Vital new mental health support now available for city workers and residents
Damian McCann, Tavistock Relationships’ Head of Learning & Development and Director of City Wellbeing Centre, outlines the support available at The City of London Corporation’s new City Wellbeing Centre.
What we feel inside can have a great effect on our general health and wellbeing. The coronavirus pandemic has brought so many challenges to our lives, and we are all trying to adapt to a new way of living. Depression levels have doubled as we grapple with illness, isolation, bereavement, unemployment and financial hardship and uncertainty.
The new City Wellbeing Centre on Middlesex Street aims to provide greater access to mental health support for people who live or work in and around the City. It is also available to people living in the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Camden, Islington, Hackney, Westminter, Southwark and Lambeth.
The services are being delivered by staff from Tavistock Relationships, an internationally-renowned charity with over 70 years’ experience of supporting individuals and couples with mental health concerns and relationship issues. Ongoing monitoring and evaluation of our services consistently confirms the effectiveness of our work.
Counselling is currently available through the City Wellbeing Centre to individuals, couples and groups who are experiencing a range of emotional and psychological difficulties. Although these services are currently being offered online, it is hoped that in time there will also be a return to face-to-face work.
The Centre aims to provide greater access to mental health therapy, which is often not easily available. Treatments include: individual counselling and psychotherapy; couple psychotherapy; group therapy; psychosexual therapy; mentalization based therapy for couples in conflict; help for divorced or separated couples; parenting interventions; support for couples living with dementia; and support for retiring couples aged 50 plus. Short-term intervention for individuals and couples affected by lockdown is also being offered.
Whether you live locally or work in a large corporation, an office, in retail, in a restaurant or in the community, the service is available to you.
A special feature of the services offered, is that the therapy is accessible to all. As a non-profit-making organisation, Tavistock Relationships provides its therapeutic services on the basis of what individuals and couples can afford. Individuals and couples can agree a fee for sessions that is affordable to them, using a sliding scale.
The City of London Corporation is supporting the project with funding for the building, and has commissioned Tavistock Relationships to deliver the service on its behalf.
To access the service, book online at www.citywellbeingcentre.org or call us on 020 7380 1960.