Counselling and Psychology Service
Counselling and Psychology Service
The Dorset Cancer Centre Counselling and Psychology Service provides counselling, psychological interventions and bereavement support to people who have cancer or who are under palliative care services and their families.
The service is based at Forest Holme Hospice and is available Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm. We are offering appointments via telephone, video (through NHS Attend Anywhere), and in person at Forest Holme. Visits can be offered on the oncology wards in the main hospital and at Forest Holme. The service is supported by Forest Holme Hospice Charity.
Please click on links below for more information on each service:
Counselling
After a cancer diagnosis, you may experience all sorts of difficult and painful emotions. You may be feeling sad and tearful at times due to the losses you have experienced through illness. Perhaps you find yourself struggling to cope with feelings of anxiety and have worries about your future. Or maybe you are dealing with body image issues due to changes experienced through surgery or treatment.
Bereavement Support
Bereavement counselling takes place in a relationship built upon trust, respect and confidentiality, to facilitate the processes of normal and complex grief.
Clinical Pschology
Clinical Psychologists are trained in supporting people with more significant emotional needs who sometimes require formal evidence-based approaches to complex and/or severe emotional difficulties. They are trained at the doctoral level, are experts in human behaviour, and are often trained in several different models of understanding the problems people encounter.
Useful websites
Macmillian
National charity that provides information and support for all types of cancer.
Mosaic
A local charity that provides support for bereaved children and families.
The team is available to offer support in several different ways:
- Helping patients and families adjust to life-threatening illness
- Helping facilitate communication in families.
- Supporting carers within the family
- Helping families support children and young people at home
- Learning ways to manage anxiety, fatigue, or body changes
- Helping families come to terms with losing a loved one (bereavement support)
- Signposting to services that may help
- Providing direct work with children and adults who need extra support
- Support with financial worries
- Provide written materials and books to support difficult conversations with children and family members, and also to provide information about what to expect about your condition and treatment
You can access the service by:
- Requesting through your healthcare professional at Forest Holme Hospice, the Community Palliative Care Team or at the Dorset Cancer Centre
- Ring us on 0300 019 8096 and tell us about the support you would like
- Send us an email to DCC.Psychology@uhd.nhs.uk