I came to Wellspring after I’d experienced a kind of mental breakdown due to work stress.

I was diagnosed with recurrent depression. Although I’d had episodes of depression after the birth of my children, this was the first time that I’d suffered depression because of work. And it wasn’t just stress, I felt myself spiralling into a state of anxiety. It was getting to the point where stuff at work was affecting my everyday life, my time with my kids and my life at home. Things were getting really difficult and so I thought counselling might help.

I had my sessions remotely which worked well. At first, I wasn’t sure what it would be like doing counselling online, but I was quite surprised by how easy it was to engage in the sessions and to open up, even though we were communicating via a screen.

I found the counselling sessions such a supportive space. It was a chance to offload and make sense of things. Having somewhere to come every week was a helpful way of monitoring my progress. I knew that each week I was going be talking to someone, which helped me to be more reflective and to tune into how I was feeling throughout the week. It was really easy to talk to my counsellor. He very kind, patient, and easy to talk to – he completely exceeded my expectations. The counselling sessions also gave me some consistency, which is what I needed at the time.

Talking to somebody gave me the confidence to change my job and the field I worked in. It was something I thought I could never do. My counsellor didn’t tell me what to do, but it was so helpful to sound things out.

It gave me a sense of confidence and empowered me to take control. Counselling also gave me skills and techniques to manage my feelings in the moment.

Since having a mental health crisis and having counselling, I actually feel like my mental health is better than it has been in years. It was so helpful to have the time to reflect during my counselling sessions. As a result, I take better care of my mental health day-to-day than I have ever before and it’s made such a difference.

For some people, there’s still stigma around the idea of getting counselling. There can be so many ‘what ifs’ –and wondering what others might think. But if you are struggling with mental health problems, I would encourage you to get in touch with Wellspring. It genuinely is for everybody – whatever your faith, whether you are religious or not. It’s also great that Wellspring’s counselling services are affordable as money worries and mental health problems often go hand in hand. Just reaching out to that have that initial conversation is the first and biggest step. It’s friendly, it’s welcoming, and it really has been life-changing for me. 

If you would like to help us support more people like Cara, you can set up a regular donation over on our Donate Page. Thank you.

And if you are interested in exploring the possibility of counselling for yourself, please find out more about the Counselling Services we offer here .