Impact Report 2014–2015Women’s Counselling and Therapy Service

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““““

””””

New ideas, more positive ides. Got a job and onto

a college cou rse.

This is the second time I have used

this service and for me it is a lifeline.

I would not have been able to afford to access

a private counsellor.

I was able to speak about very intimate deta ils.

I now know how to live

much better

””

““

Best service ever!

Thirty years of changing lives

The women we worked with in 2014–15Women who contact the service seek support

for an average of six problems. The most

common are depression, anxiety, self esteem,

relationships, and trauma / abuse. Almost all

of these problems have lasted for over a year;

two thirds have been recurring or continuous

in women’s lives. They have a daily negative

impact on women’s lives; in some cases they

are disabling.

Women come to the service looking to resolve

sometimes crushing emotional feelings,

overwhelming negative thoughts or destructive

behaviour patterns. Women want a safe place

to tell their story, to think about suicidal

thoughts or self harming behaviour; they

want to feel better about themselves and are

determined to become better mothers for their

children. They want to separate from abusive

partners, eat healthily, or find alternatives to

misusing substances. Women want to build

confidence, to communicate better, and to

handle situations better.

Women come to the service needing support

in the face of their histories and the ongoing

challenges of multiple inequalities. They come

with vast hope that they can change their

lives. We remain committed to helping women

realise that hope, recover and flourish.

Over the year we worked with 278 women

and provided information and advice to many

more. All clients are on low incomes or live in

poverty; 43% live in Leeds wards that are in the

10% most deprived areas in England.

30% of clients are from BME communities;

31% consider themselves to have a

disability; one in ten define as lesbian, gay,

bisexual or transgender

Two thirds of clients are mothers; a half

of whom have responsibility for children

under 16. One in ten clients have had the

experience of having a child(ren) removed

into care.

Two thirds have experienced domestic

abuse; over 60% disclose trauma or abuse at

the initial meeting; more go on to disclose

during counselling.

Report from Chair of Trustees2014–15 was a year of consolidation after we’d

doubled our provision the previous year. I am

delighted to report that, as we celebrate over 30

years: we are now working with more women than

ever before; we are now open on Fridays; and our

new peer support work – which takes us back to our

1980’s roots – is gathering pace.

However despite this positive news continuing

growth in demand meant that we had to close our

waiting lists for over half of the year in order to

ensure reasonable waiting times. Our new 2015–18

strategy includes stretching new goals to continue

growing the Service and support more women

recover from their experiences and flourish in

their lives.

We thank our dedicated staff group for their

achievements and hard work.

Dr Celly Rowe

Director’s reportThis year our focus continued to be services to

support vulnerable and disadvantaged women

recover their mental health and wellbeing. During

the year we embedded the new services for refugee

and asylum seeking women and for women who

regularly and severely self harm. We also worked

on continuing to improve accessibility for LGBT

women. We doubled the number of placements we

offer to newly qualified / trainee therapists. These

increase our capacity and give new practitioners

ongoing learning opportunities.

We know that austerity is impacting

disproportionally on women and as the impact of

cuts to public services and changes to the welfare

system deepen we, along with other mental health

organisations are continuing to see increasing

demand both in numbers of women seeking support

and in the range and severity of their mental

health problems. We are determined to retain the

opportunity for long term reparative counselling

and therapy as we believe this provides the

opportunity to develop the profound trust needed to

address and resolve entrenched difficulties and to

flourish past abuse and trauma.

Tessa Denham

General ServiceThe General Service is open to any Leeds woman

who meets the criteria of low income, has long

standing moderate or severe mental health

difficulties and who needs to access a women’s

service. For some of our clients a women-only

service is vital because of experiences of domestic

violence, childhood abuse or rape: for others it is

accessible because of faith and or culture. We offer

individual and group counselling and therapy for up

to two years within a relational approach; staff are

trained in a range of therapeutic models including

art therapy. One of our groups is specifically for

women with learning disabilities and women can

stay in the group for up to four years.

5%

26%

69%

19%

34%

47%

Moderate risk

No risk

Mild risk

Effect of WCTS therapy on women’s risk of suicide

Pre therapy Post therapy

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Mild

Moderate

Moderately Severe

Severe

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Women’s recovery from mental health problems

73%of women recover (ie achieve clinical

change and or reliable improvement)

WomenSpaceWomenSpace offers support

to women who severely and regularly self harm.

In the two year period we have been running

100 women have been referred to the service.

We offer a flexible and individualised service to

provide the most appropriate support to women

who have found it hard to successfully engage

with many other services. We currently offer

one to one psychotherapy and an arts based

psychotherapeutic group. Our clients report

significant reductions in psychological distress, in

risk, and in frequency and severity of self harming

behaviours after engagement with WomenSpace.

Aurora ServiceThe Aurora Service moved into its second year of

providing individual and group counselling and

therapy to refugee and asylum seeking women.

We are seeing the benefits of being able to offer

culturally sensitive and gender specific long-term

therapy for this highly traumatised client group.

Clients’ experiences include human trafficking,

violence, female genital mutilation, child soldiering,

rape and destitution. One of the most notable

features of women who come to Aurora is their

underlying resilience and capacity to continue

living well in the face of a number of repeated

and enduring traumatic experiences and almost

insurmountable ongoing challenges.

MumsTalk MumsTalk aims to support women to manage and

improve their own emotional and psychological

well-being and that of their children. Dealing with

family breakdown, parenting children with complex

and challenging behaviour and overcoming

childhood abuse, violence and or neglect are

common issues. Almost all clients are lone parents

and have experience of domestic abuse; over half

of their children have had exposure to domestic

violence. All clients who complete their therapy

clinically recover. Additionally, independent Social

Return on Investment Research carried out in the

year showed the social return of MumsTalk to be

£7.22 for every £1 invested.

“

“ “

”

” ”

I couldn’t have asked for a better therapist. I felt completely understood and the trust that was built up

over time meant I was slowly able to open up to her like

I’ve never done before.

I feel I have come to terms and lea rned to cope with the main diff icu lties in my life

I would recommend this service to anyone

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Improvements in wellbeing after therapy

of women say they understand

themselves better,

deal with problems better

when they occur

are better able to cope

with their feelings.

100%

94%

92%

Key

Recovery

No change

note: There is no

reliable deterioration

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

£13,490

Service User involvement and counselling resources

Funding sources Expenditure

£7,383

Client contributions

£3,453

Professional fees

£5,730

Consultancy

£19,939 Premises

£60,260NHS and

CCGs

With thanks to all our funders and partnersThis year saw WCTS consolidate its expanded

provision. We are extremely grateful to our

funders for their support of the Service –

without this support the women we work with

would not be able to access the long term

counselling that is critical on their recovery

journeys and in supporting them to flourish.

Thanks to…

Women’s Counselling and Therapy Service Ltd, Oxford Chambers, Oxford Place, Leeds, LS1 3AX

Website: womenstherapyleeds.org.uk Email: info@womenstherapyleeds.org.uk Tel: 0113 245 5725

Company no. 7804583 Charity no. 1145377

£113,122Charitable trusts and

foundations

£14,486Office costs

£266,428Staffing costs (of which 86%

clinical staffing)

£143,340 Leeds City Council

Who we are The Service is extremely fortunate in attracting

skilled and committed staff and volunteers

including trustees who give generously of their

time, expertise and hearts: thanks to them for

all they contribute.

Trustees

Dr Celly Rowe (Chair) Barbara Lawton; Angela

Sillett; Ann Walker; Carol Burns; Maureen

Young; Alyson Scott and Jane Vincent plus

Mandy Nicholas who resigned during the year

Staff team

Director: Tessa Denham

Services Manager / Clinical Lead:

Mandy Alderson

Psychotherapists and Counsellors:

Alison Herbert, Andrea Campbell, Annemarie

Koelman, Cathie Gibbs, Federico Marino Francis,

Helen Easton, Joanna Best, Katie Whitehouse,

Leonie Hilliard, Stella Maden and Sarah Farnell.

Trainee Psychotherapists and Counsellors:

Erene Hadjiioannou, Gemma Brown, Helen

Green, Julia Neimuth, Nicola Engel Khan, Rachel

Cradock, Shamim Akhtar and Sue Hill.

Peer Support Group Facilitator: Sham Shakat

Administration and Finance Team:

Angela Higgins, Claire Roberts, Debbie Bowness,

Hannah Williams, Maureen Thrush, Tracey Kirk.

This Service works collaboratively with many

other agencies. Thanks to our partners for

the added value they contribute: the Bramely

Cluster Partnership, Behind Closed Doors, Home

Start Leeds, Leeds Survivor Led Crisis Service,

Community Links, Solace, the Leeds Personality

Disorder Clinical Network, Leeds Mind and

Leeds LGBT Wellbeing Partnership.

Thanks also to Oxford Place Children’s Centre

creche without which many women would not

be able to attend.

£1,614Other

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