About Us
Learn more about how to access our free, confidential counselling service.
About Us
About
Who We Are
Pembrokeshire Counselling Service is a charitable organisation comprised of a small team of counsellors who are either fully qualified or trainees working towards qualification. They all have appropriate qualifications and training and receive regular supervision from suitably qualified and experienced counselling supervisors. Our organisation is a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and we adhere to their Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions.What Is Counselling?
Counselling can help you find ways to accept, live with or overcome the mental health difficulties you may be experiencing.
Counselling is a relationship where you and your counsellor can work together to consider the options open to you in a supportive and non-judgmental way. You can talk about anything that is bothering you or causing you difficulty or emotional pain, in a confidential setting. Counselling will either be provided face-to-face in a safe setting or remotely by Zoom, WhatsApp or telephone. The way you receive your counselling will be decided between you and your counsellor when you begin your therapeutic relationship.
Our History
Pembrokeshire Counselling Service is a charity founded by Eileen Bairstow MBE and Margaret Burnett MBE in 1996. They set up the charity to provide free short-term counselling for adults in Pembrokeshire with mild to moderate mental health issues.
Eileen and Margaret originally introduced a bereavement group to the county and, following the success of that, Eileen made it her mission to find a way of making person-centred one-to-one counselling more widely available to Pembrokeshire people. For her services to Pembrokeshire Counselling Service Eileen was awarded an MBE.
Margaret came to Pembrokeshire in 1984 and worked in the county for many years as a Queen’s Community Nurse. During her work, she got to know GPs and other health providers serving the general population and came to recognise how much a free counselling service could benefit the people of Pembrokeshire.
Margaret also founded Shalom House in St David’s (opened in 2007) where help is provided for those diagnosed with life-limiting illnesses. For her services she received an MBE. The Pembrokeshire Counselling Service relationship with health providers in the county has continued throughout the years and our team of volunteer qualified and trainee counsellors continues to offer first class free counselling in Pembrokeshire. We are proud to still be carrying forward the legacy left to us by these wonderful ladies and we owe them such a great deal for their dedication and dynamism.