We offer counselling for:

Counselling for Young People

How can counselling help? 
Counselling provides an opportunity for you to talk about your problems, challenges and difficult feelings in a safe confidential environment.
Your counsellor will listen to you with respect and without judgement.
They can help you to express and explore your thoughts and feelings about what is worrying you and make some sense of your responses and experiences.
This can help you to feel more settled, confident and in control.
Counselling sessions could help with issues such as:
- A bereavement (death) or relationship breakdown
- Stress / anxiety
- Family difficulties
- Exploring issues like your sexual identity / gender identity
- Dealing with issues that are stopping you achieving your ambitions
- Exam/school pressure
- Dealing with feelings of depression or sadness
- Understanding yourself and your problems better
- Feeling more confident
Our Counselling service is available free of charge to young people aged between 11 and 18 years. Sessions are for 1 hour per week and are held in the evenings between 3pm and 8pm. They take place at a number of settings including Keighley Healthy Living Centre, Sunnybank Medical Centre in Wyke and our Step 2 premises in Tong Street. You will also be oferred the choice to work remotely via secure video link (Zoom).

Will my Counsellor tell anyone about what we talk about?
Counselling is a confidential space for you to talk about anything you want to. This means that information and things you share with your counsellor about yourself or others would not usually be shared with anyone else. This includes; parents, teachers, friends, social services, family, or anyone else.
The only time your counsellor may give out information about you without your permission is when you or someone else is in serious danger. In this case they will need to speak to either the Counselling Manager or the Project Coordinator at Step 2.
In such a situation your counsellor will make every effort to talk it through with you before discussing things with someone else.
Who are the counsellors?
Step2 has a team of counsellors who are carefully selected for their experience and counselling qualifications. They are all fully qualified and are members of the BACP (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy). As such they adhere to the BACP Ethical Framework for good practice.
They are all required to provide references to show their suitability for the post and pass appropriate police checks.
All the counsellors at Step2 have significant experience of working with young people.
How do I get started?
If you think you would like to give counselling a try please fill out our online referral form. If you want to find out more about it please contact us at Counselling@step2.org.uk
When we've received your referral we will contact you when an appointment with a counsellor becomes available.
You will be given the choice to have your sessions in person in one of our settings accross Bradford, Wyke and Keighley or remotely via secure video link (Zoom).

During the first session the counsellor will explain how they work and you will decide together what the focus of the work will be. You will be given a choice about whether to return.
If you chose to engage, you will be asked to attend every week for six weeks.
You and your counsellor will then review the work you are doing and decide whether to continue for another six weeks. If you feel that you have done enough, you can end the work there.