"Making Counselling Accessible..."

Life Changes Counselling

Identify your personal goals and achieve them

We recognise that our clients are the foundation of our service.

Our relationship with them is based on the principle of mutual respect.

We aim to build on what we do well and develop our service to respond to meet changing needs.

Frequently asked questions...

What is counselling?

Counselling offers the time and space with a counsellor for you to explore and move towards understanding what is troubling you. You may then choose, with the support of the counsellor, to find ways of making some changes in your life

What type of counselling do you provide?

Your counsellor will listen to you, try to understand and help you to make connections. He or she will use ways of working that will help you to make sense of what is happening in your life. All the counsellors are different and your relationship with your counsellor will be unique. Its sole purpose is to help you.

How long is a session?

Sessions are 50 minutes long and take place weekly; both daytime and evening appointments are available

How many sessions?
You will be offered up to 6 sessions. If you and your counsellor think it will be useful, you may be offered further sessions

How much will it cost?

Life Changes is a charity. In order to keep the Charity running we ask all clients to make a donation for each counselling session.

We ask clients who are working full-time to make a donation of £25-35 per session.

Those working part-time will be asked to donate £20-25 per session.

Clients who are not working, or are in receipt of benefits, we will assess affordability and ability to donate. From time to time we MAY have grant funding for a limited number of these clients .

The Counselling Coordinator will discuss and agree this with you on your first point of contact.

Is it confidential?

Any information about your self, including the fact that you are in counselling, will be confidential to Life Changes.

The only exception to this confidentiality will be if your Counsellor is concerned that you may harm yourself or other people. He/she will then tell you of the concern, and break confidentiality to a third party in order to gain support and help for you. This is in accordance with the Ethical Framework for Good Practice of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.

All counsellors are required to have regular casework supervision with Life Changes Counselling Supervisors The Supervisor's role is to support and monitor the counsellor's work and is confidential to the service.

Where does counselling take place?

We have rooms in Carlton Crescent , Southampton (click on Find Us for details) and access to 2 other community venues. These may be more suitable for people with disabilities.

Winchester House is a white building with a gated archway and steps leading up to the front door, next door to the London Road Brewhouse pub and opposite Richer Sounds shop, on the corner of Carlton Crescent, Carlton Place and London Road. There is no reception so please arrive just before your appointment time. Press the LCC buzzer and you will be let in.

Find Us

A number of bus routes stop on London Road or around the Civic Centre which is less than a 10 minute walk away. There are plenty of bike stands nearby, as well as city bike and scooter bays. There is metered parking on Carlton Crescent (expensive) and London Road or better rates in a variety of car parks within 3 – 10 minutes’ walk, such as Bedford Place, Ordnance Road car park, and King’s Park Road car park.

Will I have to join a group?
No, counselling with Life Changes is 1:1 - you and your counsellor will work together, not in a group

Can I request a male/female counsellor?
Yes. Life Changes has male and female counsellors. If you have a definite preference it will be possible, though it may mean waiting a little longer to get to see a counsellor

Can I refer someone else?
Of course, you can recommend someone else to Life Changes although it is best that he or she makes contact him or herself. You can help by encouraging and giving our phone number to ring (07444 001845) or giving him/her details of our website

Can I bring a friend?
Your counsellor is there for you. If you are being counselled face to face and your friend wants to come with you, they are welcome to wait for you in reception. Or if he/she would like to have counselling he/she can ask for that and they will be allocated a different counsellor.

Do you counsel young people?
Life Changes is for those aged 18+

Do you counsel couples?
No, couples counselling is provided by Relate, or at some GP surgeries

What if I need a translator/signer?
Please tell us if you have any special translation/signing requirements when registering for counselling. Translation or signing can usually be arranged, given sufficient notice. However, there is usually a cost for the translation service which must be borne by the client. Your GP may have access to funding for this, please check with your surgery.

I'm disabled - can I still have counselling?
Both community buildings we use are accessible to people with disabilities. When you talk to the Counselling Coordinator, please do mention that you have a disability, and we will make sure that your needs are considered

What if I have a complaint?
If you are not happy with your counsellor or the counselling session, please initially address this with your counsellor. If together you cannot resolve the difficulties, as part of our complaints policy we would be grateful if you could contact us in the first instance with your concern.

Personal issues

counselling can

help with...

Anger Management

Antisocial

Personality

Anxiety

Behaviour Issues

Bereavement

Coping skills

Divorcse

Depression

Domestic abuse

Emotional disturbance

Family conflict

Infidelity

Life Transitions

Loneliness

OCD

Peer Relationships

Racial identity

Relationship Issues

Self Esteem

Self-Harming

Sexual Abuse

Suicidal Ideation

Trauma

PTSD

and many more ...

In a few steps....

Life Changes welcomes your enquiry to apply for counselling sessions. Please complete the form below:

Counselling Sessions Request

Please refer to our Client Counselling Contract before you start counselling with Life Changes here

Latest News

AGM 8/1/2024 at 7.00pm

19 Dec, 2023

You are invited to attend LCC’s AGM on the revised date, Monday 8th January at 1900 hrs. on Zoom. We promise to pass rapidly through the boring bits and concentrate on giving all who have a stake in the organisation the opportunity to tell us how we are getting on from your point of view. Do you have any ideas how we can improve our service to our clients and /or our trainees. Are there any opportunities for the future you can inform us of. Or would you just like to meet the people who run the organisation in the (virtual) flesh? Maybe you would like to pick our brains about where we are going in the future? Perhaps best of all, would you like to join us in helping run the organisation? Whatever your position or point of view , we would certainly like to see you so drop Liz Rose an e mail at coordinator@lifechangescounselling.org.uk and we will send you a Zoom link for the meeting. In the meantime, may I wish you all the best for the festive season and a happy 2024. Philip Meakins Chairman

22/23 Chairman's Report

by PH947486 • 18 Dec, 2023

22/23 Chairman's Report

Good News!

10 Nov, 2023

LCC is pleased to announce that our Paid Counsellor Project (HiWCF) has successfully entered its second year on target. We currently have 6 of our alumni (counsellors who have worked with us and subsequently qualified) working on this project and by the end of next year, this is planned to be up to 8. Not only does this extra workforce help us keep our times from referral to treatment nicely low, the additional expertise and experience they represent is helping our ambition to constantly improve the service we offer to our clients. On a separate issue, our venture into providing a service to the NHS has now also been running for a year. The PCN (GP consortium) for whom we provide the service is very pleased with it and has extended the contract for another year. Well done to all involved for making such a success of this venture.

Annual Report 21/22 and Financial Update Nov 2023

by PH947486 • 10 Nov, 2023

Annual Report 21/22 and Financial Update Nov 2023

Life Changes Counselling has provided low-cost counselling in the Southampton area for 17 years. We

November 2022 Statement and Funding

28 Nov, 2022

Life Changes Counselling has provided low-cost counselling in the Southampton area for 17 years. We charge according to ability to pay and until recently have been able to run the organisation with clients paying between £0 and £30. Our target for seeing clients is 6 weeks from referral (currently significantly less than this). Since the summer the number of clients unable to pay anything at all has overwhelmed our business model and we have begun to run through our reserves in an unsustainable way. In August the trustees, with deep misgivings, decided that in order to balance the books we would temporarily stop taking new clients unless they were able to pay £35 a session, reducing it to a minimum of £15 if there was significant financial stress. Grant applications were made to fund those who were unable to afford these revised fees. To put these fees into perspective private counselling costs £50 and upwards, whilst NHS and large charities cost out at £100 to £150 a session.

Great South Run - Oct 2022

07 Nov, 2022

Ed's amazing achievement in the Great South Run - October 2022

AGM 27/11/2022

10 Oct, 2022

The Trustees of Life Changes Counselling invite you to the Annual General Meeting to review the year April 2021-March 2022 and onwards. It will now take place on Sunday 27th November @ 7.00pm on Zoom After the formal business of the meeting, we would like to turn this into your opportunity to contribute your ideas as to how we can continue to improve our organisation. To allow us to plan, please RSVP to: coordinator@lifechangescounselling.org.uk

Affordable Counselling

26 Aug, 2022

Our routine financial audit over the last 3 months has revealed that the average donation being received has reduced significantly below that required to continue to fund the work of the Charity. We will continue to see existing counselling clients however the trustees have decided in order to enable the charity to maintain its counselling offering to the community, for the next 3 months we will set a minimum of £20 - £30 per session for new clients who are in financial stress and set a revised payment of £30 - £35 per session for those who are not. The trustees are acutely aware (and very uncomfortable) that there will be some clients who will be financially impacted by this decision and consequently be excluded from our service; the coming winter may well exacerbate this further. As a result, we are currently actively in the process of applying for grants in order to revert to our Charities mission of offering affordable counselling to everyone in the community. We are also looking at ways to increase throughput and thus achieve economies of scale. In the medium term we have plans for new income streams which will also help us return to a consistent and sustainable financial level offering counselling to all. We would like to emphasise this is not a decision we have taken lightly. To put this into context similar services provided by the NHS are charged to the taxpayer at up to 10 times this amount - and may have waiting times of a year or more. We plan to be back to normal in a far smaller time scale.

An exciting change for LCC

06 Jun, 2022

Life Changes Counselling has for 17 years provided counselling for the Southampton area using voluntary counsellors in their final year of training. On qualifying many of our alumni leave us to set up their own practice or for paid employment. Increasing demand, complexity of presentation and a knock-on effect of increased wait times has meant that we have for some time been looking at ways of expanding our work to meet these challenges by paying our alumni. That way we hope to retain our more experienced counsellors for longer and help their transition to the world of paid employment - a win win situation. Best of all, our clients will benefit from a more experienced and stable work force. Expansion of a predominantly voluntary organisation is potentially a risky undertaking, risking overextending a limited budget and that other, equally important budget - the goodwill and energy of those that work within the organisation. We are thus thrilled to announce a successful bid for a 3-year development grant from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Community Foundation which will enable us to make this transition to paying our alumni in a planned, financially protected way without breeching either. The plan is to introduce 2 paid counsellors every 6 months until we reach a maximum of 8. In this way these experienced folk will not only be a resource to help with more complex presentations but should help with our drive to get our waiting times back down below 6 weeks.

New Base/Counselling Rooms

06 Jun, 2022

Life Changes has a new base in Southampton. One of the dilemma’s that we have struggled with here at Life Changes is when and how to return to face-to-face counselling. The pandemic has yo-yo’d back and forth, and various offers of “free” accommodation have eventually come to naught. Entering into a commitment for rented rooms before the pandemic “allowed’ us to utilise them would add an unacceptable financial burden on our ultra-low-cost charity - but we have finally taken the plunge and rented three rooms in Carlton Crescent in the very centre of Southampton. Let’s hope the pandemic has indeed reached the stage where this investment is justified. This does not mean that we won’t continue to offer online counselling. The ability to talk and see each other from the comfort or security of our own dwelling, despite being many miles apart, has been a revelation, and for many reasons there will always be people who would prefer to access their counselling in this way. The choice will remain with our clients, but for those who would prefer to work across the room with their counsellor, we hope these rooms will provide a pleasant environment which will help the process along.

"The way she seemed to get me, understand me and then help me see. I’d just like to say thank you. It’s a great service you provide."
"Being able to manage my anger. The counsellor was brilliant at understanding and helping me move on."
"Your service has really made a difference, I feel so much better. I would recommend Life Changes to anyone suffering depression as it really works".
"Being able to talk about things (past experiences). I felt safe to talk about things that have been upsetting me for years. "
"My counselling is a stepping stone to a longer term recovery, and it was nice to NOT be set endless paper exercises after each session. I would like to thank my counsellor and all the staff, words are not able to express how valuable and helpful these sessions have been."
"Being listened to, challenged on core beliefs. Thank you so much for your help, I’m extremely grateful. "
"Understanding how my thoughts and feelings impacted my life and developing coping strategies. My counsellor added some additional sessions to help with my return to work. I would thoroughly recommend Life Changes to anyone going through a difficult time. "
Hello! I wanted to say thank you for everything LCC did for me. I am doing so much better now and I attribute it to you, I am in an undergraduate course and I’m doing well so far and I’m hoping to go on to do a masters here. I’m still on the autism wait list but the uni is aware and has good resources. I never thought I'd be able to do this, what you are doing is very impactful and I’m not sure where I would be right now if I hadn’t had our sessions - Thank you again. Kind regards, P

Excellence

We take pride in sharing the experience we’ve acquired.

Quality Guaranteed

The interests of our clients are at the forefront in everything we do.

High Expectations

Strive for quality, that's our motto, and our mission

Life Changes Counselling is a Registered Charity offering

short-term, affordable, one-to-one counselling to meet needs that would not otherwise be met in the communities in which we operate.

Contact Info

Southampton

07444 001845

Find us on the

Counselling Directory

Registered Charity no: 1114553. Company limited by guarantee no: 05750613.
Organisational member of the British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy no: 118563
Privacy Policy

Call Us : 07444 001845

"Making Counselling Accessible..."

Life Changes Counselling

Identify your personal goals and achieve them

Frequently asked questions...

Personal issues

counselling can

help with...

In a few steps....

Counselling Sessions Request

Latest News

"The way she seemed to get me, understand me and then help me see. I’d just like to say thank you. It’s a great service you provide."

"Being able to manage my anger. The counsellor was brilliant at understanding and helping me move on."

"Your service has really made a difference, I feel so much better. I would recommend Life Changes to anyone suffering depression as it really works".

"Being able to talk about things (past experiences). I felt safe to talk about things that have been upsetting me for years. "

"My counselling is a stepping stone to a longer term recovery, and it was nice to NOT be set endless paper exercises after each session. I would like to thank my counsellor and all the staff, words are not able to express how valuable and helpful these sessions have been."

"Being listened to, challenged on core beliefs. Thank you so much for your help, I’m extremely grateful. "

"Understanding how my thoughts and feelings impacted my life and developing coping strategies. My counsellor added some additional sessions to help with my return to work. I would thoroughly recommend Life Changes to anyone going through a difficult time. "

Excellence

Quality Guaranteed

High Expectations