This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About us
Choices offer a confidential counselling service in Cambridge (UK) and surrounding areas for women and men whose lives are affected by childhood sexual abuse.
Choices was formed in 1986. It was originally part of a network of organisations including Woman’s Aid, Rape Crisis and the Women’s Resource Centre that had evolved from the Woman’s Movement of the sixties and seventies. These organisations brought issues such as domestic violence, rape and child sexual abuse to the forefront of public awareness.
Initially, Choices ran a hostel for young women escaping from abusive situations. The counselling, helpline, support and information services grew alongside the hostel and continued to expand after the hostel’s closure in the early 1990’s.
In 1997 funding was obtained to start a service for men who have suffered sexual abuse and eventually by 2005 Choices for Men was also established. Today the counselling service for women and men has been amalgamated and Choices consists of a team of volunteer counsellors who have completed in-house specialist training and work with both women and men.
Funding remains a constant challenge and Choices is currently funded through a joint contract with Cambridgeshire County Council and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CPCG). The service is free of charge although clients are invited to make a donation towards the cost of their counselling. No one is ever turned away due to an inability to pay.
Much of our counselling is delivered online via video call. However, in person sessions are available in Cambridge City, Peterborough, Wisbech, March, and Ely.
Training, qualifications & experience
BACP Organisational Member
All our counsellors are fully qualified and have undertaken the CHOICES six-day training course in Understanding the effects of childhood sexual abuse.
Member organisations *
BACP is one of the UK’s leading professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy with around 60,000 members. The Association has several different categories of membership, including Student Member, Individual Member, Registered Member MBACP, Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Accred) and Senior Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Snr Acccred).
Registered and accredited members are listed on the BACP Register, which shows that they have demonstrated BACP’s recommended standards for training, proficiency and ethical practice. The BACP Register was the first register of psychological therapists to be accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
Accredited and senior accredited membership are voluntary categories for members who choose to undertake a rigorous application and assessment process to demonstrate additional standards around practice, training and supervision.
Individual members will have completed an appropriate counselling or psychotherapy course and started to practise, but they won’t appear on the BACP Register until they've demonstrated that they meet the standards for registration. Student members are still in the process of completing their training.
All members are bound by the BACP Ethical Framework and a Professional Conduct Procedure.
Areas of counselling we deal with
Fees
Additional information
The service is free of charge although clients are invited to make a donation towards the cost of their counselling. No one is ever turned away due to an inability to pay.
