COAP offers a free Online Short-term Counselling Service for young people aged 11 to 30 years old living in the UK who are having difficulties living with someone else's addiction. We are not able to offer counselling to anyone who is outside of the UK.
You may find it easier to talk online
Addiction has its many faces...it may be addiction to alcohol, drugs, or a form of behaviour such as gambling or shopping. Talking about problems can be difficult, especially when you are talking about your loved one's addiction, as people can feel upset, embarrassed or feel that there is something to hide.
You may find it easier to talk online about your feelings rather than face to face. Online counselling may be useful if it is hard to travel or physically get to a counselling centre. Our COAP counsellor will be there to support you and you may find some ideas of how to cope with your situation.
The COAP counsellor will ask you to describe how you are feeling and invite you to share your thoughts. If you want to ignore any of the counsellor's questions you can. There are no right or wrong answers, you won't be told off for any of your feelings. Some weeks may be 'light' when you are feeling OK and there is not much to say. Other weeks may be 'heavy' when lots has happened and you want to get things off your chest. You decide how much to write.
The main points are:
Arranging weekly sessions
We invite you to try 1 email session and then see how you feel. If you decide you would like more you can set weekly times with the counsellor and have up to 6 sessions, where you send an email once a week and the counsellor responds to your email.
Arranging drop in sessions
You may prefer to email us and not have set times. If you decide you would like to drop in - counsellors will recieve your email and respond fully within 4 days.
Opening times
You can send an email to us any time any day.
We are open from Monday - Friday so any emails that you send to COAP counselling over the weekend will take more than 48 hours for us to get back to you.
If you need help over the weekend please have a look at our links section for organisations that may be able to help you.
How do I get in touch with COAP counselling?
1. You send the COAP counsellor a message through our contact a COAP counsellor page. That let's the counsellor know what you would like to talk about for the sessions. We ask that in your message to us you include your personal contact details; your name and surname, your age, your address and a contact number.
2. The COAP counsellor will read your email fully and send a message back to you in your COAP private message in box within 48 hours.
3. You and the counsellor will then have the sessions.
Other important information...
Why do I have to give my personal contact details?
We ask for your personal contact details at the beginning of your counselling email sessions so that we are able to contact you if we feel either you or another child is at risk or in danger. We would contact you by email and talk about how we can help you or the other person be safe. We have a number of options at these times, which we might need to discuss with you directly by email and/or phone. It is our policy to keep children and young people safe.
Confidentiality Policy
What you talk about with the COAP counsellor is confidential and remains with the COAP online counselling team, unless you are at risk of being hurt or abused. This means that the counsellor will not tell your friends, family or social service. The counsellor will have a supervisor who checks the support emails, but your name will not be mentioned. If you or someone else is in danger...the counsellor will be concerned about you and may want to talk with you about getting more help.
Online counselling
If you want a definition of counselling you can find it herehttp://www.bacp.co.uk/education/whatiscounselling.html.
Online counselling is very different from face to face counselling.
The Legal Stuff...
The COAP counsellors are Accredited Counsellors with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and the Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP) .
This means our counsellors work within BACP and MBACP 'Ethical Framework for Counsellors', and also the BACP Guidelines for Online Counselling and Pyschotherapy. If you want to know more, look upwww.bacp.co.uk.
Our counsellors have been specifically trained to counsel online withwww.ocst.org.uk, www.onlinecounsellors.co.uk and www.onlinetrainingforcounsellors.co.uk
Want to know what records COAP keeps?
COAP keeps a record so you don't have to keep going over the same stuff every time you talk to us. Records are kept on an electric file unique to COAP. COAP keeps your record for 3 years.
We are unable to provide you with copies of your email sessions as we cannot verify your indentity.
We also use the database to collect anonymous statistical information to help us improve COAP services.
Need an immediate response?
Contact the Samaritans - www.samaritans.org
Online counselling is not intended for individuals with severe and enduring mental health difficulties or for those who are actively suicidal. It is also not for individuals who are in crisis, or who need an immediate response to their email. If you feel you are in danger of harming yourself contact the Samaritans.
