Counselling

Our counselling and psychotherapy service offers free, trauma informed sessions to any woman aged 18 or over, living in Stockport.  

You can access sessions in person at our centre or online.  

We offer both one-to-one counselling sessions and therapeutic groupwork.  

All our therapists are women and registered with a professional body.  

To start individual counselling or therapeutic groups you will need to be registered with the centre and complete an assessment to look at your unique challenges and needs and the support that that we can offer you. 

Counselling aims to help with mental health issues by exploring how feelings, thoughts and behaviours impact your wellbeing. It allows you to explore and make sense of what is going on. The hope is you will better understand the influence feelings are having on your life and learn things about yourself to recognise the choice you have in making changes. It can help if you feel "stuck" and support you to understand and manage your difficulties in a better way.  

Everyone's therapy will be a bit different. Together with your counsellor, you can explore underlying feelings, which can involve experiencing new and strong emotions. Your counsellor will support you with the time to process these in a safe space and at a pace you are comfortable with. 

What wellbeing is and recognising when our wellbeing might be affected.  

Topics covered: anxiety, assertiveness, loss, self-care, self-esteem, sleep 

What mindfulness means 

Topics covered:  learning relaxation techniques, letting go and gratitude, positive affirmations.  

Allowing people to visually and creatively explore thoughts and feelings with art. There is no expectation of being a good artist, the group is about expression not ability. 

Topics covered: mindfulness and brain-body connection, storytelling, connecting with images in art, free drawing, guided drawing, sensory exploration, recycling projects 

Start to learn about yourself and your identity.  

Topics covered: who I am now and what makes me, identifying who I am now and self awareness, attachment, boundaries, self-care and self-growth.  

Recognise how you respond to strong emotions and managing them in a healthy way 

Topics covered: identifying my emotions, the impact my emotions have on me and those around me, healthy and unhealthy strategies of managing my emotions 

Using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) based techniques to help manage feelings of low mood. 

Topics covered: coping strategies, motivation, challenging negative thoughts, engaging with life 

Using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) based techniques to help manage feelings of anxiety. 

Topics covered: what is anxiety, symptoms of anxiety, worry management, panic and coping strategies.

If you’d like to find out more about any of our groups, whether a group would be right for you and when they might be running please get in touch. 

We are a BACP accredited centre. The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy is the professional association for members of the counselling professions in the UK. You can learn more about what accreditation means for our services on the BACP website.