Supporting access to therapy through fundraising

As a Registered Charity (1079390), we are responsible for our own fundraising; our charitable activities are predominantly financed through our membership fees and donations from members. You can read more about our charitable activities and our contribution to the provision of therapy services and training below.

In addition to our ongoing efforts to raise funds for our Subsidised Treatment & Training Fund (which helps people access psychotherapy at a reduced fee through subsidies and/or placements with therapists in training), we are engaged in a campaign to raise the funds necessary to adapt our building at 11 Orchard Street to make it more accessible.

If you feel able to support SIP’s charitable activities, you can make an online donation via PayPal:

Twenty-first century Britain needs psychotherapy more than ever before. Thanks to major public figures in politics, sport and the royal family opening up recently about emotional difficulties, there is far more willingness to recognise and to discuss the prevalence of mental distress. There is consensus that we need accessible, responsive and effective services for everyone in need. And there is consensus that our NHS does not have the resources to cope with every need: the services are highly variable, fragmented, often absent, often hard to access without a long wait.

Inevitably, it is those who are economically deprived who are hardest hit by the shortage of effective support: full fee private psychotherapy or counselling isn’t an option, while these are the people most likely to be exposed to adversity, stress, isolation, anxiety and depression.

Socio-economic deprivation reduces accessibility to therapeutic services outside the public sector, while socio-economic deprivation adversely affects mental health and vice versa. Further, ‘poor mental health experienced by individuals is a significant cause of wider social and health problems’ (Mental Health Foundation and Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2016) Poverty and Mental Health, p.15 ff).

Further information about how we support the provision of therapy in our local communities:

How will my donation help?

Owning our building will, in time, significantly increase accessibility of psychotherapy services and training to those who need it, and secure this provision for future generations.

Once our loan is repaid (in 2043), an additional £20,000 p.a. will be available for the charitable activities outlined below.

SIP, having recently purchased our building at 11 Orchard Street, is now able to make adaptations to the premises (which we could not previously do as leaseholders) to increase accessibility for disabled people, presently underrepresented in SIP’s training and less likely to access psychotherapy services. In particular SIP will install a fully accessible ground floor toilet for patients and therapists, and kitchenette facilities for therapists (as recommended by a Disability Audit).

Psychotherapy services and training are generally acknowledged to be accessed less by members of minority communities and those in disadvantaged areas; SIP’s equality and diversity monitoring supports this conclusion. Through its Equal Opportunities Policy, CPD opportunities, and curriculum, SIP endeavours to promote inclusive practice, and through it’s Annual Lectures, Connecting Conversations and short courses, aims to raise awareness of psychoanalytic thinking and psychotherapy services amongst the general public. SIP is building better equality and diversity monitoring systems a) to be sure that low cost sessions are reaching those most in need and most underrepresented and b) to target advertising of services and training, improve the relevance of outreach projects, and focus relationship building with referrers. Security of tenure, and thus of an income stream, will underpin faster development of this work.

Purchase by SIP will secure well managed consulting room space in Bristol for the community of therapists using the premises, and consistency for their patients.

Security of tenure will ensure continuing availability of SIP’s professional training, to the benefit of the people of Bristol and the Southwest.

What other kinds of charitable activities does SIP undertake?

We have a Subsidised Treatment and Training Fund to help people access psychotherapy at a reduced fee through subsidies and/or placements with therapists in training. You can find out more about our Training Patient Scheme on our website.

SIP has played an important role in contributing to the provision of accessible and effective services across Bristol and the South West by providing psychotherapy services for the public and running non-profit making trainings, ensuring there are new generations of practitioners, for over 30 years. NHS professionals often refer those whose needs cannot be met within NHS provision, to SIP.

To help make therapy accessible, Severnside provides a professional consultation and referral service, and psychotherapy with qualified therapists and trainees across the region, offering reduced fee consultations and low fee psychotherapy for those in financial hardship. Severnside therapists provide a facilitating environment where people may explore their thoughts, feelings and values, including the unconscious, the conflicting and the downright painful, and so become less dominated by distressing symptoms, more insightful, and more able to experience creative, fulfilling lives.

Severnside Institute for Psychotherapy is the only psychoanalytic membership and training organisation within a radius of 80 miles or more. Successful completion of clinical training with SIP leads to registration with the British Psychoanalytic Council (accredited by the Health Professions Council and the Professional Standards Authority). Ensuring people can continue to train is important as the average age of the profession, as well as the costs, continue to rise. Graduates of SIP’s clinical trainings bring their expertise to many statutory and not-for-profit contexts, as well as often offering reduced fees in case of need, in their private work.