Harrogate charity proud of its achievements but warns of soaring mental health issues in town's young

Since it was founded in 2003 to provide affordable short and long-term counselling for the Harrogate district, Wellspring Therapy and Training has risen to the challenge time after time.

Although proud of what this busy counselling and training centre has achieved, executive director Emily Fullarton says the charity is facing unprecedented demand for its services.

“This is a very special year for us. We are delighted to be celebrating how we, as a small local charity, has survived and thrived," said Wellspring's

executive director.

"We are proud of what we have achieved and how we have tackled the problem of increasing poor mental health, anxiety and depression, which has threatened to overwhelm the NHS.

"But the demand for our services has intensified post-Covid.

"According the figures revealed recently by the BBC, there has been a 77 per cent rise in the number of children needing specialist treatment for severe mental health crisis.

"Although most of our counselling work with young people is with teenagers, we at Wellspring are seeing children as young as four."

This Christian-based charity, which offers professional counselling to all, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, ethnic or cultural background, has become accustomed to taking on whatever comes its way - even in the beginning.

Emily Fullarton said: “The demand for Wellspring’s services in the early years meant the charity had to move initially into a terraced house in Prospect Road, Starbeck, and then into nearby St Andrew’s Church Vicarage, which had been bought for us by the Bramall Foundation.

"This tremendously generous gift has enabled us to expand our services since 2018 and to relieve the burden on the over-stretched NHS."

Even during the worst days of the pandemic, Wellspring was able to step up its support.

In 2021 it provided 6,032 counselling sessions in total, seeing 123 clients per week on average via the phone or Zoom.

One remaining hurdle in Harrogate is the perception held by some that the town cannot possibly have such problems.

This, Wellspring knows from first-hand experience, is far from the case.

"According to local research, many people in Harrogate assume because it is a ‘nice town’ people don’t struggle with these issues,” said Emily Fullarton.

"That simply isn’t true. There is a huge demand in Harrogate for our services and it’s increasing.

“What makes Wellspring’s work unique in is that we offer affordable long-term, open-ended counselling where needed.

"Unfortunately, this type of therapy is not currently widely available from the NHS.

"Most private counselling typically costs between £50 or more for each session, but many of our clients are unable to afford this.”

To mark its 20th year birthday Wellspring is to hold a special church service and a fund-raising dinner later this year.

But, true to form, the charity aims to end 2023 bigger and better.

“We aim to offer counselling to more clients throughout the year,” said Emily.

"We also hope to open new Wellspring hubs in partnership with local churches in Yorkshire,” said Emily.

To find out more about Wellspring or donate, call Emily on 01423 881881 or visit www.wellspringtherapy.co.uk