By Anglican Family Care | Posted: Friday April 8, 2022
Have you ever had a time in your life where things don’t go the way you planned, or you feel overwhelmed? Counselling services offered at Anglican Family Care can help with a range of concerns including self-esteem, depression, stress management, anxiety, addiction, emotional or sexual abuse issues that may impact a parent or caregivers’ ability to provide healthy and effective parenting.
From our Dunedin and Balclutha offices, we offer free therapeutic support for clients.
Both counsellors work with individuals with a focus on restoring parents/caregivers wellbeing to strengthen relationships within the family.
The nature of counselling is to assist clients to increase their understanding of themselves, in their relationship with others, and to bring about change in their lives (NZAC, 2016).
Occasionally, we have counselling students on placement who are in their final year of study. All our students are well supervised and are working towards their membership to the New Zealand Association of Counsellors (NZAC). Working with students is voluntary.
Clients in North and Central Otago can access free counselling by external providers through their social or whānau worker. Sometimes adults assume that children are too young to understand their life experiences. However, children of all ages are shaped by their experiences (good and bad), many of which are beyond their control. They may not understand what has happened to them, but maybe significantly affected by it.
When these experiences are traumatic, difficult to understand, abusive or involve relationship attachments, the child may struggle to cope, and these events can be expressed through difficult behaviour. If these early experiences are not resolved, it can impact negatively into adulthood. This is where Play Therapy can help.
Play therapy at Anglican Family Care is delivered by a qualified therapist/counsellor based in Dunedin who uses a child centred approach, which means the play is led by the child.
In our playroom, our therapist has a genuine love of play and children. The child will find an acceptance of them just the way they are, and a deep respect for their ability to know what they need to do address and repair themselves. It is this combination that facilitates a safe therapeutic relationship, through which the child or adult can begin to explore the issues they struggle with, to repair, and to regulate their behaviour.
Our therapeutic service is only partially funded by government, and we are grateful for support from the community through grants and donations to help meet this financial shortfall.If you would like more information about these services or how you can make a financial contribution so we can continue to provide these valuable services to vulnerable tamariki and their whānau, please refer to the back cover of this newsletter.Here is what our clients told us about this service:
“Everyone I dealt with were kind, caring and understanding of my circumstances.”
“I had support and was put in touch with organisations to help with me and my daughter.”
“I honestly don’t think I would have got through some very hard times without the support I received.”
“Counselling has definitely given me greater self-acceptance and self-esteem and ability to change behaviours/habits, like to stop drinking alcohol by providing knowledge, experience and information to give me the courage to quit, for good.”
“It was reassuring and a relief to have someone compassionate to listen and not judge. My overall experience was outstanding, and I will forever be grateful and thankful for my counsellor’s help”