What we do

Clear Minds will help lift the financial burden from people who require long-term counselling support but can’t afford it. We specifically want to help those people with deep-rooted difficulties – often stemming from childhood or specific traumas – for whom the short-term counselling provided by the NHS is often insufficient. Clear Minds has a bank of “accepted therapists” who can apply to Clear Minds for funding to support clients who are accessing longer term support but who are in financial difficulty.

The aim in year one will be to fund 250 hours of counselling and double this in Year 2. Clear Minds will recruit “accepted” therapists from who they will receive requests for funding for existing or new clients.

What is the reasoning behind Clear Minds support?

The purpose of therapy depends on whether you follow the “illness” model or the “wellness” model. In the illness model, “people come to therapy to alleviate a disorder or symptoms” and therapy “lasts as long as those unpleasant symptoms exist, from a few weeks to a few years.” (Howes, 2014). Howes (2014) and Dana (2018) suggest the wellness model is more about maintaining and developing a stable life, just as going to the gym maintains physical fitness, so therapy maintains emotional fitness. Whilst applauding those who seek to maintain good emotional health, Clear Minds is focused on giving funds to support people seeking to alleviate their distress.

Some people are basically content with themselves and the way they usually approach their lives, so therapy is often about sorting specific issues causing them concern. This is likely to be shorter term work often provided within the NHS or by various other charities and is not the focus for Clear Minds.

Other people have deeper seated difficulties often related to childhood issues or specific traumas. For them, it can take time to come to terms with what happened to them, understand how it affected them and how it contaminates their present. In such cases, longer term therapy is often necessary. Shorter therapy which focuses on “solving a problem” can create more problems for these people as they experience increasing anxiety and guilt that they have not “improved”, leading to a ‘revolving door’ undertaking several episodes of shorter-term therapy. It is these people Clear Minds seeks to support, offering the possibility for longer term therapy suited to their needs.

McDonnell and Stelmaszczyk (2012) found 56% of therapists surveyed reported decreases in the length of treatment offered to clients within the NHS, and 50% of participants said clients “were receiving less therapy than they needed” with “less choice about the type of therapy received”.  It is likely that for most people access to longer term therapy has deteriorated further since 2012, making support for this category of client more important.

Clear Minds seeks to provide financial support to improve access to longer term professional therapeutic support for clients working towards a future where their distressing symptoms are recognised for what they are and either resolved or managed more effectively.

Dana, L. (2018)  How long should you stay in therapy? Why it can help to keep seeing your therapist, even if you think you don’t need to.  Retrieved 22/9/19 from: https://www.bustle.com/p/how-long-should-you-stay-in-therapy-why-it-can-help-to-keep-seeing-your-therapist-even-if-you-think-you-dont-need-to-9846421

Howes, R. (2014) How long is too long in Psychotherapy? Retrieved 22/9/19 from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/in-therapy/201403/how-long-is-too-long-in-psychotherapy

McDonnell, L. and Stelmaszczyk, L. (2012) Quality Psychotherapy Services in the NHS Summary findings from the UK Council for Psychotherapy and British Psychoanalytic Council members’ survey 2012  British Psychoanalytic Council

Brighton Marathon fundraisers Gary and Charlotte

Brighton Marathon fundraisers Gary and Charlotte run on 7th April to support Clear Minds. Please donate as all donations go directly towards supporting vulnerable people in therapy.

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