As a charity, it is our mission to support as many people as possible to strengthen their relationships, regardless of their income. Historically, we were grateful to receive funding from the government which enabled us to do just this. As that funding has drawn to a close, we’ve had to find new and creative ways to support our clients.
One way we do that is through offering our services on a sliding scale. This means that the price someone pays for counselling is determined by their income, meaning those with less money to spare are asked to pay less. Another way is by partnering with benevolent organisations like the bank workers charity or the retail trust, who support us to provide services to their beneficiaries free of charge. Recently, we’ve opened a number of charity shops around the country to bring in extra funds to allow us to support more people.
We pride ourselves on offering the same calibre of service to all of our clients, regardless of what they pay for a session. If you’re eligible for counselling at a reduced rate you can rest assured the support you receive will still meet the highest clinical standards.
But despite our best efforts to reduce costs, it’s likely that most people who seek support at Relate will have to pay something to access our services. These fees help us keep the organisation running, by paying our counsellors and administrators, maintaining our physical and virtual counselling spaces, and promoting our services to make sure we reach as many people as possible. These fees also allow us to invest in training and development of our practitioners, to ensure they’re prepared to support you with whatever issue you might bring into the room.
We’re always looking for new ways to keep the costs of our sessions down to support as many people as we can. If you want to know if you’re eligible for services at a reduced rate, contact your local Centre. It may be that they have access to local grants or bursaries can further reduce costs.
If you want to know more about our finances, and how we raise and spend our money, you can find all of this information in our annual reports.
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Ongoing counselling is one of the main ways we support people to strengthen their relationships. In ongoing counselling, you'll be matched with a counsellor who will work with you over a defined period of time -- generally around six 50 minute sessions. You can attend ongoing counselling on your own, with your family, or with a significant other. You can find out about the different types of ongoing counselling services we offer here. Or, if you already know what kind of counselling you're after, you can take the first step in starting the process by getting in touch with your local Relate Centre.