Counselling Centre and Service
General counselling for a range of problems including depression, anxiety, trauma, stress, bereavement and life changes.
Counselling Centre Adminstrator
healthsociety-counselling@salford.ac.uk
If you would like to self-refer to the service, please read the client information sheet and then use the self-referral form.
Counselling Centre
Our purpose-designed counselling centre is used for training students to become professional counsellors and psychotherapists. The suite, featuring therapeutic areas where one-to-one, family and group interactions can occur, is available for members of the local community and the University is hoping to work with local charities which will be able to use the facility.
Room hire is available for sessional counselling and group work to professional counsellors, coaches and other professionals. A range of therapeutic services and training is also available on request.
Counselling Service
We provide general counselling services for adults who live or work in Greater Manchester for a range of issues, including depression, anxiety, trauma, relationship problems, stress, bereavement and loss. We also provide a specialist service for those who have experienced mental health difficulties resulting from domestic violence.
We are able to provide contract in person employee counselling services for local businesses wishing to supplement their existing wellbeing provision.
Counselling is mostly provided by students who are in training to become professional counsellors and psychotherapists, with professionally qualified counsellors conducting assessments and some specialist counselling sessions.
Self-referral
We ask that clients read the client information sheet and fill in the self-referral form as the first steps in accessing counselling. The form will ask a number of questions which will help us to do an initial assessment as to whether or not our counselling services will be appropriate for you. If our service seems suitable, then you will be invited to an assessment session, conducted with an experienced and qualified counsellor.
Assessment session
This session will be used to find out a little more about your situation and what has brought you to counselling and what you want to get out of counselling. The session will also explore the ways that counselling might benefit you and consider whether counselling is suitable for you at this time. It will normally take up to an hour to complete.
Your Counsellor
If your problems are suitable for our service, you will be allocated to an appropriate counsellor. Our counselling students have passed all relevant skills assessments and will be closely supervised on their work with you by a counselling tutor who is an experienced practitioner. All counsellors are in regular counselling supervision, in accordance with BACP requirements. Practitioners providing counselling in the domestic violence service will have undergone an additional 42 hours of specialist training to do this work.
Sessions
Clients will be offered a maximum of 20 sessions (usually once a week), each lasting up to 50 minutes. Although you can have up to 20 sessions, you might not need as many sessions in order to achieve what you want to get out of counselling. At each session you will be asked to complete a number of questionnaires. These questionnaires will help us to keep track on your progress and improvement during counselling. Your counsellor will plan regular reviews with you throughout your work together and will plan the ending of the counselling with you.
Self-referral
The clinic offers an online self-referral form which is accessible 24/7, as an alternative to contacting by email. After completing the self-referral form, clients will be given a date for their free-of-charge assessment session. It is at this session that the counsellor will decide whether a client is suitable for counselling and the client can decide whether they feel the service is right for them.
When you decide to access the service, please read the client information sheet about the service first.
Is there a charge for the service?
Although we do not charge a fee for this service, we do invite people using the service to make a small donation to contribute towards covering the costs of running the service. We suggest a fee of £5 if possible. Our service is open to people living or working in the Salford and Greater Manchester area for face to face work, but we can offer the service throughout the UK for telephone or video counselling.
How do I access the service?
Clients can self-refer to our service by reading the client information sheet and then completing the self-referral form. You can, if you wish, fill in the self-referral form with the assistance of GPs and other health and social care professionals. Once you have been referred to our service a member of the centre team will contact you to arrange a suitable time for you to undertake an assessment session. The assessment session will be with an experienced counsellor. In this session you will have an opportunity to find out more about the service.
The centre is a training and research centre. Most of our counsellors are counselling students who have passed all relevant skills assessments and who will be closely supervised by an experienced counselling tutor on their work with you.
What safeguards are in place?
In line with professional practice and ethical guidelines, all our counsellors are in regular supervision with experienced and trained clinical supervisors. The University is an organisational member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and the work of the counselling centre adheres to the BACP ethical framework. All practitioners at the centre are covered by professional indemnity insurance.
What information is kept about me?
All counsellors at the centre keep brief notes about each session which are stored on the client record held on a secure client database. We routinely collect information on the counselling and psychotherapy we provide to enable us to continually evaluate and develop our service. Before each session you will be asked to complete a number of questionnaires, sent to you via email. These questionnaires will help us to keep track on your progress and improvement during counselling and the data will be held as part of your client record on the secure client database. This will allow us to monitor outcomes of clients attending the service and evaluate the effectiveness of our service. We may also use anonymised client data to conduct research into different patterns and trends of service use over time. This ongoing research into the effectiveness of the service supports the quality assurance of the service and the development of the counselling offered at the centre.
In addition, we will ask you if you would like to be approached as a potential participant in clinic research projects. You are free to agree to this or not, and your decision will not affect your access to the service. If you agree to be approached, any projects you are invited to participate in will be fully explained to you and you are free to decide whether this is something you want to be involved in. Participation in these additional projects is optional, however the collection of routine outcome monitoring data is a requirement of all clients of the centre and is in keeping with standard practice in healthcare. All research conducted at the centre will be led or supervised by researchers and academic staff of the University and is subject to ethical approval from the University of Salford Research Ethics Committee.
Find us
The Counselling Centre is located on the third floor of the Mary Seacole Building in the University of Salford Frederick Road campus. The centre is fully accessible. Car parking is available at the University (fees apply). The University is conveniently located for Salford Crescent train station and is well served by bus services.