Basingstoke Counselling Services are a mental health charity that provides affordable counselling in Basingstoke and the surrounding areas, working with many healthcare professionals and organisations across the wider community to help provide mental health support.

I first applied to BCS for counselling sometime during the beginning of January, 2022 following the rapid decline of my mental health over the Christmas holidays. My discussion with Bill from the Crisis Resolution Team on the 13th January, 2022 concluded with his assurance that I would to be referred to the community mental health team at the Bridge Centre in Basingstoke. I assumed that this referral was going to led to acceptance into the services of CMHT Basingstoke and sent an email to BCS to cancel my application. It was an assumption that I rued almost immediately.

From: Mark Stock ********************Sent: 24 February 2022 18:50

Dear Helen,

The Bridge Centre was not able to give me an assessment within the 10 days as promised. In fact I had to wait until February 8th to be seen. I have just received a letter from Kirsty J Henry, senior nurse practitioner at the Bridge Centre with details of the assessment notifying me that they have now referred me to iTalk for counselling and CBT. It has now been 6 weeks since I spoke to someone belonging to the  Crisis Resolution Team and I  do not feel that I can wait for help with my mental health issues for much longer. I would like to continue with my application for counselling with you… 

With kind regards,

Mark Stock

From: Info ********************************** Sent: 25 February 2022 13:33

 Dear Mark,

 Thank you for updating us. We do still have your form however our waiting times for an initial consultation is around 8 weeks. I appreciate this is more waiting, so please let us know if you wish to continue…

 Kind regards,

 Axel

Service Administrator

Basingstoke Counselling Service

Almost fifteen weeks slipped by at glacial pace before I was eventually offered an initial consultation at BCS on the 10th June, 2022. While it was a belated offer it was gratefully received. CMHT The Bridge Centre were still stubbornly refusing to accept me into their service, preferring to make wholly inadequate and ineffectual alternative recommendations.

My initial consultation, which lasted for an hour and a half, was with a very kind and empathic lady called Mandy. She listened to my ‘story’, validated my psychological pain and agreed that BCS would be the best therapeutic option for me at that time. Mandy went further and told me that BCS would ‘hold me’ for as long as it took .

BCS offer ‘open-ended counselling to individuals within the local community', a commitment outlined on their website

‘At Basingstoke Counselling Service we are fortunate enough to offer counselling without long waiting lists. This makes a difference to our community because of the increasing need for mental health support.

Working in an open-ended way means that your sessions will continue for as long as you and your counsellor feel is beneficial.’

The general consensus in the psychotherapy community suggests that you are likely to need open-ended therapy if

• The issues you’re bringing to therapy have been around for a long time.

• You have multiple issues that need working on.

• You’re struggling to change because of deeply ingrained issues

• The same things keep happening to you in relationships and you want to make sense of your part in that.

• Or you want to gain deeper understanding and insight into the effect your childhood has had on you.

‘The concepts of holding and containing developed from observations of mothers caring for their young children. One of the things good mothers do is help children to feel safe and confident by managing their upset feelings for them. The child is not left to struggle with difficult feelings alone, as the mother helps the child to make sense of her feelings and learn to manage them.  In therapy, the therapist will help you manage emotions that you feel you are not coping with, such as confusion, depression, anxiety or anger.  The way this is done is through offering a holding relationship, where the therapist is reliably present, consistent, present, safe and trustworthy,  and is attuned to your individual emotional climate.’ –  https://www.alyssthomaspsychotherapy.co.uk

It became immediately apparent that Basingstoke Counselling Services were a well organised, highly professional and much respected mental health service. In many ways, this charity-run mental health service was more efficient and effective than the CMHT at The Bridge Centre run by Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust. BSC do not have access to additional staff typically available in a community mental health team including community psychiatric nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, clinical psychologists, care-coordinators and doctors. Instead, BCS work within the remit of their expertise, strictly and perfectly under the broad umbrella of ‘counselling’. Their team of counsellors are qualified and accredited by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, (BACP) and also include those who are currently undertaking an advanced level of clinical training, accredited by the BACP. All of their counsellors undergo a rigorous selection process and receive regular clinical supervision to ensure they are practicing safely and effectively. I remember talking to Crystal, one of the lovely ladies working at the Safe Haven at about the same time that I was accepted by BCS for counselling. ( The Safe Haven is a drop-in service in Basingstoke, providing emotional and practical support to adults experiencing a mental health crisis. I had started making use of their services at around the same time that I had applied to BCS. ) Crystal told me that she had ambitions to join BCS confirming that it was difficult to meet their high entry standards.

And while BSC eventually failed to uphold their promise, involuntarily discharging me from their service nearly two years later, I was, in the meantime, held and contained by them. They were the perfect foil against the murder of conspirators actively undermining my personal reputation. BSC became my safe haven and Isobel my calculable counsellor.