At The Maya Centre, we believe every woman deserves a safe, welcoming space to be heard and supported. Our counselling services are here to help you work through challenges, understand your feelings, and build confidence and wellbeing. Whether you’re facing grief, stress, anxiety, or relationship difficulties, our free counselling is designed to meet you where you are.
Counselling is a type of talking therapy where a trained professional offers a safe and confidential space for you to share your feelings, thoughts, and experiences. It can help you cope with stress, anxiety, depression, loss, or other difficult life events.
At The Maya Centre, our counsellors listen with understanding and support, helping you explore your emotions and find your own ways to feel stronger, make positive changes, and take care of your wellbeing.
Our 1-to-1 counselling is available in 13 languages. Our therapists are registered with BACP, UKCP or BPC. They have strong experience in women’s mental health and understand how trauma, abuse, violence or emotional stress can affect your life.
We are an intercultural therapy centre which means some of our therapists have accents and non-English sounding names hence the ability to facilitate therapy in 13 different languages.
Women aged 18+ in North London boroughs. We welcome and prioritise women who have experienced domestic abuse, violence, rape, child sex abuse, trauma, discrimination, survivors of abuse or violence, women from minoritised communities, refugees, disabled women, LGBTQ+ women, and migrants. If you’ve experienced abuse, violence, trauma, or discrimination, you are very welcome here.
Children or animals (except guide dogs or certified support animals) cannot accompany you to the centre.
No. You can self-refer directly – please see our referrals page, otherwise referrals can be made by a GP, a support worker, or other organisations, but this is optional. We process referrals on a first come, first served basis.
Primarily, clients from minoritised communities with trauma from domestic violence, abuse, child sexual abuse, sexual violence and abuse, are prioritised in line with our funding criteria. We also prioritise women on low incomes with a household income of less than £30K.
Provision for those experiencing anxiety, depression, grief, relationship difficulties, low self-worth, and stress can be provided where we have funding capacity, otherwise we will refer you on to services that do or back to your referrer or GP.
Since we encourage face to face sessions, we do have lift access for those with mobility issues.
We are a charity, so we aim to keep therapy as accessible as possible.
Sessions are free and length of counselling contracts depends on funding criteria. Though sessions are free at the point of service to the client, it costs the centre £95+ per session to deliver one counselling session. Therefore, cancellations and DNAs come at a great cost to the centre in terms of time, money and resources.
Yes. All therapists are fully qualified, trauma-informed, and professionally supervised. We also have monitored and supervised trainees who are on placement.
Yes. All our therapists are qualified professionals and are trained in trauma-informed, survivor-centred therapy.
They understand how abuse, racism, poverty, migration, disability, and inequality can affect mental health. You are not expected to explain or justify your experiences.
Yes. What you share is confidential, with limited safeguarding exceptions. The only time we may need to share information is if there is a serious risk of harm to you or someone else. If this ever came up, we would always try to talk with you about it first.
Yes. Demand can be high and waiting times fluctuate. We aim to not exceed six months of waiting times -this is why we ask people to consider readiness for therapy and to support the referral process. By providing up to date availability, specific counsellor matching requests (if preferred and upon availability) and to not accept an offer of assessment or sessions if you feel you are not going to be ready when contacted after referring/being referred ensures that the waiting list moves quickly.
Yes. Depending on your needs, preferences and availability, you may attend a PEW alongside one of the main therapy options. A screening call is required before joining a PEW.
Your referral may be closed if you do not respond within one month of our attempts to contact you. We may also remove you from the waiting list if you have not engaged with our services or communications for one year. You would then need to reapply for support.
We do not see clients with severe and untreated mental health diagnoses e.g., psychosis, schizophrenia, severe eating disorders, advanced personality disorders, CPTSD, recent sectioning or complex presenting issues. Sometimes we may be able in a small number of appropriate cases, offer a tentative assessment however an assessment appointment does not mean that counselling sessions will be offered.
We are unable to work with clients where there is a prior history of non-engagement with our services or challenges in engaging in the referral process. The referral process can be closed at any time and referrals that are subject to a complaint cannot be processed until the entire complaint’s procedure has been completed.
Please note that if there is a constant need for engaging with a third party, this can create additional obstacles to the therapy.
Waiting times fluctuate, ranging between 4 – 24 weeks, depending on demand, funding, and availability of any specific needs, such as a language match. We aim to keep wait times to six months however there may be times when this is exceeded due to demand and therapist availability.
We also offer specialist counselling to support women from specific communities to explore their identities, heritage, and experiences in a safe and understanding space.
