North Staffs Mind
About us
At North Staffs Mind we won't give up until everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets both support and respect. We are your local Registered Charity specialising in emotional wellbeing and mental health for over 40 years.
By commissioning our services you can help us to reach out to more people who need our services in North Staffordshire.
We can offer our Adult and CYP service at our offices, based in Hanley.
Free to access services
Resilience Project (free to access)
Our Resilience Project aims to give local people the practical tools they need to maintain positive mental wellbeing. This project is to support those who are struggling due to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, whether you are experiencing poor mental health for the first time or have a longer-term condition and need some extra support.
The project consists of two main activities:
1. Resilience Workshop. A strength-based workshop which will last for 1.5 hours and that will focus on practical exercises/activities that you can apply to their daily lives to maintain a positive mental wellbeing. This workshop is delivered every Thursday between 4 - 5.30pm.
2. One-to-one wellbeing support. Following your participation in the workshop you will be offered one-to-one support sessions via telephone or online. You will have up to 3 sessions to talk through your individual challenges and progress made. At the end of the sessions we may signpost you to additional support available locally if this is needed.
For further information, and to complete a referral, please visit: https://nsmind.org.uk/how-we-can-help/resilience-project/
Adult Instant Messenger Service
Our Adult Instant Messenger Service is open Tuesday, 2.30 - 4.30pm and Thursday, 10.00 - 12.00pm. We offer an online chat about anything that is affecting your mental health and emotional wellbeing. Please note, this is not a crisis service. To access this service during the times listed above, go to our home page and click on the chat widget
PLEASE NOTE: This service is unavailable on Tuesday 9th March & Thursday 11th March. From Tuesday 6th April 2021, this service will be available every weekday between 10am-1pm and 2pm-4pm.
Adult Support Groups
Tuesday Drop-in – A social support group for anyone over the age of 18
Be Excellent To Each Other – suitable for males over the age of 18
Callum's Destiny – Supporting families and friends affected by suicide
Further information for our groups can be found by visiting: https://nsmind.org.uk/how-we-can-help/adult-support-groups
Paid for Services
Counselling for Adults
One of our highly trained counsellors will work with you to improve your emotional wellbeing.
• Free initial consultation
• Competitively priced
• At a mutually agreed time and frequency
• We offer Telephone, Online or Face-to-face sessions
• A range of interventions to suit your needs including CBT methods, Solution Focused based and Person-Centred therapy
• A diverse range of experienced and professional therapists
We are able to accommodate appointments Monday – Friday including some evening appointments and Saturday morning. We are also able to work via telephone or online.
Counselling for Children and Young People
Our CYP service offers various ways of supporting children and young people aged 5 to 18 years who are experiencing mild to moderate emotional or mental health issues. One-to-one support is aimed at helping young people decide how best to manage their emotional health, by understanding and exploration of issues, building resilience and offering interventions and coping strategies.
Free support can be accessed via speakupspace.org.uk – delivered 7 days per week so that children and young people can get instant access to support via a live chat function. Additional features on the site include information and support for children and young people, care givers and professionals via self-help resources (videos, podcasts, and e-leaflets); and signposting into relevant local services.
Counselling in School's
Since 2007, we have been commissioned by a variety of primary, middle and high school's who commission our service to work with their students. We offer a schools counselling service which provides face to face sessions or remote sessions via Zoom. All counsellors are qualified and experienced to work with CYP in a school setting. We offer a whole school approach, working with schools and parents, where appropriate. Supervision, DBS fees and insurance are covered in our costs. If you are a professional working in a school and would like to know more about how our service can support your students, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Clinical Supervision
We are well equipped to offer supervision to staff from other agencies, both counselling and non-counselling, having vast experience as mental health service providers and suitably qualified staff. Supervisors will be staff members specifically identified as having worked with clients who present with multiple and complex problems, and therefore understand the strains that can be placed on staff as a result.
We offer group or individual supervision at a competitive price. Our sessions can be offered remotely or face-to-face.
We are competitively priced and also offer reduced rates for trainees.
Training and Development
North Staffs Mind is able to offer a range of high quality training workshops on a variety of topics associated with mental health. Examples of some workshop titles are: ‘Mental Health Awareness’, ‘Managing Mental Health in the Workplace’, ‘Understanding and Managing Stress’, ‘Well-being and Resilience’, ‘Understanding Self-Harm’. All our trainers are qualified experienced therapists who hold a case load of clients; this means the training that we offer is informed by the knowledge and understanding we gain from working directly with those with mental health issues. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are working to adapt our material so that we can offer remote as well as face to face training. In doing so, we are striving to maintain our high standards of delivery and ensure that workshops remain interactive and enjoyable, as well as informative. Our training represents excellent CPD for professionals, as well as providing expert input around mental health for businesses and employers.
Anyone interested in our training can access our website or email training@nsmind.org.uk.
Training, qualifications & experience
Our counselling staff are all qualified to at least Diploma level in Counselling and many staff have MA or MSc level qualifications, as well as a range of previous professional backgrounds. This applies to paid and unpaid staff. We do have some trainees who are currently on Diploma or MA/MSc level courses. Many of our counsellors are also individually accredited by the BACP.
Member organisations *
British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy
BACP is one of the UK’s largest professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy. Therapists registered with the Association fall into a number of different membership categories such as Individual Member, Registered Member MBACP and Registered Member MBACP (Accred), each standing for different levels of training and experience. MBACP (Accred) and MBACP (Snr Accred) members have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by the Association.
Registered members can be found on the BACP Register, which was the first register to achieve Accredited Voluntary Register status issued by the Professional Standards Authority. Individual Members will have completed an appropriate counselling and/or psychotherapy course and started to practise, but will not appear on the BACP Register until they've progressed to Registered Member MBACP status.
All members are bound by a Code of Ethics & Practice and a Complaints Procedure. Accredited by the Professional Standards Authority.
Areas of counselling we deal with
Fees
We offer one-to-one counselling at the cost of £40 per session.
Concessions offered for
Availability
We offer a variety of daytime and evening appointments in various locations, including Hanley and Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Further information
To include individuals who may be unable to meet the full cost of our service, i.e. those claiming certain benefits, we are able to accommodate some limited sessions at the cost of £15 per session, subject to availability.
