, then that is up to you.
In exceptional circumstances, if we believe that you or another person is at serious risk of immediate harm, we would need to talk to someone else to help keep you safe, but we will always try to talk with you about this first.
Our counsellors present their work to a Centre 33 counselling supervisor regularly. This person checks that the counsellor is working well with you.
Centre 33 is part of a partnership of young people’s mental health organisations known as YOUnited. If you have been referred through YOUnited your personal data is held on the NHS database used by YOUnited. Your consent will have been asked for to hold this information. What you talk about in your counselling/therapy sessions with Centre 33 will remain confidential between you and Centre 33.
How can I get counselling at school?
We offer short-term counselling in many secondary schools in Cambridgeshire. However, you cannot ask us to be seen in school, instead you need to get in contact with somebody at school (for example, Student Support, Head of House, Head of Year) and they will discuss counselling with you and refer you to the service in your school.
If you are a school interested in offering this service with Centre 33 then please get in touch schools@centre33.org.uk