Highbury Counselling Centre

The Highbury Counselling Centre was established in 1988 to offer low-cost, short-term counselling or psychotherapy to members of the local community. It was closed in 2006, but will be reopened at the beginning of 2009 in the same premises at Katherine Price Hughes House.

Referrals to HCC have usually come via GPs, other parts of the NHS, and a diverse range of statutory and voluntary agencies. Throughout its history, the project has remained self-financing, with the help of client donations. Unwaged people pay a small contribution, while those who are solvent and salaried pay incrementally more according to their income.  

At its peak, the HCC had up to 20 volunteer counsellors, all either graduates or in the final stages of counselling/psychotherapy training. Now it is due to start again, initially with 10 placement trainees, from a variety of well regarded psychotherapeutic training courses. We plan to increase this number to 20 by the end of 2009. All counsellors are required to engage in regular Clinical Supervision and the project works to the BACP Code of Ethics and Practice.

The service is firmly established as a well used local resource. The provision of therapeutic counselling to individuals who would not usually be able to use such a service also provides a solid connection to the Christian ethos of the West London Mission and to the message of going ‘not to those who need you, but to those who need you most’.