Reclaim was a trauma-informed, long term counselling service that supported patients to make fundamental changes to their lives. The service ended in March 2025 and was commissioned by and delivered at the Armley Primary Care Network group of surgeries (Armley Medical Practice, Priory View Medical Centre and Thornton Medical Centre) by a counsellor working one to one with patients identified as most in need, and receptive to, this specialised service. Reclaim supported those who have experienced childhood trauma which is continuing to impact on them in adulthood by providing up to 24 weeks of one to one trauma focussed counselling.
Through evaluation and client work, it is recognised that health issues repeatedly seen in GP and other health and wellbeing services have a common theme of childhood trauma. Our experience has also identified that people are facing challenging issues with their housing, relationships, finances and physical health, which have created problems in managing their mental health positively and Reclaim aims to support patients to make positive changes.
The service worked with adults aged 18 and over and was developed from the work of Reclaim – a long running service funded for 9 years by the National Lottery delivering counselling and facilitated groupwork for the most disadvantaged communities in West Leeds which came to an end June 2022. To find out more about the wider Reclaim service, please see the evaluation report below.
The team also developed a booklet for service users utilising tried and tested ideas and resources that people who were supported by our Reclaim service said helped them. This toolkit is designed to help people manage and improve their mental health and wellbeing. If you feel your service would benefit from this resource please email counselling@barca-leeds.org for more details.
All our therapists that work within our counselling services are fully trained and experienced professionals, or supervised students in some instances, and work in accordance with the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (BACP) ethical framework. The team utilise a range of modalities including (but are not limited to): humanistic, psychodynamic, cognitive behavioural, relational, integrative approaches, play and art based approaches.
Read the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (BACP) ethical framework.
If you are looking for help for mental health support we have compiled a list of organisations that can help support you.
Alternatively, you can access information via Mindwell.
For more information about our counselling and wellbeing services, please email: counselling@barca-leeds.org
Related Impact and Innovation
The Barca-Leeds Reclaim counselling service has launched a mental health toolkit to help people manage and improve their mental health and wellbeing.
