We hope this finds you well. We know that with the onset of Winter, the days are growing longer, darker and colder. For more than 1 in 4 of us, our mental health can be especially sensitive to the weather, and this can have a significant impact on our mood. It's also the busiest time of year for mental health services, including ourselves here at The Empathy Project.
We know it's been a little while since we wrote with our last update. We've been extremely busy, having opened our second counselling room at our current location, and also further expanding our team.
We'd like to say a warm welcome to Sheila, Leanne and Jo who join us as counsellors with specialisms in working with children and young people, and to Debbie who joins us as our Fundraising & Grants Officer, who will be key to our continued growth and sustainability.
We're continuing to deliver ever increasing numbers of counselling sessions, including through our Community Fund which discounts session fees for people struggling financially.
We've been very pleased to pick up some more Google reviews too, which really help us build trust with potential new people seeking counselling with us for the first time. Positive Google reviews are one of the most helpful ways people can help us reach more people to help. If you'd like to leave us a review, you can do so by clicking here.
Introducing our new counselling portal
We're very pleased to announce that we will be launching our new booking & contact system, Vcita, on 2nd December.
This follows a lot of feedback from both our clients and counsellors over how sessions are booked, paid for, and how you communicate with us. We've listened to this and have been working behind the scenes for the last few months to develop a better, secure and bespoke system.
The system will massively change the way that The Empathy Project works and how you interact with us. Here's a list of some of the changes:
You can contact your counsellor directly
Our new client portal allows two-way messaging between you and your counsellor, so you can contact them securely, safely and in confidence if you need to. You can also use this to contact our admin team in the same way, all in the same place.
Self-service session bookings
You will be able to request to book sessions yourself without having to contact us. You can see your counsellor's availability and send a booking request, which they will approve manually. Your counsellor can also book these for you at the end of your sessions if you'd prefer.
Easier cancellations
If you need to cancel a session, you can do this yourself using the portal without having to contact us. If you've given us at least 24 hours notice, your session fee will be refunded automatically.
Easier payments
Self-service bookings will need to be paid in full upon booking requests, and counsellor-booked sessions will automatically send an invoice plus any reminders. If you choose to, we can also take your card details to make payments automatic, saving you time and stress.
Session reminders
You can opt-in to SMS text reminders ahead of your sessions.
Better safeguarding, security and data protection
Our new system makes it much easier for our team to manage our caseload and store your data securely. As a result we are updating many of our policies, which we will be sharing with you shortly on our website.
We're excited to be launching this new system with you. Please stay tuned for further updates as we move closer to our launch date. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us!
Warm regards,
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