I am participating in the Big Sleep Easy October 2022 to raise funds for the Full Circle Counselling service at the YMCA Bournemouth. The counselling service at the YMCA helps to bridge the gap for accessibility to counselling as it is free to the clients engage in services through the YMCA.

This service saw 104 clients last year and gave 864 counselling sessions. These sessions enable our clients to process difficult life events, such as child abuse, domestic violence, addictions, grief, abandonment, homelessness, mental health, depression and anxiety. These are few of the presenting concerns that counselling can help clients to work through.

As a free service we cannot afford many counselling resources. We are in need of resources for clients such as art supplies, therapy cards and fidget toys. We also would like to access to worksheets and books for our counsellors to be fully prepared for the different issues clients can bring. Our counsellors need training in key areas such as Domestic Violence, Trauma and Attachment to keep up to date with the therapeutic techniques and knowledge which will impact the client work.

Please help me to provide a counselling service which has suitable resources. It means a lot to me, to the counsellors who provide the counselling and to the clients who access it.