This year in the Counselling Service was a time of challenges and changes as we worked towards the end of our current funding programme. Sue and Val completed their UKSSD (UK Society for the Study of Dissociation) training for working with dissociative clients. The training was highly beneficial and vital in their work. Sue was involved in co-leading a weekly support group for women survivors with Gill, the Frontline Co-ordinator. Two successful groups ran for 10 weeks each. The Counselling Service was also delighted to accept some donations from clients that have been used to help provide emergency respite care for other counselling clients.

We were pleased to welcome a new volunteer counsellor, Celia Durham who stayed with us for several months. We said goodbye to Lesley Eastman who had been a volunteer counsellor with Survive for five years. Her contribution and dedication to the organisation has been greatly appreciated.

In January 2005, the Counselling Service closed, 3 months short of the end of funding period. This decision taken by the Trustees in November was due to extreme funding and staffing constraints, which meant that the service could not be continued safely. This was a tremendously difficult decision and public notice was delayed until discussions were completed with our clients and transitional arrangements were made.

Looking back over the three years, we had 5 volunteer counsellors working alongside the two Counselling Co-ordinators, Val and Sue. In this funding period, the counselling service provided 2287 hours of counselling to 53 clients. We are indebted to all our volunteers who made an invaluable contribution to the work of Survive. Our thanks too to Val and Sue who strived to maintain an ethical and professional service.