At KASP we pride ourselves on the services we offer our clients and try our hardest to offer them the counselling and support they need. This can often impact our waiting list.
Why do KASP have a waiting list?
At KASP, we offer open-ended counselling to all our clients. Not all clients need long-term counselling but for those who do, the option is there.
Our waiting list explained
Some times, clients come along for 6 -8 sessions, and they complete the work they feel they need to in that time, however, some clients enter into counselling for longer and engage with their counsellor for months and sometimes even years.
Open-ended counselling means that counselling sessions are open to you and will be ongoing for as long as you and your counsellor feel that you need the service. This means that it is not time-limited, nor are you restricted to 6-8 sessions.
Because clients are able to work long term with KASP, this can have an impact on waiting times for clients to receive a service, as many of our clients, (due to the nature of their trauma), understanding the process and healing can be long-term.
This is explained to clients and to professionals at the time of referral and further explained at the information session which all clients are offered at the point of contact (generally between 2-3 weeks of the referral being received).
The information session is offered to clients to allow them to meet with a worker, to find out about the services we offer and decide whether our services are a fit for them. At the information session, clients are given information about support whilst waiting for counselling. We offer support sessions to all our clients, so although we are asking them to wait they can still access support if and when they need it. This can be a one-off session or up to 6-8 sessions.
If it’s agreed that the service is suitable for the client, they are then added to our waiting list.
The majority of our clients manage to wait – we appreciate this is not ideal as we know how difficult it can be to take that initial step to ask for support.
On occasions, some clients need to be seen urgently and at KASP we try to offer what we can, it isn’t one size fits all. We have a responsive service that clients can access if short-term support is required. And we also have a befriending service which clients can access.
Our current waiting time is between 7 and 9 months, this could be shorter or longer due to the nature of offering open-ended counselling.
KASP aim to keep our clients up to date regarding any changes to the list.
Clients are welcome to call the office to find out where they are on the waiting list at any time.