This service is recognised by COSCA (Scotland’s professional body for counselling and psychotherapy) and our counsellors work according to COSCA’s Statement of Ethics and Code of Practice.
The aim of our counselling service is to give carers the opportunity to reflect on what’s going on in their life. Counselling can be particularly helpful for carers, as you may often find yourself in situations where your own needs and wishes come in second place to those of the person you care for.
You may also feel unable to speak to your family or friends about your caring situation – counselling gives you access to someone outside of this situation who you can speak to confidentially.
With a counsellor, you can explore:
- Your thoughts and feelings about your situation
- How to deal with your feelings
- Your relationship with the person you care for and others
- How you might deal with things differently in the future
Our counsellors are all qualified or in their final year of training, and receive regular supervision. They have been selected to work with VOCAL as they have a particular understanding of carers’ needs.
How to access our counselling service
The service manager will arrange an intake session for you at our Edinburgh Carers’ Hub or Midlothian Carer Centre. If it is agreed that counselling is appropriate, you will then go on a waiting list to see one of the counsellors.
Cost
This service is free for unpaid carers registered with VOCAL in Edinburgh or Midlothian.
However, we will ask carers what financial contribution, if any, they are able to make towards the cost of counselling sessions.
Carers outside of Edinburgh or Midlothian can access the counselling service for £20 per session.
“I’ve found the counselling sessions I’ve had far more useful than I ever thought I would find them – I feel like I am much better at recognising my feelings, and coping with them, and have come a long way since my first session. My counsellor has been absolutely brilliant and has helped me work through (and make sense of!) a lot of my issues and feelings.”
“I am so thankful to my counsellor for her highly professional and supportive counselling, she’s been thoughtful, understanding, very kind and compassionate. And we laughed too! I felt truly “heard” while going through it and it really helped me at a time when I needed it. Counselling felt like a huge leap of faith for me and really was outside my comfort zone but I’m so grateful I did it and that I had my counsellor there to “catch” me. VOCAL is a wonderful organisation and my counsellor is an absolutely fantastic part of it.”
“The counselling available through VOCAL offers an invaluable support mechanism for carers. All those involved in the counselling service were highly supportive and professional. Thank you.”
“I have benefited greatly from the sessions and my counsellor has been very helpful, professional and respectful with me during my sessions.”
“Since being supported by my counsellor from VOCAL I have been able to be more understanding of who I am as a person. Caring full time and dealing with all other aspects of life at the same time now feel more manageable and a lot less overwhelming. Having someone listen to me and not judge me is very powerful and I feel my counsellor knows me now better than anyone. I cannot thank you enough for being there when I least realised I needed support.”
