Counselling helps young people to navigate their way through difficult times, improves young peoples resilience and is part of the many positive aspects of school life which contributes to supporting the development of mentally well individuals within our community. Most children do grow up to be mentally healthy without counselling intervention, however, many young people have difficulties with their mental health and surveys suggest that this is an increasing problem, particularly so for young people who are already vulnerable. We feel, when our youth workers are engaging with young people on challenging topics, it is important that counselling support is accessable for those young people. St Machar and Northfield Academies have their own full-time counsellor, the Choices counsellor is based in Torry Academy which has limited counselling input of 3 hours per week. The Choices counselling provision in Torry was set up in October 2012 supported by the Fairer Scotland Fund and currently provides 12 counselling appointments a week in the school. Comic Relief have recently provided funding to expand this service.
