1. What does the text and email support service offer?
• Sometimes writing down your thoughts helps you to make sense of them.
• We won't usually tell you what to do. We are there to listen to you and understand how you are feeling in all that has happened to you. We will support you in processing your thoughts and feelings.
• We specialise in supporting any survivors of rape and sexual violation, or those affected relationally by it.
• You may want to write about an experience that has recently happened to you and about which you have been in such a state of shock that you haven't yet told anyone about it.
• You may want to write about something that's been going on for a long time but you've been too scared to tell anyone about or you just have things from it that you want to get off your chest now.
• You may want to write about something that happened years ago and you can feel or see how it is affecting you now.
• Our text and email support is there to support you in whatever you are facing at the moment.
• It's your chance to say whatever you want to someone who will listen to you, help you, and who won't judge you.
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• It's amazing how we are sometimes better able to cope with things when we begin to share them with someone else.
2. Who will answer my texts and emails?
All our Text and Email Support Team Members have undergone intensive training in understanding and supporting people who have been raped or sexually abused and are either volunteers or are qualified counsellors. They have an understanding of some of the deep issues people sometimes face when they have been sexually violated.
All Team Members attend monthly group or individual supervision, supervised by qualified counsellors, to ensure that they are giving you the best support they possibly can.
As a service, we belong to a professional organisation called the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (BACP). We are also members of the Telephone Helpline Association. This gives you confidence that we work to very high standards in caring for the safety of everyone who comes to us and that we will respect the confidentiality of all clients in our service.
Our Support Team aim to make text and email support a safe place for you to be heard and respected.
3. Can I text or email more than once?
Yes, you can text or email as often as you want to.
4. How quickly will I get a reply?
Emails enter a virtual queue. We aim to reply to your email within 1 to 7 days from receiving it. Text messages are responded to within 1 to 4 days. Please note that we do not respond at the weekends to text and emails.
5. Will it always be the same person answering my texts and emails?
I'm afraid we can't promise that you will always be replied to by the same Team Member again, but as much as it is possible this will happen.
6. Can I send a completely anonymous text or email?
The easiest way to maintain anonymity is to create a free email address specifically for contacting us. You can do this by visiting web sites such as www.yahoo.co.uk, www.hotmail.com. You may find it preferable to email us from a public place, such as a library or internet café rather than using your home computer. Internet communications are not necessarily secure, and therefore Lifecentre does not take legal responsibility for the contents of any message.
The system that Lifecentre uses does not display your mobile phone number so all texts are anonymous.
7. What if I want to come to Lifecentre for face to face counselling?
Lifecentre believe that in order for a client to benefit fully from face to face counselling at Lifecentre, the email service should not be continued simultaneously. It could be confusing to be talking to a counsellor face to face as well as emailing about the same stuff. If a client is already emailing before face to face counselling begins at Lifecentre then the emailing will be brought to a worked toward conclusion.
8. What if I'm having face to face counselling for rape or sexual abuse elsewhere?
So that you get the most benefit from your counselling, we encourage you to commit to taking the issues you raise with us via email to your face to face counsellor. The email service is then best used for fill in support. We recommend you talk this through with your counsellor to consider the effect emailing may have on that relationship.
9. What is confidentiality?
Confidentiality means that anything you tell a Team Member by text or email will stay strictly within the Lifecentre Team, which also includes qualified supervisors.
Exceptions to Confidentiality
There are some very important exceptions to our confidentiality:
• We work within West Sussex Safeguarding Children Policy. This means that, if you tell us information about a child or vulnerable adult who is being abused, or who is at risk of being abused, we must tell someone about it. In as far as we are able, we won't go behind your back to do this. We will always try to have your co-operation in what we do and as far as is possible, we will tell you what we need to do about the information you have given us. But, either the police or Social Services will eventually need to be told so that the young person or vulnerable adult can be protected.
• If you tell us that you are definitely planning serious harm either to yourself or to someone else, we will tell an appropriate person about it urgently - if we have sufficient information about you or where you are. We may need to tell someone about your intentions, even without your permission, and will do so to protect you or the other person you have told us about.
• The other exceptions to our confidentiality are the legal obligations we have to report to the police anyone who is planning offences under the Terrorism or Data Protection Acts. In addition, if you have a court case pending for the abuse you have suffered, the judge has the right to subpoena records from counselling agencies as part of the evidence for your case.
For further reading, please see our our full Confidentiality Policy and Vulnerable Adults Policy:
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