Kettering mental health service celebrates 10th anniversary

A Kettering-based mental health service is celebrating 10 years of providing support to people in the county today (Tuesday).

Counselling Alliance (CA), in Headlands, has helped hundreds of people who have taken the brave first step to walk into its safe space and receive support from a trained professional.

It specialises in supporting adults, children and young people experiencing a variety of challenges such as trauma, anxiety, neurodiversity and attachment issues.

Counselling Alliance owner Rachel Higginson said: “Counselling Alliance was created to provide a private service at affordable cost to help with the long waiting lists within the charity sector.

“I am so proud of us all at CA for achieving 10 years’ service, and I speak for us all when I say we are always humbled by those who entrust us with their journey.”

During the Covid-19 pandemic, CA saw 35 new clients approach the service to book an individual assessment within the first three weeks of the lockdown. It also saw 15 previous clients return and demand for more sessions grew hugely over the coming months, on top of the service’s existing client base.

In August 2021, BBC Shared Data Unit revealed that monthly mental health referrals to NHS services across the UK were at their highest in March 2021. In this month, more than 300,000 people reported to be experiencing difficulties with their mental health, which was an 18 per cent rise from February 2020. A number of mental health charities have also reported a growing need for mental health support than ever before.

Rachel added: “We experienced a huge growth in people accessing our services during the pandemic, as many other services closed and were not able to offer online options due to cost and capacity. As a team we had to learn quickly how to safely transfer our service to online enabling us to continue to support our clients, and welcome new ones, working tirelessly as a team to support each other during the difficult transition. We have now adopted a hybrid approach offering both online and in-person sessions.

“Our success over the last 10 years is down to our clients recommending us to friends and family but mostly how they share their stories which enables others to understand the importance of speaking out.”

One man from Northamptonshire who is supported by CA, who has asked to remain anonymous, said: “As a naturally social person, I was surprised that my response to the pandemic resulted in increased feelings of social anxiety which later led to a period of fainting episodes and other related ill health, in September 2021.

“Having had my GP rule out anything physically wrong, I contacted Rachel at CA whose professional support could not have been anymore caring and understanding. It was exactly what I needed as I took the time to understand why my body was physically reacting to my then current state of mind.”

At Counselling Alliance the team of six (and Jodi the therapy dog) are launching an awareness and fundraising campaign to ‘Face Their Fears’ in their 10th year where all proceeds will be donated to a local mental health charity. They will each taking on a physical and fearful fundraising challenge.