CALM Centre

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The CALM Centre Ltd is a long established charity which provides a high quality professional counselling service to people within Harlow and its environs. People who come to us sometimes have a jigsaw of problems that may be deep rooted and extremely traumatic making it difficult, if not impossible, to tackle alone. Other problems may be more straightforward to work through - all are welcome at the CALM Centre. Our inclusive counselling service works with clients towards resolving their issues with the assistance of a trained professional without fear of being judged.

COUNSELLING

One-to-one counselling with professionally trained counsellors.

Our counselling services are delivered in line with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy's Ethical Framework and counsellors are supervised in accordance with their guidelines. We were approved as an Accredited Service by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy in February 2006.

All clients who request counselling appointments are assessed. All assessments are carried out during office hours but once you have been assessed you can request a mutually agreeable time for your regular counselling sessions.

Counselling appointments are available during evenings and weekends as well as during office hours by appointment. Counselling involves meeting with your counsellor on a weekly basis for one hour. You see the same counsellor each week usually on the same day and at the same time; however the finer details of your appointment are arranged directly between you and your counsellor.

Our services are not time limited but progress is reviewed regularly to determine whether a further course of sessions would be beneficial. We aim to have counsellors working from the different counselling theoretical approaches which can include Cognitive behavioural Therapy, Humanistic, Person-Centred, Psychodynamic and Integrative. There is information about the various theoretical approaches on the BACP website www.bacp.co.uk

Why Counselling?

There is a well-known story which …….. REWORD STORY

Quote:

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked,"how heavy is this glass of water? "

Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. "If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. "In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on.

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.

"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can.

"Relax; pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short. Enjoy it!"

what is counselling?

The BACP definition of counselling
Counselling takes place when a counsellor sees a client in a private and confidential setting to explore a difficulty the client is having, distress they may be experiencing or perhaps their dissatisfaction with life, or loss of a sense of direction and purpose. It is always at the request of the client as no one can properly be 'sent' for counselling.

By listening attentively and patiently the counsellor can begin to perceive the difficulties from the client's point of view and can help them to see things more clearly, possibly from a different perspective. Counselling is a way of enabling choice or change or of reducing confusion. It does not involve giving advice or directing a client to take a particular course of action. Counsellors do not judge or exploit their clients in any way.

In the counselling sessions the client can explore various aspects of their life and feelings, talking about them freely and openly in a way that is rarely possible with friends or family. Bottled up feelings such as anger, anxiety, grief and embarrassment can become very intense and counselling offers an opportunity to explore them, with the possibility of making them easier to understand. The counsellor will encourage the expression of feelings and as a result of their training will be able to accept and reflect the client's problems without becoming burdened by them.

Acceptance and respect for the client are essentials for a counsellor and, as the relationship develops, so too does trust between the counsellor and client, enabling the client to look at many aspects of their life, their relationships and themselves which they may not have considered or been able to face before. The counsellor may help the client to examine in detail the behaviour or situations which are proving troublesome and to find an area where it would be possible to initiate some change as a start. The counsellor may help the client to look at the options open to them and help them to decide the best for them.

Models of counselling
Although there is considerable consensus about the core content of a counselling course, there are nevertheless distinct methods of counselling. Most courses start from a theoretical base - typically humanistic, psychodynamic, cognitive or behavioural. Before enrolling on a course it is advisable to be aware of its theoretical emphasis and what that means in terms of the learning experience offered and the skills acquired.

Counselling or psychotherapy training?
It is not possible to make a generally accepted distinction between counselling and psychotherapy. There are well founded traditions which use the terms interchangeably and others which distinguish between them. If there are differences, then they relate more to the individual psychotherapist's or counsellor's training and interests and to the setting in which they work, rather than to any intrinsic difference in the two activities. A psychotherapist working in a hospital is likely to be more concerned with severe psychological disorders than with the wider range of problems about which it is appropriate to consult a counsellor. In private practice, however, a psychotherapist is more likely to accept clients whose need is less severe. Similarly, in private practice a counsellor's work will overlap with that of a psychotherapist. Those counsellors, however, who work for voluntary agencies or in educational settings such as schools and colleges usually concentrate more on the 'everyday' problems and difficulties of life than on the more severe psychological disorders. Many are qualified to offer therapeutic work which in any other context would be called psychotherapy.

Recruitment

Volunteer Fundraiser:

Do you enjoy a challenge?

Bored with fundraising for ‘easy’ candidates?

We are a small, local charity based in an area of high deprivation working in a field that does not have people putting their hands in their pockets to donate as soon as they see a name or cause.

This will be your challenge. To generate money to help us to continue making a difference to the lives of people who often have nowhere else to turn for the kind of professional, impartial service we provide. Family, friends and ‘getting on with it’ all have a place but why should people have to just cope and endure because they cannot afford the help that others can choose to draw on?

We give people the support of professionals in a safe environment where they can work on understanding and resolving problems that may stem from deeply rooted, traumatic roots. Facing things takes courage but past clients have told us that, because they came to us they are still alive; they are no longer at the end of their tether; their family life has improved; their working relationships are less stressful; they are no longer destroyed by memories of abuse; the list could go on but you can see why it is so important that we are here for people to turn to.

Quite a task!

Ideally, you will have the drive, creativity and skills to generate income for us. You will need direct experience of fundraising and the ability to work with the trustees and the Centre Manager. 50% of the funding for our counselling service for the next three years (commencing April 2007) will be coming from the Big Lottery but we need to generate the other 50%.

We are a friendly, dedicated team who care passionately about what we do – why not join us?

Innovative, proven track record? Follow through?

Trustees:

The centre is currently looking to recruit Trustees who have business skills.

The Counselling and Life Management Centre, at this time, needs to strengthen its Board of Trustees. We are particularly looking for practical trustees with business skills and the ability to ‘follow through’ on the strategic planning for the Centre.

We are a well-respected charity, which has been serving the local community since 1988 and have developed in accordance with the changing needs of our clients. We have identified a need to instigate some major changes. Our name has been changed and our Constitution amended to facilitate the expansion of our services. Long term planning will also include the development of an independent counselling service to support the Do you enjoy a challenge?

British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy

Membership No. 101341

BACP Accredited Service

Company Limited by Guarantee Company No: 6289953

Registered Office: 144 High Street, Epping, Essex CM16 4AS

CALM - Making a Difference.

Celebrating 21 Years of Service to the Community