Counselling is a chance to talk about things that upset, scare or anger us; it can help us to understand the things that don’t make sense in our lives. Talking with a counsellor can help us to find new ways of managing situations, it can help with tricky decisions, and help us to cope with painful emotions. Sometimes other people in our lives think counselling will help us, but often people have mixed feelings about it – your counsellor can support you to work out whether it’s the right thing for you. Counsellors are not there to tell you what to do or make judgements, their job is to listen and understand, so that together you can think about what might help

Most of the things that you talk about in counselling remain confidential, however there are some exceptions to this. For example a counsellor would share information if you asked them to, and might also need to share information if you are
• being abused or seriously hurt by someone
• you are seriously hurting yourself
• you want to seriously hurt someone else
Your counsellor will let you know if they need to break confidentiality, and let you know exactly what will be shared, and who it will be shared with.

For more information please click here to visit the Mind website.

You can also find out more by clicking here to visit the Young Minds website, or if you are a parent looking for more information on counselling, click here to visit the Parents Guide on the Young Minds website.

Counselling appointments usually last for 50 minutes, you will be offered up to 8 sessions, but the actual number is agreed between you and your counsellor – you can stop counselling at any point.

Your first appointment is an opportunity to meet your counsellor and decide whether you would like to have counselling appointments with them. If you agree, you will be asked about how things are in your life, and you will also be encouraged to ask any questions that you may have. It’s up to you what you tell your counsellor – you do not need to provide any information unless it feels ok to do so. Although counselling appointments are just for you, parents are sometimes present for your initial appointment, so they can also understand how things will work, and how they can support you – your counsellor will make sure you are ok with this, and if you don’t want your parent to be present please let us know.

At your first appointment your counsellor will support you to complete 2 forms – but only if you are happy to do so. The forms are to help the counsellor make sure they are getting things right for you, and to make sure that how they are working is helpful. The Young Persons’ CORE helps us understand more about how you are feeling and the Goal Based Outcomes is any opportunity to think about what you would like to get out of your appointments.

During this appointment we will discuss whether counselling could be helpful, and if so, agree how this will work moving forward. If you don’t want to receive counselling at this point, we will not contact you again, however you can contact us at any point in the future.

We offer free counselling for anyone aged between 11-25 yrs who lives in the City of Sunderland, or goes to school/college here (this includes Washington, Hetton and Houghton).

If you are a young person who would like to access support, click here to fill in our referral form.

If you are a parent/carer or profession who would like to make a referral, click here to fill in our referral form.

Once you’ve agreed to be referred to Washington Mind you will be added to our waiting list. You (or your parent) will then receive a text message from our text service, providing you with numbers that you can contact if you need more urgent support. This message also includes links to other information that might be helpful.

Our waiting times vary, but we always offer an appointment as soon as we can.

We know from the feedback we receive that counselling helps most of the people we see, however it’s not the right thing for everyone, and when counselling isn’t helping, you and your counsellor will think about other potential types of support.
An important part of counselling is to be as honest as you can about what’s working, but also what your counsellor isn’t getting right, or not understanding properly.

One of the really great things about working with young people is that you’ve been amazing at telling us how to do a better job. We really like to work with you in this way, because it has meant that we’ve got better at what we do.

We have a range of measures in place to make sure that our counsellors can be trusted to work safely and effectively, this includes having the right qualifications, but also being registered with the BACP Accredited services directory and being part of the Mind Quality Mark.

If you need to know more before making your decision please ask us. You can email us at info@washingtonmind.org.uk. (Just so you know, this is only checked during office hours so there might be a slight delay in us getting back to you).

Counselling works best when you attend regularly, and we try to be as flexible as possible to match up a time that works for you, however if regular attendance is difficult your counsellor will talk with you about the best way forward.

If you are late for your appointment, you will be seen, but your session may be shortened due to counsellors having other young people to see.

Please try to make every effort to attend each session, however if in unforeseen circumstances when you are unable to attend, the counsellor must be given reasonable notice whenever possible.

The rules regarding non-attended appointments are:

• Cancelled or unattended counselling appointments may be included in the total number of the agreed contracted sessions.
• If there are more than two cancelled or unattended appointments (did not attend – no advance warning given), we will then assume our support is no longer required at this time and the file will be closed.

Confidentiality

Counselling sessions are confidential, and it is important that we remain confidential. However, there will be times that we need to share information. Information sharing helps us to have a fuller picture of experiences and concerns and to provide the right support. We will not share your information with anyone without discussing this with you first and a plan agreed between you and your counsellor.

Risk

Where there is risk to yourself or others, we will need to either share this with parents or guardians and we may need to share this with the Safeguarding team. Your safety is of upmost importance to us, and we will do everything in our power to ensure you are protected.