• How can Counselling Help?

    Living with any on-going health condition is challenging, whether you’re newly diagnosed, ‘had it for ages’, or if it’s someone you know who has the condition. Any on-going condition has its ups and downs: sometimes it’s more in the background and sometimes it’s more ‘in your face’. Often, talking to family members or friends can feel very supportive, but sometimes the thoughts, feelings or situations you are experiencing might feel complicated, confusing or difficult to talk to them about. That’s when it can feel helpful to talk to someone who has been trained to help you express and explore your thoughts and feelings from a more neutral position.

    Sometimes, just one session will be enough. Sometimes several sessions over a few weeks is useful in helping you understand and manage difficult feelings, choices and experiences.

    About AMEND’s Counselling Service

    AMEND’s free and confidential Online and Telephone counselling service is available for all our UK-registered patients and family members (over 16 years of age, or 14/15 with parental consent).

    Our Counselling Service is provided by Rareminds CIO where all counsellors are trained and experienced practitioners registered with either the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy www.bacp.org.uk, or the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy www.ukcp.org.uk. They also have additional training and experience in understanding and managing the impact of MEN, and associated conditions.

    Our Counsellors are Rebecca Hargreaves (Lead Counsellor), and David Phipps.  They are also sometimes to be found providing valuable input at our Annual Patient Information Days.

    Rareminds Wellbeing Hub

    In May 2024, the Rareminds Wellbeing Hub was launched to provide wide-ranging information on emotional wellbeing for people affected by rare conditions.  It is well worth a visit to this comprehensive resource, a link for which is also provided below, especially if you are waiting for Counselling, or are not sure you want Counselling.

     

    Our Counselling Service is provided in partnership with rareminds CIO    

    .

  • Rebecca Hargreaves MBACP (Accred.)

    Rebecca is an Adult and Young Peoples Counsellor with a particular interest in the psychological impact of health conditions on the family as a whole. She originally worked as a Nurse for over 20 years including in hospices, and is the former Lead for a large schools counselling service.  She works as a counsellor with several rare disease patient organisations.

  • David Phipps MBACP, EAC (Accred.)

    David is a fully accredited counsellor with BACP. He has worked in private practice, psychiatric hospitals and residential therapeutic communities. He has worked in the NHS, GP surgeries, for NHS Talking Therapy services and psychotherapy departments.
    He has experience of working with patients and family member across a wide range of rare conditions and has a particular interest in supporting those living with physical health conditions to live well.

Visit the Rareminds Wellbeing Hub

See our Counselling Service Frequently Asked Questions

Click here to join AMEND and access our Counselling Service

  • Information Leaflets About Emotional Well-being Issues:

    .

  • 7 Secrets to Living Well with MEN

    Watch a presentation on emotional wellbeing from AMEND’s 2015 Annual Patient Information Day for lots of tips for coping with life with MEN (and other rare diseases).

    .

  • Coping Strategies for Patients

  • Mindfulness

    AMEND’s 2015 project aims were to help people to develop strategies for coping with living with MEN (patients, carers and family members).

    Our free-to-access podcasts will help you learn about and practice Mindfulness and are available on our YouTube Channel (AMEND3).

    Click here to visit the webpage for more information.

    .

  • Other Resources

    .

  • I had a black dog, his name was depression

Other Sources of Help