What our clients say

“I went to relate when I was about 13, feeling especially sad and invisible, like no one cared. I decided to try counselling as I felt that no one around me listened to me and I am so glad I did. I went and spoke to a counsellor at Epsom Relate weekly for about 6 months until I felt like she had helped me to make sense of my sad feelings and helped me to realise I needed to stop being so hard on myself and blaming myself for how others were making me feel.

Fast forward 6 years and I’m 19 and about to go to university, but for some reason I just felt so sad – like I had done before. I spoke to my counsellor and explained how I felt that I didn’t deserve my own life because I wasn’t happy within myself. She helped me to realise that sometimes you do have to let yourself feel sad and not blame yourself for your feelings. Talking to someone like a counsellor in order to try and make sense of feelings that otherwise seem unexplainable is so, so helpful. She made me realise how much I was depending on other people for my happiness, rather than allowing myself to feel sad and encouraging myself to feel happy, for me and no one else. I went into the initial counselling session explaining that I had no idea why I felt so sad and I didn’t deserve to feel sad as I had no reason to be. The counsellor stopped me and reminded me of some of the things I had told her about my life and childhood and told me she understood why I was sad, even if I didn’t, and that it was ok for me to feel that way. I had never been made to feel like I was allowed to be emotional before and talking with her and letting it all out is an unexplainably weightless feeling like no other. 

All in all, that’s the only way I can describe my experience at Relate. I left every session feeling so much lighter than when I arrived. My counsellor would remind me each week to put myself first and make sure when I came back that I had done this often. As well as this, if I turned up for my session and I felt rubbish and like all the progress had been lost, she would remind me of what we had spoken about previously, but also let me feel sad and we worked out the best way to structure the ideas inside my head, allowing myself to feel sad but working out how I can change my thought process over the next week in order to feel better. I left Relate feeling so happy that I genuinely cried happy tears, something I had never done before but have done so many times since. The advice I was given I have used every day since and I will honestly use for life. I will never forget the help that this gave me in a really, really tough time, for which I cannot thank my counsellor and the Relate team enough.”