Citizens Advice Bureau Gibraltar - Better Advice Better Health
Below follows CAB’s Mental Health Awareness Week statement:
Mental Health Awareness Week is an ideal time for us to think about mental health, tackle stigma and find out how we can create a society that prevents mental health problems from developing and protects our mental well-being.
Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) deals with a vast variety of issues, from financial debt and separation to loss of employment and health. We do not only cater for the practical needs of others but also for the emotional needs. One of the many services we offer is our counselling referral service.
People come to counselling when they are experiencing a crisis situation in their lives. The word ‘crisis’ can be used to describe a variety of situations which seem overwhelming at the time they are experienced. What is perceived as a crisis by one person, may not be viewed as such by someone else, on the other hand there are certain situations including sudden bereavement, assault, illness, loss of employment and relationship breakdown which are likely to constitute a crisis for the majority of people. People might find it difficult to deal with feeling of anxiety, depression, perhaps they lack self-esteem or have anger issues and some people just need to talk to someone in the confidential setting that counselling offers.
A sudden crisis sometimes also serves to reactivate long forgotten traumas or emotional problems from the past.
Counselling enables people to look more closely at their problems with the aim to help them deal and overcome issues that are causing emotional pain and perhaps impeding them to move forward in life. It could be a problem that has become unmanageable or simply present as feeling or dissatisfaction or unhappiness with life in general. Many times people find themselves trapped in repeated destructive relationships and in spite of genuine desire to change they find it very difficult to do so.
There are many reasons for this inability to change. But perhaps the most significant of these is a lack of self-awareness and personal insight. Counselling provides a safe place for you to talk and explore and explore difficult feelings. The counsellor is there to support people and respect their views. Counsellors will enable them to find their own insights and understanding of their problems.
The counselling referral system entails of directing and allocating clients that come to CAB to the most appropriate counsellor. It’s quite a simple process, clients need to make an appointment themselves or by their carer or doctor. A qualified counsellor at CAB will gather their personal information and also inform them of their counsellor after their initial free session at CAB. Counselling is based on trustworthy, non judgemental and genuine relationship and for this reason we like to see the client
initially, this will help our in-house counsellor to allocate the client with the best suited counsellor.
Our services are strictly free, confidential and impartial.
