Who Are DRCS?

Welcome to Derwent Rural Counselling Service. We are a mental health charity with service centres in Derby and Derbyshire.

If you are considering speaking to someone about how you are feeling, we have a team of highly qualified and experienced therapists ready to help you. You do not have to cope alone. We can help you decide on the right choice of therapy for you or offer advice if you are worried about a friend, colleague or loved one.

Predominantly we work with Talking Mental Health Derbyshire offering funded psychological therapies for people seeking help with their mental health.

We are widely spread across Derbyshire providing a local service for you. We operate from Alfreton, Bakewell, Belper, Chesterfield, Derby, Ilkeston and Long Eaton.

We Can Help With:

  • Anxiety
  • Behavioural and emotional problems
  • Bullying
  • Depression
  • Loneliness
  • Loss / Bereavement
  • Low mood
  • Panic attacks
  • Phobias
  • Relationship issues
  • Sleep problems
  • Stress & Worry
  • Transition
  • Trauma

Should you need immediate support, please call the Derbyshire Mental Health Helpline and Support Service on 0800 028 0077 which is a freephone service available to everyone living in Derbyshire - both young people and adults. It is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

What We Offer:

We can support you with your personal difficulties by offering a range of interventions and options that would be best suited for you. We offer the following therapies:

CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) involves talking one-to-one with a therapist. It can help you to look at the way you think and act: and understand how these things affect your health and happiness. We teach new ways of coping with different problems such as depression, post-traumatic stress, anxiety or OCD, helping you to make sense of what can feel overwhelming, and look at problems in a simple, rational way. An individual program of CBT usually involves 6-12 sessions which last up to 50 minutes per session.

Sometimes simply talking openly and freely about your problems in a friendly, understanding and confidential environment can work wonders. Counselling can help you understand why you feel the way you do, and develop your own unique path to positive change. It can help you manage if you’re dealing with things like anxiety, depression or bereavement. It can also help you to explore issues like sexual identity and relationship difficulties. The number of sessions you may need can vary but usually it is about 8 sessions which last around 50 minutes per session.

DRCS can offer Counselling for Depression which is an evidence-based treatment approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for people experiencing symptoms of depression. This approach targets the emotional problems underlying depression, helping you to develop an understanding of these problems in order to overcome them. The aim is to help explore any underlying feelings, make sense of them, and reflect on the new meanings that emerge.

DRCS can also offer Integrative counselling which draws on techniques from different types of therapy to tailor an approach specifically for you. An integrative counsellor believes there isn’t just one therapeutic approach that can help a client in all situations. Instead, they take into account you as an individual and your circumstances, and use elements of different approaches to help you explore and cope with your problems.

Couples Counselling helps couples understand each other. It can help you explore how to express your feelings and improve communication, or manage conflicts and disagreements, in present or previous relationships.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing) can give you relief if you’re suffering from trauma arising from diverse experiences such as war related incidents, childhood abuse or neglect, natural disaster, assault, surgical trauma, road traffic accidents and workplace accidents. It helps reduce the distress of different kinds of memories, whether it was what you saw, heard, felt or thought. It’s a non-invasive, natural, safe therapy. When you first meet with your therapist, they will spend some time getting to know your history: looking at the kind of distress or difficulties you are experiencing, if you have physical problems, if you are taking medication and what support you currently have in place.
Group Workshops can help you to understand your anxiety and stress, and work alongside others in a similar situation to learn ways to cope. They’re great for improving self-confidence and learning how to develop relationships. There’s no pressure to speak, but if you do want to, whatever you have to say would be warmly welcomed.
Guided Self Help gives you the skills to take control and care for yourself. It’s an empowering and practical way to work through your difficulties, whatever they are. You’ll work through self-help materials with a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner either on the phone or in person, and learn how to take care of your mental health, stay happy in work or make the best use of prescribed medication. An individual program of support usually involves four to six 30 minute sessions.
IPT (Interpersonal Therapy) can help with the difficulties surrounding creating and maintaining relationships, something that is becoming more and more difficult in modern society. We’ll help you realise that building positive relationships can help you feel better in more ways than you might think. You can expect your therapist to be active: they will help you to monitor how your symptoms are affected by what is happening in your relationships with others and how your symptoms affect these.

How You Can Access Our Service:

You can Self-refer with the simple online form or call 0800 047 6861. You will be offered an assessment appointment initially via telephone. The assessment will determine which form of therapy will be the best to support you. You will go on to a waiting list for the therapy appropriate for you.

You will be offered the option to go forward with either funded treatment through Talking Mental Health Derbyshire or through our direct service, where a fee of £60 per session has been introduced which enables us to support you quickly and directly. DRCS will aim to support all who come to us for help and may be able to offer reduced rates if you’re receiving benefits. Please contact the office to find out more.

When being offered an appointment for your treatment therapy, you can choose a convenient day and time, whether it is carried out over the telephone or by a video platform and, also the choice of a male or female therapist to suit your needs. Please see the statement at the bottom of the home page regarding service delivery during the COVID pandemic.

FAQs

You will need your parent/guardian's permission to access therapy if you are under 16. This service is a donation service.
Each session will be charged at £60.00, and this will be charged for your initial session, and for each session thereafter. DRCS will aim to support all who come to us for help and may be able to offer reduced rates if you’re receiving benefits. Please contact the office to find out more.
We believe no problem is too small, nobody should feel like they can’t ask for help.
If how you’re feeling is affecting your daily life in a negative way, then therapy might be the answer.
Talking therapy is a great way to get to grips with how you feel: just click Get Help, give us a call and we can help you decide what’s best.
You can ask your therapist anything in complete confidentiality: they won’t judge or criticise. Depending on the type of therapy, they’ll ask about your history, your daily interactions and thoughts and feelings, as well as about any medication you’re on, and about any physical illness you may have.
Approach treatment with an open mind, trust your therapist and try to practise coping methods at home. But don’t be afraid to tell us if you feel something’s not quite right.
Your first session will provide an opportunity for you to get to know your counsellor and to figure out how many sessions you will require. It will also give you the opportunity to ask any questions.
It depends on the type of treatment you are having; check out the info on the therapies page for a guide.
Should you feel that your therapist or type of therapy is not right for you at this time, if possible, please discuss this in the first instance with your current therapist. If you do not feel able to do this, please contact the service on 0300 123 0542 and tell them that you would like to talk to someone about changing therapist. Our administration team will arrange for a member of our team to discuss other individualised treatment options with you.
You will be offered an assessment during which you will be asked questions and your assessor will determine which course of treatment will be most suitable for you.

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Derwent Rural Counselling Service, 5 Church Street, Alfreton, DE55 7AH, United Kingdom, Company Reg No. 06081874, Charity No 1124775, Copyright © Derwent Rural Counselling Service 2023.

Please see more about our charity details here: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/4040212

DRCS has held BACP Organisational Accreditation since 2003 and abides by the BACP Ethical Framework. In addition all therapists hold their own professional membership and accreditation or are working towards this.