The East Brighton Young People’s Counselling service is a free service which operates one day a week on Thursdays from a room in Whitehawk Library. The service was commissioned to reach local young people aged 13-25 years and referrals comes from sources as diverse as GPs, schools, self-referral and Community CAMHS. Over the course of a year the counselling service can offer up to 276 appointments, helping local children to deal with issues such as anxiety, bullying, anger and low mood

In January 2015 they applied for funding from our small grants scheme to enable them to buy Wellbeing materials to help clients better engage with the counsellors.  This included art materials, wellbeing books, counselling toys and other materials such as a sand tray to support young people in finding creative ways of communicating during their counselling sessions. Some of the materials are shown below. 

Kate Watts of the counselling service told us “The new counselling materials have proved very successful with the young people who attend counselling.  Having visual aids really help the young people to engage with their emotions.” One participant said of the materials “I find the colouring books help me to feel more relaxed and less anxious.".