Interview Spotlight- Breathe UK
Breathe UK are a growing social enterprise with a focus on offering affordable access to counselling and working with other third sector organisations and Universities. Read on to find out about how they adapted to the pandemic and how to make the steps into being referred to counselling.
Tell us about Breathe UK?
Breathe is a social enterprise project, managed by Platfform, the charity for mental health and social change. We opened in summer, 2018 with 7 counsellors and now have grown to having a pool of nearly 50 counsellors. We also support Cardiff Met University and the University of South Wales by providing counsellors to support their in-house counselling team. And we work with small and medium enterprises, as well as third sector organisations to support their Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP).
What services do you offer?
We offer low cost counselling to clients who have no income, other than means-tested benefits. This costs £5 per session and is with student counsellors on placement. For everyone else, we offer commercial counselling at £55 per session. This is with qualified counsellors, most of whom have had placements with Breathe. This funds our low cost counselling. Any profits are fed back to Platfform to help fund other mental health projects.
We have an 8 session model as we believe that in this time, clients can make changes to their lives to improve their mental health.
Our counsellors are all either taking or have qualified with a Level 4 Diploma (or higher) in Counselling. They offer different methods of counselling, including Systemic, Person Centred, Humanistic Existential, Integrative and CBT. This enables us to be able to offer clients a choice and to help tailor the counselling to the clients’ needs.
What has been the impact that the pandemic has had on your clients and the demand for you services?
Initially, there was a huge period of adjustment for both clients and counsellors. We lost a large portion of clients as many were uncomfortable about trying counselling any way other than face to face and others were unsure of how the pandemic would affect them and their finances.
All our counsellors had to train to be able to offer online (Zoom, MS Teams, Skype, etc.) or telephone counselling. And some counsellors also trained to deliver counselling outdoors. What this meant was that we could offer more choice to clients – online, telephone, outdoors, and eventually we will be able to reintroduce face to face counselling.
We are no longer limited by geography- we work with clients all over the UK. We can see clients who live far away from our Roath, Cardiff office, are reluctant to come into a counselling setting, or who may have trouble leaving their home. And we have counsellors based across the UK and even one in Cyprus! We intend to continue with this blended way of working even after all restrictions are lifted.
What do you think the steps are to starting counselling and working out which talking therapy is right for you?
First of all, have a look at our website www.breathe-uk.com. We have helpful links to information about counselling and which types of counselling we offer. There is also a ‘Say hello to our team of counsellors’ page where you can read a little about our counsellors to see if there are any you think you’d like to work with. And finally, you can complete a referral form online.
What are 3 things that organisations build into their Wellbeing and Mental Health strategy?
That’s a big assumption that organisations actually do this! Ideally, a minimum of an EAP programme, education about mental health, and a supportive management culture.
Where can people find you and what are you social media links?
You can find us on:
Website: breathe-uk.com/
Facebook: @Breatheuk
Twitter: @BreatheUK_ttww
Instagram: @breatheuk_
LinkedIn: Breathe UK