Our team of specially trained counsellors understand the devastating impact rape, sexual assault and sexual abuse can have on your life. You may be experiencing difficult thoughts or feelings that you have never felt before. These thoughts and feelings will be completely normal given what has happened. You may want to understand and explore these feelings with someone in a safe, non-judgemental space.
Our team of counsellors have been trained to work with people who have experienced rape, sexual violence and sexual abuse and all work within the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy Ethical Framework
Due to current demand for services and our staffing levels, we operate a waiting list for accessing counselling. We are committed to keeping our wait times as low as possible and have recently made some changes to our referral criteria for counselling support.
If you require information about our current wait times, please contact the counselling team on 0161 276 6515.
Saint Mary’s Counselling Service provides specialist counselling support for individuals affected by sexual violence. We do not offer crisis support.
We can accept referrals for counselling based on the following criteria.
Children & Young People (aged 6-17 years)
Saint Mary’s Counselling Service will accept a referral if the following criteria is met:
· Has been affected by any form of sexual violence or abuse, whether recent or historic.
· Is aged above 6 years old at time of referral.
· Registered with a GP in Greater Manchester.
· Resides in Greater Manchester.
· Are actively engaged within the criminal justice process.
Saint Mary’s Counselling Service is unable to accept referrals for individuals who:
· Do not meet the eligibility criteria above.
· Are engaged in active therapy elsewhere, a 6-month break is required after therapy has finalised before a referral is accepted.
· Have displayed harmful sexualised behaviour and this has not been appropriately assessed or received support from a professional service.
· Are not primarily seeking support for sexual violence or abuse (e.g., those struggling with bereavement, a terminal illness, an eating disorder, other types of traumas).
· Are currently an inpatient within a Primary Care Mental Health Service.
· Are in active crisis, current suicidal ideation with intent, or a plan or a previous attempt in the last 3 months. This will be assessed on case-by-case basis.
· Have had a recent episode of SARC counselling, a 6-month waiting period after previous episode has finalised before re-referral.
Adult
Saint Mary’s Counselling Service can accept a referral if the following criteria is met:
· Has been affected by any form of sexual violence or abuse, whether recent or historic.
· Registered with a GP in Greater Manchester.
· Resides in Greater Manchester.
· Are actively engaged within the criminal justice process.
Saint Mary’s Counselling Service is unable to accept referrals for individuals who:
Do not meet the eligibility criteria above.
· Are engaged in active therapy elsewhere, require a 6-month break after therapy has finalised before a referral is accepted.
· Are not primarily seeking support for sexual violence or abuse (e.g., those struggling with bereavement, a terminal illness, an eating disorder, other types of traumas).
· Are an inpatient within a Primary Care Mental Health Service.
· Are in active crisis, current suicidal ideation with intent, or a plan or a previous attempt in the last 3 months. This will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
· Have had a recent episode of SARC counselling, a 6-month waiting period after previous episode has finalised before re-referral.
· Are a male who has been convicted of or is under investigation for sexual assault or rape – we will signpost to Survivors Manchester ‘We are Listening’ 20 week 1:1 therapy programme.
· Have experienced childhood sexual abuse, which is not currently being investigated by the Police.
We can provide up to 12 weekly counselling sessions, available in person, over the phone, or online.
We have a team of male and female fully qualified professionals and carefully selected student counsellors who have been assessed as fit to practice.
Once we receive your referral, one of our referral coordinators will contact you and invite you an assessment with one of our counsellors, this will be over the telephone (unless there are specific needs). If counselling feels suitable following the assessment, the counsellor will discuss options with you and you will be placed on our waiting list.
Significant others:
Saint Mary’s Counselling Service can accept a referral if the following criteria is met
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Is a significant other of someone who has been affected by any form of sexual violence or abuse, whether recent or historic and is a current client of Saint Mary’s Service
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Registered with a GP in Greater Manchester.·
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Resides in Greater Manchester.
· Has a child or significant other who is actively engaged within the criminal justice process.
We can offer 4 sessions of group therapy for parents and carers.
We can offer 4 sessions of psycho-education group therapy for significant others.
We can offer a one-off parent/carer session to offer therapeutic support, advice and guidance.
Your Crisis worker or ISVA will discuss the counselling service with you, or you can contact the team directly by calling 0161 276 6515.
Initial assessment
When you first contact (or are referred to) Saint Mary's SARC to request counselling, your referral will be triaged. If, based on the information provided, you meet the above criteria, we will send you a telephone appointment for a counselling assessment. This offers the opportunity of ensuring this is the right service for you and that it will meet your needs. The counsellor will tell you more about the counselling service, ask you for some further details and carry out a risk assessment with you.
Following this, if appropriate, you will be placed on our waiting list to start counselling. In some cases, the SARC counselling service will be unable to meet your current needs and it is important that we help you to access the appropriate services. We will discuss this with you and with your consent we will refer you to a more appropriate service. If you are placed on the waiting list following your assessment, we will contact you again when you reach the top of that list.
Starting counselling
Once you have been offered and have accepted a regular counselling slot, you will be offered six sessions in the first instance and will see the same counsellor for each session. Usually, this appointment will take place on the same day and time each week. In the unlikely event that your counsellor is unavailable due to sickness or unexpected absence, another counsellor will contact you to inform you.
Your appointment will be for 50 minutes. The counsellors will keep counselling records that will be held confidentially at the Centre. We will not disclose this information without your consent unless we are ordered to so by a court judge or where we have concerns for your, or somebody else’s safety, however we will usually inform you if this is required.
Pretrial therapy
If your case goes to court, we are obliged to make the Crown Prosecution Service aware that you have had counselling. You may be asked by the investigating officer for consent for us to release these records. We will contact you and inform you that a request has been made and invite you to go through your counselling records with your counsellor. When you have been made aware of the content of the records and if you give your consent to disclosure, we will give a copy to the courts. Where you do not agree to disclosure, we will do whatever we can to prevent disclosure. However, we may be ordered to show them to the trial judge. We will attend the court and inform the judge of your request for confidentiality. The court Judge will make the decision as to the relevance of your notes in the court case.
How will I know if counselling is working?
Because counselling helps you identify your feelings around what has happened to you it can sometimes leave you feeling unsettled at first. Your counsellor will discuss this with you. The counsellor will ask you questions at regular times during your therapy which help you to see your progress; give you and your counsellor a clear focus and help us to evaluate the counselling service.
Evaluation of our services
We want to provide a service which supports people who have experienced sexual abuse, assault or violence. Your views are important to us. We have feedback forms which can be completed anonymous and posted into the feedback boxes available either in the examination or counselling suite, or if you wish to make any comments on our services, please contact the service manager or the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) as below.
SARC:
The Old Saint Mary’s Hospital
York Place, Off Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9WL
0161 276 6515
PALS:
The Chief Executive
CMFT Head Quarters, Cobbett House, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9WL
0161 276 8686
pals@cmft.nhs.uk