Community

As a social enterprise, we believe in people, in communities and in the benefits to everyone of being connected with others who have compassionate approaches to life. we believe strongly that the greatest therapeutic benefit can come from our daily interactions with others - our families, friends and community members.

People have the power to support and uplift each other, and walk alongside each other, in ways that professionals often can't. We are finding our way in terms of this balance, between providing professional input to families and communities that might benefit, and facilitating community-led, co-produced processes that allow communities to claim back and develop their sense of power. 

We're also acutely aware of the impact of social inequality and injustice on the ways in which individuals and families are born and develop together. We are passionate about working with families and communities to address these injustices. We are aware that many individuals are not in a position to finance their own psychological therapy and we are committed to working in ways that will allow everyone to improve their well-being and relationships in a variety of affordable ways. 

We know that the quality of our relationships is a key predictor of longer term wellbeing and resilience. We are keen to hear, think and talk about how we might work collaboratively with different communities (including place-based communities, communities of identity including parents, and communities who have shared experiences). 

We would like to be able to share our knowledge, skills and ideas with different communities in a way that is led by community members and groups themselves, so that we can be an asset, catalyst or companion in a way that helps them realise their goals. 

We are currently working on a range of community based projects but we would love to hear from you if you think that we can help, collaborate or develop new ideas together, which focus on wellbeing, relationships and communities.

Refugees and asylum seekers: well-being and relationships

We have been developing links with local organisations including the NHS neighbourhood development teams. As a result of the needs identified by these organisations, we are offering to form a local hub regarding the well-being and relationship issues encountered by refugees and asylum seekers in the Manchester area, beginning with South Manchester (Chorlton and surrounding areas). We are committed to providing free and low cost services to refugees and their host families. Please get in touch if you would like to talk about this further. 

We are currently funded by the National Lottery Community Fund to provide some psychological support to refugees and asylum seekers in the local area. We have been working alongside City of Sanctuary, Refugee Aid and MRSN in order to do this. We have been providing collective narrative therapy groups using the Tree of Life methodology. 

We have developed some musical documents with refugees and asylum seekers who have attended these groups, to document and honour their strengths, connections and resilience in the face of adversity (the "storms of life").

Here is one of those "documents", co-produced with a group in early 2023.

We have also been working specifically with a psychologist from Ukraine who is currently in the Manchester area, who is providing groups and some individual sessions for children and young people from Ukraine who are here in Manchester. If you would like to know more about this initiative, please do get in touch. We have applied for a continuation of this funding, and we are hoping to continue this project into 2024. 

To see a copy of our impact report, please click here.