Throughout the pandemic Bridge of Hope has been working hard to support individuals in need of help through continued delivery of counselling, health & wellbeing caseworker support, training and telephone support calls. These services has been very successful and we have supported over 1270 clients cope with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. This has been partially due to the determination and innovation of the Bridge of Hope team who were committed to developing new ways of making our services accessible during the lockdown. Now that we are beginning to see aspects of the lockdown lifted and life returning to a new “normal” we are beginning to deliver face to face services. During September 2020 the team have been facilitating “pilot” days in our clinic at 16 Alliance Avenue for both complementary therapies and face to face counselling. In order to facilitate the return of these sessions Bridge of Hope conducted a thorough risk assessment and have put in place new procedures to keep everyone safe. These have been very successful and feedback from clients has been positive. We will continue to monitor and review and make all changes necessary to keep everyone safe. If you feel you could benefit from engaging with complementary therapies or counselling then please feel free to contact one of the team below.
As a result of the pandemic we had to cease delivery of all face to face training but we knew there was a need for training programmes to help individuals develop the skills to get through lockdown and cope with the impacts of the pandemic. We took the decision to move all our training to a live on-line service and our team worked very hard to develop training programmes which were suitable for delivery on line. These programmes have included training around coping with anxiety, stress management, vision board training and teaching people hand reflexology to help with relaxation. These continue to be very popular and we are constantly looking at new ways of meeting the need within our community. The use of online resources to deliver training has also expanded into our VTCT Accredited programmes in Reflexology and Body Massage which began at the beginning of September. This is the first time we have delivered this training in this manner and feedback has been very positive. If you are interested in accessing our training please contact our Training Coordinator Mary Stanton.
Our Health and Wellbeing Caseworkers are continuing to provide vital support to individuals and have worked with over 200 individuals since the beginning of lockdown. These individuals have benefitted from support including energy top ups and food parcels as well as further support in relation to training and development. This has proved a vital lifeline for many victims and survivors who needed this extra support. If you are interested in having a chat with one of our Health & Wellbeing Caseworkers their contact details are below.
In May 2020 Ashton’s Bridge of Hope became a British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Accredited Service which demonstrates that we offer an accountable, ethical, professional and responsive service to clients, staff, volunteers and stakeholders. There was a huge amount of work went into this from across the team and we are very proud to have been awarded this status as it shows how hard we work to make our Counselling services the best they can be to ensure any individual accessing our services gets the highest quality service possible.
In the months ahead we are committed to continuing to develop our services to meet the needs of our service users. If you are interested in any of services please contact us on the numbers below:-
For Psychological Therapies including Life Coaching and Counselling contact Margaret on 07990307237 or Marie-Claire – 07826689272
For Complementary Therapies enquiries contact Ruth on 07553100509
For Training enquiries contact Mary on 07766138156
If you would like to talk to one of our Health & Wellbeing Caseworkers you can contact Jim on 07846143385 or Brendan on 07846089329
For anything else please contact Ellen on 07825393875 or Lindsay on 07778667473.