What we do

Our free counselling is a life line to the vulnerable women we support in Islington and the surrounding boroughs. Our counsellors are experienced in working closely and effectively with trauma, deprivation and complex multi-layered experiences. Their diversity reflects our local community and our counselling is offered in several languages to women from ethnic minority and refugee communities. They bring professional expertise and are members of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy or the UK Council for Psychotherapy.

Our counselling is psychodynamic in nature which means that it looks not only at problems in the present but, crucially, at the roots of these problems in the past. 

Because of the generosity of our supporters and trust funders, all counselling services are available at no cost to women who meet our criteria.

Maya Centres counselling service includes:

The Maya Centre Core Service

1:1 Counselling

• We carry out detailed assessments of the therapeutic needs of women referred to us prior to offering 1:1 counselling
• Women/clients are then offered a length of counselling which best meets their needs, with a counsellor who will be the best possible match according to experience, availability and client preference (Language or ethnicity). All our counsellors work with cultural sensitivity.
• We also have therapists who specialize in therapeutic work with survivors of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

Group Counselling

• We offer a range of counselling groups which offer women the opportunity to further their journey of recovery by working together with other women who have a shared experience and a collective understanding of how their experiences have impacted them.Other than working on specific issues these groups aim to decrease feelings of isolation and to help build support networks.

Projects

Specialist Projects

• Irish women’s counselling service
• Gender Based Violence
• Women suffering from domestic violence or survivors of child sexual abuse
• Outreach for homeless women

Partnerships

ACCEPT Consortium

We deliver counselling on behalf of Islington Council through the ACCEPT consortium.
This is for women who are:

• survivors of domestic violence or childhood sexual abuse;
• refugees or asylum seekers;
• trying to cope with bereavement.

In the community

1:1 Client Community Support

This service provides additional support for clients, by providing practical advice, information and signposting to resolve clients practical concerns and issues. The help and support offered by our community support worker will depend on clients individual circumstances and only available to clients that use our counselling service.

Our community support service is part  the ‘Bridging the Gap’ project which aims to increase the numbers of marginalised and highly vulnerable women who who are able to achieve successful outcomes from counselling, but often experience difficulties with practical issues that can cause a barrier to engaging with counselling.

Workshops & Events

In addition to counselling the Maya Centre is committed to providing a supportive environment for women outside of their 1:1 counselling sessions.  We run non-counselling sessions/ workshops and open days enabling women to gain support from peers, reducing isolation and engendering stronger relationship with the organisation.  Workshops and events are developed and run with the view to aid individual women’s therapeutic journey leading to empowerment, emotional and psychological awareness and healing.