Free Counselling for Activists, Campaigners and Social Changers
Counselling for Social Change | 24.05.2013 12:44 | Policing | Repression | Social Struggles
Counselling for Social Change (CSC) are offering free phone counselling and rural retreats for activists, campaigners, and social changers. Phone support is ongoing and can last as long as needed. The retreats will be in a low-impact shepherd's hut in rural West Cornwall, and can last between a weekend to a week, and can be supported through phone counselling before and after the retreat.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and burnout are serious issues for activists. The combination of police brutality, repression and taking on too much work, alongside the overwhelming nature of the changes we are trying to achieve can sometimes become too much. Add in the day-to-day stuff we all have to deal with, and it can become hard to sustain our work.
Many of us feel guilty if we take time out and carry on for much longer than we should, causing greater and longer lasting mental health problems but we need to take our mental health seriously to to ensure stronger and more sustainable movements.
CSC was set up by people with years of experience in frontline activism (Earth First!, Climate Camp, Fitwatch etc.), and aims to support the already fantastic work being done by Activist Trauma Support. We have trained counsellors with an understanding of activism and will support you for as long as you need.
Counselling, especially phone counselling, might seem risky. We are happy to talk to you about any concerns you have. However, here are a few tips which might help:
Counselling is confidential and we won't keep any notes about your sessions.
You don't have to give us your real name.
Don't name others involved in your affinity group, actions etc.
If talking about activism, try and keep things general (especially where it might involve illegal activities). We don't need specific details of actions, we're here to deal with the emotional impact.
Don't give us any details of future actions, especially if they are not in the public domain.
We currently have funding for free services for activists, but if you can afford to donate something towards the counselling, it will make our funding go further.
We will be launching a crowd funding campaign to raise money to pay for the final pieces of infrastructure we need to run the retreats, and aim to be ready for people to stay from August.
Please contact us for further information:
www.counsellingforsocialchange.org.uk
info@counsellingforsocialchange.org.uk
01736 364 722
Keep up to date with what we're doing on Twitter and Facebook:
https://twitter.com/CounsellingSC
https://www.facebook.com/CounsellingForSocialChange
Many of us feel guilty if we take time out and carry on for much longer than we should, causing greater and longer lasting mental health problems but we need to take our mental health seriously to to ensure stronger and more sustainable movements.
CSC was set up by people with years of experience in frontline activism (Earth First!, Climate Camp, Fitwatch etc.), and aims to support the already fantastic work being done by Activist Trauma Support. We have trained counsellors with an understanding of activism and will support you for as long as you need.
Counselling, especially phone counselling, might seem risky. We are happy to talk to you about any concerns you have. However, here are a few tips which might help:
Counselling is confidential and we won't keep any notes about your sessions.
You don't have to give us your real name.
Don't name others involved in your affinity group, actions etc.
If talking about activism, try and keep things general (especially where it might involve illegal activities). We don't need specific details of actions, we're here to deal with the emotional impact.
Don't give us any details of future actions, especially if they are not in the public domain.
We currently have funding for free services for activists, but if you can afford to donate something towards the counselling, it will make our funding go further.
We will be launching a crowd funding campaign to raise money to pay for the final pieces of infrastructure we need to run the retreats, and aim to be ready for people to stay from August.
Please contact us for further information:
www.counsellingforsocialchange.org.uk
info@counsellingforsocialchange.org.uk 01736 364 722
Keep up to date with what we're doing on Twitter and Facebook:
https://twitter.com/CounsellingSC https://www.facebook.com/CounsellingForSocialChange
Counselling for Social Change
e-mail:
info@counsellingforsocialchange.org.uk
Homepage:
www.counsellingforsocialchange.org.uk
Comments
Display the following comment