Is Counselling Free?

The Manna House Counselling Service (MHCS) is a charity and part of the Manna House Trust registered with the Charity Commission - (Reg Charity No. 286358).

The objects of the charity are to serve the community by providing a counselling, training and wellbeing service to everyone living in Northamptonshire irrespective of background or ability to pay.

At MHCS it is our goal to provide counselling to all those who need it and not to turn anyone away because they cannot afford it.  However, we are not an NHS funded facility and the counselling service is not free to supply.

We do receive some funding to offer some free counselling sessions but we rely on donations from our clients, from individual supporters, grant making bodies and other organisations to cover the £20,200 per month we need to run our service.
 

We do charge a £15 registration fee.  This goes towards the cost of processing your application, (and it also helps ensure that only those who really want counselling apply.) And we do run a recommended donation policy called Pay What You Can Afford - outlined below.
 

                                    Pay What You Can Afford

 

As a Christian Counselling Charity serving the community of Northamptonshire for over 40 years,  we want everyone to benefit from our services, irrespective of background and/or ability to afford the real cost of counselling at £55 per session. However, we have to pay our way and are dependent on the kind generosity of our clients, volunteers, churches and supporters.

 

For 2024 we have introduced a new simple four tier system called – Pay What You Can Afford. This replaces our previous sliding scale based on client household income and is easier to understand, bringing consistency and transparency to the need to ask our clients to pay what they can afford for our services:

 

Supporter                   £55 per session this enables others to be supported

 

Standard                    £45 per session covers most costs and what ideally, we need

                                   all adults to pay

 

Supported                  £20 per session for those struggling financially

 

Bursary Funded         Thanks to financial backing we do have some bursaries

                                  available which can provide up to 12 counselling sessions in

                                  total. These can be provided free of charge before then

                                  rising to £45 per session.

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                               Please do check with us about availability.

                                      AND

       Do talk to us. We want everyone who needs counselling to receive it.

 

At the Manna House Counselling Service, we believe that good mental health care is a universal human right. That’s why we offer low-cost counselling and wellbeing services to all who need, as well as low cost training and access courses to those wanting to be future counsellors and pastoral carers.

 

We are committed to providing excellence in caring for clients. As such we are dedicated to the highest standards of professional practice. To this end we hold close to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) domains and expect our services to be safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. With a clear vision:

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To be the counselling service of choice available to everyone in Northamptonshire.

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