Counselling

We provide professional counsellors to give you a safe, independent and confidential space to talk about your concerns, feel listened to and respected and understood.

about the service

About the service

Counselling is a ‘talking therapy’ and we offer six weekly sessions via telephone or online using Zoom. 

A fully trained counsellor will offer a safe and confidential space to talk about concerns along with feeling listened to and understood.  

The sessions are for carers to talk about the issues associated with their caring role. Carers can explore thoughts and feelings around the impact their caring role may be having on them such as loneliness, depression, guilt or resentment, juggling conflicting demands or relationship changes.  

The counselling we offer is a short-term intervention, so carers will be encouraged to look at changing their thinking and behaviours, to help them create strategies to cope with the situation they find themselves in – rather than getting bogged down in the details of the problems they face.

Six sessions of counselling are limited and not enough time to safely support carers with issues such as PTSD or more complex diagnosed mental health conditions, childhood or other traumas not associated with their caring role. 

Counselling can bring up difficult thoughts and emotions and can be challenging at times. It’s not always a “comfortable chat”.  We encourage carers to take time after each session to look after themselves and process what has come up. To be kind to themselves. Carers find that their mental health has improved and feel more connected and less isolated than before they started their counselling sessions.   

The support has helped some carers to feel more optimistic about their situation in feasibly carving out some time out for themselves regularly or by being able to look at other options to help with care. Carers will often report feeling more resilient and increased confidence and self-esteem from being able to explore their situation with a Counsellor. 

To be eligible for this service you must: – 

  • be over 18 years old  
  • live in Bristol or South Gloucestershire  
  • not currently be receiving mental health support, such as counselling, group therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, for example.
  • not have had support from this service within 12 months (we cannot offer you the service if you have had support from the counselling service twice already)
  • currently be in a caring role (if looking for Grief/Bereavement Counselling please contact CRUSE)
  • Must be able to commit to six weekly sessions on the same day and time each week  
  • Have access to a private space for the duration of each session 
     

“Excellent sessions provided me with the tools to get on and address and overcome problems.  Life changing!”

If you are interested in finding out more about the counselling service or to be referred, then please contact Carersline:

How to contact us

Contact our friendly CarersLine staff. CarersLine is a confidential phone and email information and support service for carers in Bristol and South Gloucestershire for you to ask questions or talk about any concerns about your caring role.

Call us

0117 965 2200

Email us

carersline@carersbsg.org.uk

You will receive a personal reply the same or next working day.

Or use our contact form 

Contact form

Further counselling services in Bristol and South Glos for carers

1 to 1 Counselling – Womankind Bristol 
For women who have mental health issues (Bristol)

Network counselling and training – 1 to 1 counselling
Cover a broad range of issues (Bristol)

NHS Talking Therapies –  (vitahealthgroup.co.uk)
Talking Therapies to adults aged 16 and over, who live and are registered with a GP in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire

Home: The Bridge Foundation
Leaders in child and family mental health
1:1 therapy service for children, adolescents, families and individuals (Bristol & the South West)

What we do | Relate
Family, children’s and young person counselling; also offer sex therapy and mediation (Bristol)

Anxiety UK
Offer CBT, Counselling, EMDR via telephone /online across UK. Costs from £15 -50 per session dependent upon income

Counselling & Emotional Support | Bristol After Stroke
One-to-One counselling sessions for people following a stroke and for their carers as well

Counselling • Bluebell (bluebellcare.org)  FREE talking therapy for parents in Bristol
Counselling | SARSAS 
Rape & sexual abuse. FREE trauma informed counselling (Bristol & South Glos)

Nexus Counselling – Southmead Project
Counselling for Addiction to Drugs or Alcohol

About you – Avon Counselling and Psychotherapy Service (acps-bristol.org.uk)
Cover broad range of issues, offer some low fee, subsidised places to people on benefits/low income

Heart to Heart Bristol
Offer affordable counselling to children (12+) and adults across a broad range of issues. Fees starting from £22 per session

Counselling – The Harbour (the-harbour.org.uk)
For people facing death, dying & bereavement. Do offer a subsidised fee based upon individual contribution as they normally charge £65 per session (Bristol)

Bourne Family Project
Family Wellbeing Services including client-centred creative and talking therapies, for both adults and children. Fee is a minimum of £15 per session

Cruse Bereavement Support
Free one to one sessions with one of a trained bereavement supporter

Counselling (kinergy.org.uk)
For survivors of sexual abuse and sexual violence. Offer FREE 1-2-1 & group counselling (Bristol & Bath)

You might also be interested in

Did you find this page helpful?

Your feedback helps us improve our services for all.

Our cookies

We use cookies, which are small text files, to improve your experience on our website.
You can allow or reject non essential cookies or manage them individually.

Reject allAllow all

More options  •  Cookie policy

Our cookies

Allow all

We use cookies, which are small text files, to improve your experience on our website. You can allow all or manage them individually.

You can find out more on our cookie page at any time.

EssentialThese cookies are needed for essential functions such as logging in and making payments. Standard cookies can't be switched off and they don't store any of your information.
AnalyticsThese cookies help us collect information such as how many people are using our site or which pages are popular to help us improve customer experience. Switching off these cookies will reduce our ability to gather information to improve the experience.
FunctionalThese cookies are related to features that make your experience better. They enable basic functions such as social media sharing. Switching off these cookies will mean that areas of our website can't work properly.
AdvertisingThese cookies help us to learn what you're interested in so we can show you relevant adverts on other websites and track the effectiveness of our advertising.
PersonalisationThese cookies help us to learn what you're interested in so we can show you relevant content.

Save preferences