About The AoC Trust?
We are a friendly, very experienced and professional creative therapy and counselling charity based in Central Dudley, West Midlands.
Who Do We Support?
We support individual clients, couples, families and run groups for children, teenagers or adults who have problems they wish to overcome, past and present. We help children from three years upwards to adults with no upper age limit.
What We Can Offer
We have over fifty years of combined experience. Our friendly staff team are highly skilled in Arts Therapy; Dramatherapy, Integrative Counselling, Mindfulness, Workshop facilitation and much more.
We can offer sessions one to one, for couples, families, or groups, both large and small. Sessions can be held face to face, via video call (using Skype, Teams or Zoom) or even over the telephone. We always put the client and their preferences first.
We have both male and female therapists who specialise in a wide range of therapy and counselling modalities, from creative therapies to talking therapies.
Telephone & Video Call Counselling
Telephone and online counselling are becoming more popular primarily through the recent pandemic (Covid-19) Some of us have hectic schedules and care responsibilities which is why telephone and online counselling is perfect. We offer telephone sessions that are 100% confidential; the therapist and client will need to be in a room alone for the duration of the session. The therapist will take notes during and after the session and take payment over the phone before the session. Video call counselling works the same way, but you can see the therapist and chat via a video call. An account on the application chosen (Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams etc.) will be needed and can be created for free. The client will then receive a link to join the session online.
Types Of Mental Challenges We Support
Common mental health challenges we are skilled at assisting, include anger management, stress, anxiety, generalised anxiety disorder, depression, insomnia, abuse, weight problems and eating disorders including anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, low self-confidence, personality issues, relationship issues, emotional abuse, social obstacles, panic disorder, family issues, addiction(s), phobias, affairs and betrayals, separation and divorce, couples issues, offending behaviour, people living with dementia bullying and much more.
The AoC Trust also supports clients effectively with child related issues, attachment disorder, children with emotional, social or psychological difficulties, poor concentration at home or at school, hyperactivity, abortion, low self-esteem, sexual abuse, drug abuse, alcoholism, sex addiction, internet addiction, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), physical abuse and hearing voices.
Projects & Funding
The AoC Trust relies on grants and donations from the public and other organisations for us to provide our services to those in need across the country and in some cases internationally. We have used funding to create and run multiple projects where we can support a wide range of clients with their mental health challenges free of charge to them. Some of those projects include:
ConnectME Project
The AoC Trust based in Dudley, West Midlands provided free support to those who have been directly affected by the Coronavirus pandemic who were living in the West Midlands. The project officially started on June 29th, 2020, and will run through to March 2021. During the project we:
- Provided daily online (face to face, telephone and video) counselling and therapy support for key workers, NHS, single parents, separated parents, victims and perpetrators of domestic violence and frontline staff who are not in self-isolation and are still in risk of contagion and working in stressful and high anxiety conditions. Supported all NHS staff of all levels across all major hospitals within the West Midlands when requested.
- Provided daily online (video – ‘Zoom’) and physical child contact support for all Non-Resident parents who have lost jobs and were struggling to pay for standard child contact centre fees. Helped parents who had become estranged from their biological child/ren and could not see them due to the national ‘lockdown’.
- Created an online Creative ‘Connect Me’ toolkit for parents to utilise with their child/ren of different ages and abilities whilst interacting whilst both are in self-isolation and remotely. This toolkit is free to all and can be viewed and utilised via YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dcQqAPod8A.
Anyone who was referred to the project received up to six free sessions where clearly defined goals were set to work towards and to help reduce stress and anxiety and build resilience to cope with the coronavirus pandemic as well as maintain psychological health and emotional stability. The sessions were also used to enable parents to reconnect with their child/ren and reduce isolation and improve, relationships, family ties and healthy attachment and bonding.
Funding for this project has now been used and spaces are full, but it is something your donations can help to start again, hopefully in the near future as the pandemic continues to affect the country on a daily basis.
ProjectME MINDCRAFT (PMM)
The AoC Trust gained funding from BBC’s Children In Need for a three-year funded project known as ProjectME MINDCRAFT (PMM). The project began in June 2018 and has now completed its 3rd and final year via this funding stream.
The project was aimed at children living in the Dudley, Sandwell, or Wolverhampton boroughs only and were aged between three and 18 years of age who were diagnosed or suspected of having a mental health disorder(s) (diagnosis was not required). They received up to six sessions of FREE therapy and counselling with us to help support their issues and difficulties.
The AoC Trust was awarded £30,000 in 2018 to provide this fantastic FREE therapeutic support for the children and young people living in the boroughs mentioned with any sort of mental health issue. The mental health issue does not have to be diagnosed and can range from anxiety, depression to obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and much more.
Sessions could be held at our offices in central Dudley, in the school of the child or in some cases home visits were completed dependent on the availability of remote therapists and counsellors. Places were strictly limited to 40 children per year, so we worked on a first-come-first-serve basis for this project as the interest was very high. We were always ahead of schedule with this project and filled all spaces well ahead of time as it proved to be very successful and needed in the local areas alone. The AoC Trust remains in contact with Children In Need and aim to have this project launched again in 2022 due to delays caused after Covid-19 and the lockdowns.
The Creative Orchid Project (COP)
The Creative Orchid Project is a brand-new project that will be using a variety of creative activities (e.g. collage, painting, paper-craft) to support the individual’s therapeutic journey in being able to manage their mental health. The group will focus on the individual gaining an understanding of their mental health condition: Anxiety, Body image, Self-esteem, Depression, Anger or Addiction (e.g. gambling).
They will learn about physical symptoms, their negative thinking patterns and how this has an impact on their relationships; they will then develop new coping strategies/techniques to allow them to move forward and achieve their goals.
All group members will receive an information and activity pack prior to the beginning of their selected programme preparing them for the group. All creative work will be displayed in an exhibition both at the end of the groups and in a formal celebration after all six programmes have been completed.
Each group will have a total of six sessions across three weeks with two sessions being held on the same day with a break in-between. Beverages and biscuits are provided on site at our offices, or the group members can go away for an hour and return for the next session.
This project is funded by Dudley Voluntary Service and Integrated Plus who refer their own clients to the project before offering it out to the public if all places are not filled. Each group only has six places currently due to the Covid restrictions. All government guidelines are followed such as masks to be always worn until seated and two-metre distances will be kept.
This project is currently ongoing and new funding has been received, so we can continue to run the groups through to 2022. For more information about the groups and places available, please contact us by email or phone – 01384 211 168 / support@theaoc.org.uk
Donating to The AoC Trust
Your donations can go a long way in helping us support those in need by funding projects like the ones we have displayed above. We appreciate all donations received and ensure all the money received is put to good use providing counselling and therapy support for anyone struggling who cannot afford private sessions.
You can donate to our service below:
All donations are welcome, big or small. Donations received will be responded to personally by our team and information on how the donations are used will be displayed in our monthly newsletter, social media and website. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please email your request to us using – support@theaoc.org.uk. You can request to be removed from the mailing list at any point.