Help from a professional counsellor
The anxieties of living with someone who has a diagnosis of severe mental illness cannot be ignored. When an acute phase is over, or a relative has finally been diagnosed, living with the concern about the future or the on-going fear of relapse is wearying and stressful.
You will need to off-load some of these stresses to enable you to remain healthy and strong. Friends and family will be an important source of help, mental health helplines and support services can be valuable in providing information and a listening ear, but professional counselling may be needed when safety and confidentiality need to be guaranteed.
Counselling support may be comforting for informal carers trying to cope with both their distress or anxiety, and the stress of their new caring role, and the changes to their own circumstances this may have incurred.
Professional counselling is available from:
- counsellors or CPNs / CMHNs attached to you GPs practice
- social workers attached to CMHTs
- counsellors in group or organisational practices
- counsellors in a private practice
GP's increasingly offer short-term counselling help either through professional counsellors attached to the surgery or through practice nurses, so if this is something you would like to find out more about, and whether there are such services in your local area
Other counsellors can be contacted through the British Association for Counselling. An accredited counsellor who has experience of mental illness is quite rare, but many work with those who have been bereaved, and counsellors with this experience can be especially effective.
Cost of counselling
The cost of counselling ranges from no charge for NHS counsellors at your GPs practice through to private counselling which can be expensive. Many private counsellors charge on a sliding scale according to financial means, such as special rates for those on benefits.
