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1. Lifecentre Counsellors
• Lifecentre has a team of face to face counsellors who are specifically trained to counsel children and young people under the age of 18yrs.
• All of our counsellors have a minimum qualification of a Diploma in Counselling. They are also all trained in working with trauma, using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Solution Focused Therapy. They are all trained in providing Pre Trial therapy and the issues that raises for any potential court hearing. They are all trained in using creative techniques within the counselling such as different forms of art therapy. Many of them have special additional areas of expertise - like psychosexual counselling, substance mis-use and addictions expertise, bereavement counselling, mindfulness or play therapy. All of us have specialist experience and training in helping survivors of sexual trauma.
• All staff hold a clean Enhanced Disclosure from the Criminal Records Bureau and have suitable professional references and experience.
• We also provide ongoing specialised training and professional supervision for all our counsellors.
• We work within the West Sussex Safeguarding Children Policy.
2. Referrals
• Our Under 18s service accepts appropriate referrals from GPs, Children and Young People's Services (CYPS), the Police and other professional agencies, as well as from schools, self-referring individuals or through the Helplines.
• Referrals will be considered from male and female clients who have experienced any form of sexual violation and who consider this the primary focus they wish to work through in counselling.
• Our service is offered on a non-discriminatory basis irrespective of race, gender, disability, religion or sexual orientation.
• We do not have a precise lowest age cut off point for accepting referrals for young children, but will instead assess with the referrer the age level of the child and whether they are verbally and cognitively mature enough to benefit from counselling. To date the youngest child that we have considered it appropriate to work with has been 7yrs of age.
• We take referrals where we are the nearest specialised service to where the client lives.
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We work from venues in Chichester, Worthing, Bognor, Littlehampton and at the Saturn centre (www.saturncentre.org)
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Most of our premises are accessible to wheelchair users and if there is difficulty we will make alternative arrangements.
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We would not consider Lifecentre an appropriate service for individuals who are currently receiving support for severe Mental Health issues or who have serious or chaotic alcohol or substance mis-use problems.
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We work collaboratively with mental health/drug & alcohol teams and will consult with them or a client's psychiatrist if appropriate before counselling is offered.
3. Counselling for Supporters
• Lifecentre can offer counselling help for supporters and close family members affected relationally by the sexual abuse of a young person.
• Adult family members should apply to our Adult counselling service for help, to be seen by one of our Adult team of counsellors, and contribute financially to that service as other adult clients.
• Under 18s supporters of sexually violated young people may receive help with our Lifecentre counsellors.
4. Contract for Counselling
• Lifecentre Under 18s offers an Introductory Assessment get together with new clients in order to assess the suitability of the client to our service and to agree a framework within which the client and counsellor will work.
• We offer a time-limited service of a maximum of 18 counselling sessions spread over one year.
• Clients are requested to complete 3 feed-back forms during their progress in counselling (at beginning, after a few weeks, and at ending)
• Therapeutic progress will be assessed regularly in conjunction with Lifecentre professional supervisors.
• Lifecentre has a Service-Users Complaints Procedure (Code of Practice C3) available for any clients to use if they are unhappy with the service they are receiving.
• Counselling sessions cost us £45 but because you are under 18 years old, we ask you to pay just £15. We hope your parents, guardian or someone else is able to help with this. If you do not have this support we can discuss a way forward at your first appointment. We do not want money issues to prevent you from receiving the help and support you are looking for. If another agency or professional body refers the young person we ask them to take some responsibility for supporting the funding of this referral.
5. Confidentiality
Lifecentre offers its clients the highest level of confidentiality consistent with the law and the ethical framework of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.
We offer confidentiality within our service, which means that information given will not go outside the Lifecentre team.
All counsellors meet regularly with a professionally trained supervisor to ensure that their work is to the highest standard. Our supervisors would be included within the confidentiality of the service.
6. Exceptions to confidentiality
• Lifecentre works within West Sussex Safeguarding Children Policy. If a client tells us about a child (and the child could be the client) who is being abused or who is in danger of significant harm, we will need to tell either the Police or the Children and Young People's Services about this.
We always try to work in co-operation with our clients and will discuss with them how we plan to proceed. However, eventually, either the Police or CYPS will need to be told, so that the young person can be protected.
• If a young person discloses serious imminent plans for committing suicide, our counsellors have a legal obligation to report this to the appropriate service. This will be done as far as possible with the young person's consent. However, if necessary, an ambulance or GP will be informed without the young person's consent in order to protect the young person's life.
• We have a legal obligation to report to the police anyone who is planning offences under the Terrorism Act or Data Protection Act
7. Gillick Competency
• Lifecentre works with Gillick Competency to protect the rights and privacy of children who come to us for counselling.
• A young person aged 16 or over, or a young person under 16 who has the capacity to understand and make their own decisions would be regarded as Gillick Competent.
• It is very unlikely that a child under the age of 13 would be regarded as Gillick Competent.
• Equally, competence in young people can be impaired by circumstances like extreme stress, drug misuse or special needs, so that there may be times when someone up tp the age of 18yrs will only be accepted for counselling with parental consent
• Gillick Competency status gives the young person certain rights to make decisions and be granted confidentiality without parental consent.
• A young person who is Gillick Competent does not require parental consent to start counselling with us.
• Although a young person who is considered Gillick Competent can have access to counselling without their parent(s) permission or against their parent(s)' wishes, our counsellors will always encourage the young person to communicate positively with their parents and make every attempt to ensure that a difficult family situation is not made worse by insisting on a young person's rights.
8. Confidentiality and the Gillick Competent young person
• Parents will not be informed that the young person is receiving counselling, or of any matters revealed during counselling, without the young person's specific consent.
• The client's permission will always be required before any information is passed to anyone else (providing this is consistent with our confidentiality policy). This would mean, for instance, that the client will be carefully consulted about their thoughts or preferences on any matter to be discussed at a multi-agency case conference and will be consulted about what information they would like to have shared on their behalf.
• The counsellor's notes will only be passed to the Police or submitted at the request of the court if the client gives signed permission for this to happen.
9. Confidentiality and the non Gillick Competent client
• At Lifecentre we are very anxious to respect our child clients and allow the child to communicate without pressure from the presence of the parent. For this reason, we will normally ask parents to stay outside the counselling room during the Introductory Assessment interview with the counsellor. The counsellor will always explain to the child that they are free to invite the parent into the room at any point during the session, or ask the parent to leave the session at any point - and we expect the parent to comply with the child's wishes.
• At the Introductory Assessment, our confidentiality policy is explained to both the child and the parent, if present.
• If it is felt to be in the young person's best interest, and with their consent, a parent may be invited to come in for all or part of any counselling session. If this happens, the counsellor will record in their notes that the child gave consent for this to occur..
• The counsellor will not expect to share anything from the counselling session with the child's parent. If a parent specifically requests information regarding progress or otherwise in the counselling, the counsellor will give information only with prior consent from the child.
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• The therapist must be the final arbiter of whether allowing access to confidential counselling records is in the best interests of any child that they treat and may withhold information from parents as they see fit.
For more about this, see our Policies (Policy P3), Safeguarding Children,(Part 8: Ensuring Confidentiality).
Or you could look up the Under 18s face to face counselling FAQ page.
10. Pre-Trial Therapy for Minors
Lifecentre works according to a Pre-Trial Therapy Policy for Minors for when clients are involved in a pending court case. For more about this, see Policies/pre-trial Therapy for Minors (Policy P4).
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