Emily Clark completes Edinburgh marathon despite an injury at mile 18. She toughed it out and raised over £1000 for Life Changes.
Click on our Fundraising page for for the full story..
Our congratulations to Emily Clark who has completed the Edinburgh marathon. As those of you who have been following her training - things haven’t always been going to plan, with recurrent shin splints being particularly troublesome. Luckily, she started training early so was able to complete a decent preparatory schedule despite time out for recovery from time to time.
The weather on the day was perfect; sunny but cool. The marathon course leaves Edinburgh and heads for the coast and by mile 18 she was running well and enjoying the scenery. Soon after this the dreaded shin splints made an unwelcome appearance and the last 10 miles turned into a bit of a nightmare - finally hobbling back into the city and over the line in 5 and a half hours. The time, effort, pain and sheer grit that Emily put into this event is awe inspiring, as is the fact that she has raised more than £1000 for Life Changes.
We will have to see how her injuries impact her plans to complete the London marathon for us as well - but meanwhile let’s take inspiration from her and set up other fundraising events. Life Changes has a robust financial model, but this sort of initiative makes the difference between just scraping by , and being able to confidently go the extra mile for our clients. Emily’s efforts will pay for six 1 hour sessions for 12 hard up clients.
Well done Emily and thank you.
For the last two years Life Changes has provided a bespoke counselling service for the patients of the Eastleigh Southern Practices GP consortium. The sad news is that the funding for this project has now run out but Life Changes can take pride in the fact that we have provided a service that met, indeed exceeded, the hopes of the commissioning GP’s.
Dr Neeraj Sonpal lead GP of the consortium gave the following endorsement ...
This year has seen a significant degree of consolidation as we continue to put LCC on a more sustainable footing in the post covid era. This will also be my first AGM as Chairman and I would like to thank the work and effort Philip Meakins has put in over the years to getting the organization to where it is now!
During the last 12 months we have been effectively been providing three services, our core service, supported by our team of 24 volunteer counsellors, the grant funded paid counsellor project (PCP), employing 8 counsellors that have qualified and migrated from the core service, and lastly, the ESP Network project, that uses a number of experienced paid counsellors, majority of which have worked with LCC for some time...
Life Changes is pleased to announce we have obtained a Lottery Grant and can once more fund a limited number of financially challenged clients who cannot afford our current minimum fee, as well as continuing our work with Domestic Abuse victims (who frequently fall into the same category).
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
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
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.
Ed's amazing achievement in the Great South Run - October 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
Latest News
For the last two years Life Changes has provided a bespoke counselling service for the patients of the Eastleigh Southern Practices GP consortium. The sad news is that the funding for this project has now run out but Life Changes can take pride in the fact that we have provided a service that met, indeed exceeded, the hopes of the commissioning GP’s.
Dr Neeraj Sonpal lead GP of the consortium gave the following endorsement ...
This year has seen a significant degree of consolidation as we continue to put LCC on a more sustainable footing in the post covid era. This will also be my first AGM as Chairman and I would like to thank the work and effort Philip Meakins has put in over the years to getting the organization to where it is now!
During the last 12 months we have been effectively been providing three services, our core service, supported by our team of 24 volunteer counsellors, the grant funded paid counsellor project (PCP), employing 8 counsellors that have qualified and migrated from the core service, and lastly, the ESP Network project, that uses a number of experienced paid counsellors, majority of which have worked with LCC for some time...
Life Changes is pleased to announce we have obtained a Lottery Grant and can once more fund a limited number of financially challenged clients who cannot afford our current minimum fee, as well as continuing our work with Domestic Abuse victims (who frequently fall into the same category).
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
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
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.
Ed's amazing achievement in the Great South Run - October 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
Find Us
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.
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Strive for quality, that's our motto, and our mission
Registered Charity no: 1114553. Company limited by guarantee no: 05750613.
Organisational member of the British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy no: 118563
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Organisational member of the British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy no: 118563
Privacy Policy