Derby Counselling & Therapy Centre (StressAid)

Derby Counselling & Therapy Centre (StressAid) is a complementary counselling and therapy service. Our workers relate to the natural healing forces within people and to their body and mind as a unified system. We do not promote medical interventions that separate mind from body. We do not treat symptoms in isolation from causes or diagnose and label people.

The Centre is a private charity located close to Derby city centre. We were established in 1981 and have been in continuous operation since then, helping many people deal with many problems, both internal and external, related to emotional stress. We function without major funding, on the basis of payments and donations from those who use our service. Our sliding scale of payments prioritises those on benefits and low incomes who would be unable to afford counselling and therapy in the private sector.

People who seek our help come from a wide area mainly comprising Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicester. As well as working with the interpersonal and personal causes of emotional stress, we encounter many of the external causes that are suffered by people living in Derby’s inner city area: poverty, poor housing, drug and alcohol abuse, unemployment, bullying at work and school, crime, racial and cultural conflicts, gender issues. We recognise that everyone experiences emotional stress to some degree, and we are available to help people help themselves with this by:

• offering fully confidential one-hour counselling/therapy sessions
• listening non-judgementally
• providing information about emotional stress
• trying to help clients develop self-understanding
• enabling clients to relieve their emotional stress

Our counsellor/therapists are experienced and qualified, and all regularly receive supervision. See Training, experience and qualifications of Centre workers.