The Aylesford Centre
The Centre was inaugurated in November 1997, supported by the Carmelite Friars and members of the local Catholic community. The intention was to offer an extra range of services to the 300,000 yearly visitors to The Friars and to those who live locally, which would complement the personal support, retreat and conference work already undertaken by the Carmelite Community.
The Mission Statement of the Centre is "Towards the Fullness of Life and recognises that it is often hard for people to reach their potential and that thought, reflection and understanding of past and present experiences within the context of a changing world is often essential before people can move forward.
To assist this process a range of new services is being developed by the Centre, one of the most important of which is a Counselling Service open for use by people in the locality.
This Counselling Service is now open for referrals from General Medical Practitioners, Social Workers and Clergy as well as self referral..
What sortof Counselling is offered?
The Counsellors who work under the direction of Thérése Garman are trained to listen to people and to encourage a process of exploration that will allow understanding and behavioural changes to take place in that person.
The counsellors training is in Person Centred, Psychodynamic and Integrative approaches and though the counsellors may have a Catholic frame of reference they are happy to respect the world view of the client and work to enable the client to come to their own solutions.
Much of the training and work of the Counsellors is inspired by Gerard Egan, a Jesuit Priest and colleague of Carl Rogers, who has been an influential teacher in counselling and psychotherapy over the last 20 years.
The Counsellors are also enthusiastic in ensuring that clients who have difficulties that cannot be worked with are referred to more appropriate agencies.
The setting of the Centre at The Friars does allow the Service to work with clients who may perceive their difficulties from a religious and spiritual perspective and well as from a psychological or social standpoint. For some client’s this is very important but not available from other Services.
What does the Counselling Service provide?
The Counselling can consist of
Goal-focused short-term work
Open-ended longer term work, exploring a range of personal issues
Support where the major issue for the client is an unimprov
able condition
Who can be referred?
Clients who have enough responsibility for themselves in working on issues of:
Director; Sr Therese Garman, The Aylesford Centre for Spiritual and Personal Development, The Friars, Aylesford, Kent ME20 7BX
ACSPD (Consulting) Ltd., Reg. Co. No. 3429773 Reg. Charity No. 1070456
