PF Counselling Service

 

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Working for the PF Counselling Service

 

 

 

   When the PF was established, in 1986, the service was delivered from rickety old premises not much better than a portacabin.  But the enthusiastic staff and voluntary counsellors set about providing a new opportunity for professional counselling to the people of Edinburgh.  From the outset, it offered 'generic' counselling, in other words not focussed on a particular issue or need, but offering support to anyone who came seeking its help.

Ten years ago we moved into the Eric Liddell Centre, a community centre in a converted church at Holy Corner, between Morningside and Bruntsfield in the south of Edinburgh.  This gave us a waiting room for clients, four dedicated counselling rooms, and two offices for the staff team.  The General Office is a busy room which will be shared by the Practice Manager, the Receptionist/Administrative Assistant, and the volunteer Receptionists.  From here the clients are welcomed into the building, the counsellors are supported and logged into the diary, enquiries and applications are handled, records of attendance etc are kept, and donations from clients are recorded and safeguarded. 

Confidentiality is of paramount importance in this work, as many clients are seeking help with personal, emotional and spiritual issues.  It is really important that staff understand and can be trusted to maintain this confidentiality, but also that they actively support an environment where clients know this to be true and can feel safe.

The recruitment of these two new posts represents a restructuring of the staff team by Alison Hampton, the Director, in consultation with the Board.  It therefore offers a real opportunity for two enthusiastic, committed and experienced people to join the PF with ideas and suggestions for new ways of doing things, and to actually set them up.  It will be challenging to begin with, as the work of the 55 counsellors and 120 clients must continue uninterrupted, but it is a real chance to help shape the future of a great service.

Our work impacts directly on the resilience of the communities in which our clients live.  We offer support that can transform someone from being a burden to friends and family, and a drain on society, into a full contributor to the life of Scotland.  Our counselling service can and has enabled clients to re-engage with satisfying employment, to re-establish happy personal lives, and to re-connect with their community life.

Our vision is to develop a counselling service which is recognised as

  • the most effective and professionally run voluntary counselling agency in Scotland

  • attracting the best and most committed volunteer counsellors and offering them the best professional support
  • enabling the widest possible range of clients to access life-changing talking therapies regardless of their ability to pay.

As part of this vision, we plan to move premises as soon as possible, most likely within the next year or two.  This could be to anywhere within Edinburgh. ideally to a fairly central location for easy access by all.  New premises would give us room to expand our service to meet tangible demand from both clients and counsellors, as well as to improve the facilities for staff.