Our Services

Our Services

Our Services

I’m not sure how to thank someone who has saved my life because thank you isn’t really enough. My children still have their mum and that is something I will forever be grateful for.

Our Services

Counselling

What is counselling?

Whether we’re working with individuals, couples, a parent and child or families, counselling always takes place in a safe and confidential space. You can share your problems and the way they affect you and/or others in your family.

Counsellors won’t judge or be critical of you. Instead, they’ll listen to your story, help you to understand yourself (and others) better, and work out how to make the changes that matter most to you. They won’t give you advice or solve your problems for you, but instead will work with you to find the best solutions to your problems.

Art Therapy

What is Art Therapy?

Sometimes it’s really hard to find the words to describe how you are feeling. Art therapy can offer a creative way of exploring the difficulties that you, or someone you've referred, is experiencing. It’s a form of therapy that can be helpful no matter what age you are.

Art therapy offers you a way to explore your experiences, by using art materials to produce images. Some people find this feels safer, and less intense, than talking on its own. Art therapists offer support that helps you process trauma, think about your current challenges, and begin working towards change.

Platform for life Play Therapy 9

Play Therapy

What is Play Therapy?

Play therapy can be helpful for both children and young people. Finding the words to describe how they (or you) feel can be a challenge. Being able to understand and explain emotions is hard to do. They, or you, might not recognise what it is they find difficult, or know why they’re behaving in a certain way.

Play therapy helps younger clients understand difficult feelings and traumatic events that they’ve experienced. Creative play helps them to express their thoughts and feelings in imaginative ways by playing it out at their own level and pace. This helps them cope better with challenges, as well as helping them learn to manage relationships and conflicts in more appropriate ways. Before play therapy starts with a child, we’ll always invite parents/carers to meet with us, so we can answer any questions. We’ll also invite parents/carers to meet again before the play therapy sessions end.

Play therapy picture

Parent Work

What is parent work?

In the sessions, you explore the challenges you face as a parent or carer. You’ll gain greater understanding about your child’s development and needs and discover how you can best support your child(ren) whilst also taking care of yourself. You might also be guided to use play therapy ideas and techniques to encourage communication and strengthen relationships between yourself and your child.

Our Group Support

We offer different types of group support across the year, and these are growing so watch out for new support groups as we develop them. We have a weekly drop-in group facilitated by our family support worker, which promotes general wellbeing and good mental health practices. The group operates in a supportive environment in the heart of our community so that no one is less than one week away from support. Our Wellbeing and Creative Expression group for women runs periodically throughout the year in Blacon and the Lache areas of Chester. The group follows a programme of activities with an art therapy approach which allows for the expression of intentions, offering peer support and encouragement to achieve/sustain those intentions. The focus of this group is on moving forward and achieving our goals of making positive changes in our lives. It typically has a set start and end date and is intended to last for 8 -12 sessions.

Our Family Support Workers

Our Family Support workers can support you with accessing help with practical needs you might have. This could include support with food poverty, benefits claims, debt management, housing, children’s education and social isolation. By reducing some of these sources of pressure, it can help you engage more effectively with therapy.

IN NEED OF URGENT HELP?

If you need urgent help or support outside of our working hours (Monday-Friday 9am-5pm), don’t struggle alone, please see the list of numbers below:

NHS – 111 or 999 – 24/7

Samaritans – 116 123 or 01244 377 999 –  24/7

CALM – 0800 58 58 58 – 5pm – midnight

National Suicide Prevention Helpline UK – 0800 689 5652 – 24/7

Cafe71 – 01244 393 139 – 10am – 10pm

CWP Healthwatch / MyMind (CYP) – 0800 145 6485 – 24/7

SHOUT (text service) – 85258 – 24/7

SANEline – 0300 304 7000 – 4pm – 10pm

The Martin Gallier Project Chester – 0151 644 0294 – Weekdays 9:30 – 4pm

Skip to content