Counselling Service

“Before I had counselling I was having nightmares, was feeling anxious a lot and felt low and unconfident.  Since then I applied for and got a promotion at work and have started a new relationship.  I feel that a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.  I’m happy and enjoy life and I finally believe that I deserve that.  I can’t really explain how much happier and confident I feel now”.

“During my counselling at one point I felt at a crisis point due to mental health issues, I considered giving up my child to social services and going into a psychiatric hospital.  It was the counselling sessions that supported me and enabled me to keep my sanity.”

“I was attacked several times by an ex that refused to be an ex.  I suffered years of every kind of abuse.  I felt that I was worthless and had no confidence and was having flashbacks of the rape and thought I wish I’d never said anything.  My counsellor taught me ways to deal with the flashbacks and the nightmares as I was frightened to sleep at night.”

“The biggest change has been my assertiveness- my confidence, my self esteem.  I have decided to do a degree. My relationship with my children have improved tremendously. I feel I am happy. I think about problems and deal with them. I know I have made so much improvement, my health, more active, feeling so happy”

Support Groups

“Finding a reflection of myself within this space.  Hearing echoes of what I have experienced has been very useful to my personal growth”.

“Being able to talk to others who understand your feelings and don’t judge.  I needed this.  I thought I was the only one.  I thought it was my fault”.

Workshops

“Hearing other peoples experience of domestic violence and identify with them so I don't feel alone and isolated or ashamed of it”.

“Acknowledgement of types of abuse and recognising in other women things that I've experienced. It made me feel less of a victim and more that what I've been feeling is a consequence of the situation and the behaviours I experienced. “

Advocacy 

"They helped me to focus on what I had to do in my situation. When my brain was in a tangle there was someone there to help me organise myself and the help was with kind understanding support every step of the way"

" I feel lucky tat a female police officer put them in contact with me as otherwise I don't know where I would be today - either dead or in an asylum - this is not an exaggeration - I feel that when everything was falling apart around me, there was the help that I needed from the beginning of my ordeal"

"I was treated with respect and felt that I was important and that I mattered so then I felt more able to help myself and be stronger, even when I was feeling weak. I had the same advocate all the time so I felt more of a personal thing - that the person knew what was going on with me on a one-to-one individual basis"