ABOUT US
Background
LIFE-FORCE Organisation was founded in 1990.
The Centre and Counselling Service was established in 1994.
The Centre has a Counselling Team comprised of experienced counsellors.
The Life-Force School of Counselling is run at the Centre.
The LIFE-FORCE Organisation was first created in 1990 and moved to Oxford Road in September 1994, when the Counselling Service was established. Nicole Joyce has been running LIFE-FORCE Centre as sole Centre Director since 1998. The Centre relocated to beautiful new permanent premises based at 3 East Hill during June 2005.
The Management Referral Team
Our management referral team consists of the following 5 key members all of whom are dedicated to providing a caring, efficient and ethical counselling service. We work together as a cohesive team and support each other to achieve this important mutual goal.
- Nicole Joyce – Centre Director
- Martin Chester – Service Support Manager
- Alison Scrutton – Counselling Service Manager
- Sarah Paul – Counselling Service Assistant
- Abbie Dix – Clerical Assistant
Nicky a BACP Accredited Counsellor, overseas the development and implementation of the Counselling Service’s policies and procedures.
Martin, a BACP Accredited Counsellor, has a vital input that ensures a safe and ethical working environment for staff, counsellors and clients.
Alison has a Diploma in Counselling, over 25 years experience running the Counselling Service on a day-to-day basis and liaising with the counselling team and client enquiries.
Sarah has completed an Introduction to Counselling course and has several years experience in dealing with client enquiries and referrals.
Abbie has an extensive IT and web design background and facilitates the creative development of the Service’s IT systems, marketing strategies and website design.
Counselling Service Aims & Ethos
Our Counselling Service is based on the ethos that each individual client, if provided with the right environmental conditions of empathy, unconditional acceptance, warmth and safety, will naturally grow towards developing their true potential as a human being.
Based on this principle, the Centre offers a therapeutic Counselling Service provided by a team of professional counsellors. All Team Counsellors support this philosophy and are committed to embodying humanistic values both professionally and personally within all daily interactions at the Centre. They are also bound by the Counselling Service’s policies and procedures as detailed in the Team Counsellor Handbook. We also ensure they receive appropriate regular supervision according to BACP guidelines and encourage them to work towards and apply for individual BACP accreditation.
We aim to provide a service that is accessible to adults, couples, young people and children from all social and cultural backgrounds. The team counsellor’s fees are set according to their clinical experience and individual BACP accreditation status. This means the Service can offer a range of fees to suit each client’s circumstances.
The Centre also takes student counsellors on placement so that we can offer low-cost counselling to adult clients depending on availability at the time and client suitability.
The referral team make every effort to find the right counsellor for each client enquiry. However, if at any time the client would prefer to see a different counsellor, then they can refer themselves back to the counselling service and make this request. We have helped many people over the years and continue to work towards this positive outcome whenever possible.
As a Counselling Service we appreciate client feedback through the completion of a Client Feedback Form, in hard copy or online, and aim to make use of all comments received by implementing changes for the benefit of the Centre as a whole.
If a client has any concerns about the service provided, we encourage them in the first instance to talk to their counsellor. If their concern remains unresolved then they are invited to email the Office and our referral team will deal with the situation in an open and fair manner with the intension of a positive outcome.
If required, clients can access our Service User Concerns Policy &/or Complaints Policy on our website.