Psychology - Specialist Counselling Service

Have you been diagnosed with a serious illness?

Are you caring for or related to someone with a serious illness?

Are you an adult registered with a Salford GP?

If so, we could offer you a confidential counselling service.

You could be seen in a local health centre or we could offer you telephone counselling.

What is counselling?

Counselling is a talking therapy in which you can talk in confidence with a trained therapist with specialist knowledge who will work with you and support you to understand and manage your situation.

How might the counselling help?

You may have found it difficult to deal with the diagnosis and experience a whole range of feelings and emotions.

Having to adapt to changes this may bring into your life can be stressful for you and your friends and family.

Things you can normally cope with may become more difficult such as relationships, home and work life, or social and physical activities.

Counselling gives you a chance to talk privately about the worries and problems that are affecting your life.

This can be helpful to assist you in thinking of better ways of coping or help you find a way to make things less difficult to deal with.

The counsellor will:

• Listen carefully to what you say and support you to you express your emotions in your own way
• Help you address your feelings and worries
• Help you understand your thoughts and consider your options and make your own decisions for the future
• Help you make changes to help you restore a sense of control and balance within your life
• Help you work out your own solutions to problems
• Help you to reduce stress, anxiety and depression
• Help you accept what cannot be changed
• Help and support you while you do all this

Asking to see the counsellor

A doctor’s referral is not necessary. You can contact the service directly and refer yourself. Or you can discuss the possibility of a referral with any member of the hospital team. They will then make the referral for you.

What will happen when I meet the counsellor?

When you first see the counsellor your first appointment will be an assessment session and will last approximately 50 minutes.
This session will help us decide whether counselling is appropriate for you.

You will be asked how you are coping, and some background details. What happens next will be a joint decision between you and the counsellor.
 
If it seems that you do need further sessions, you will then be given the opportunity to have some counselling sessions (most people have 8-20 sessions, but this will be tailored to suit your needs). The number of sessions will be agreed by you and the counsellor as the therapy continues.

Our counsellors are all members of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapists (BACP).

To make an appointment or for any further information please contact us on 0161 206 2362. The service is open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.

Outside of office hours you can leave a message with your contact details on the office voicemail and we will call you back as soon as we can.

Specialist Counselling service
St James House 3rd Floor
Pendleton Way Salford
M6 5FW
Specialist.counselling@nca.nhs.uk