Family & Friends
The Birchall Trust appreciate the devastating impact sexual abuse can have of on a parent/guardian, a close relative or friends of the survivor.
We can support you through this and will allocate you a counsellor if you choose this for yourself.
The office staff will support and treat your call with understanding and respect.
How can we help?
We welcome any family & friend's of a survivor who identify as male, female, straight, lesbian/gay, trans or non-binary.
We offer the counselling services to friends and family of survivors who have experienced rape and/or sexual abuse so they can help their loved ones through their counselling journey.
All of our counsellors are qualified, experienced and registered with a professional body. They have specialist trauma training alongside their counselling qualification and understand how childhood sexual abuse, rape or sexual assault impacts a family & friend’s life. We are here to support you in a non-judgemental and sensitive way.
For our younger clients who access our Children's services (4 - 12 years), here at Birchall we work with individual children but can also offer joint counselling, which involves parents/carers or siblings.
Impact
Sexual abuse of a survivor can have a profound impact on a family & friend’s life, it can impact on your long term emotional and physical wellbeing.
Family and Friend's of a survivor impacted by sexual abuse are probably living with some painful feelings that need to be processed, you may recognise some or all of these feelings below:
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Feeling numb, or shut down
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Feeling anger, sadness and confusion
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Feelings of guilt
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Feeling like it’s “your fault” or you’re somehow to blame
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Feeling afraid, scared
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Feeling stressed and anxious
