Research from across the world over the last 30 years has shown that people who have experienced domestic violence tend to gain more from counselling where the counsellor has a very good knowledge of what it means to have experienced abuse. The specific nature of abuse by a loved one brings with it a range of difficulties in disclosure as well as understanding what happened (rather than what the perpetrator has encouraged you to believe). 

Our counsellors have all received an extensive training in domestic violence counselling, both theory and skills practice, to prepare them for working with you. Each has a specific interest in this area of work and is keen to help. As a team, we also share additional and new resources as they become available, so that we keep abreast of current best practice. This combination of interest and expertise provides a very good start to your work together.

We also understand that it takes time to get to know the counsellor and to share whatever it is that you need to share. Many agencies today offer a 6-session model of counselling due to funding constraints. We know that it can take 4 or more sessions for you to become comfortable enough to talk about some aspects of your experience, and you may be close to ending counselling without really getting to the parts you really wanted to talk about. Here, we offer up to 20 sessions to all of our clients. Not all clients need this number of sessions. Some may only need 6 or 10 sessions. However, the key thing is that that you are free to work at your own pace, without having to worry about going too quickly, too soon.