FS is a Community Interest Company (C.I.C.) - details about our history can be found on our history page.
Our purpose is two-fold :
For clients we provide psychotherapy and counselling services on an open ended basis. This means that therapy is not time limited and can continue for as long as you, the client, want. It ensures that issues can be addressed in your own time and not within a set formula. For example it may be that you simply feel you need the emotional support of a therapist to help you over a difficult period in your life but do not know how long you will need that emotional support. Alternatively, you may have a specific issue that you want to address such panic attacks, depression, addiction issues etc. FS meets all those needs by matching you with one of our volunteer therapists.
For therapists it is a requirement of the various professional bodies (e.g BACP and UKCP) that every therapist undertakes a minimum number of client contact hours prior to registration or accreditation. By working with clients through FS, therapists are able to work towards registration and accreditation. All our volunteer therapists have either completed or are in the final stages of their academic training and need to complete their “client hours”. The FS structure ensures that the therapist receives expert supervision so that their work with each client is in the very best interests of the client.