Laura Simmons - Counsellor and Clinical Supervisor - Aboyne

05/09/2025

https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/counsellors/laura-simmons

Are you feeling down, anxious, or not enjoying life? Do you sometimes think "this is not what I thought my life would be like?" Let's chat about how counselling with me might be able to help.

12/08/2025

I have a few spaces available for new clients! Qualified and experienced Person-Centred Counselling, I work with young people (aged 12 and over) and adults, in-person, online or on the phone. Please message me for more details and to book a free introductory consultation 🤍

30/07/2025

It is with the heaviest of hearts that I write this. Most of you by now will have heard the devastating news about the closure of Mental Health Aberdeen in the Charity’s 75th year last week. I am thoroughly and completely devastated – for myself and my 61 colleagues who have lost our jobs (with no pay for the work we’ve already done in July), for the teams of dedicated volunteers who worked tirelessly with clients in counselling and in our charity shops, for the amazing adult counselling volunteer trainees who recently completed an intense seven-month training course, for the Youth Counsellor trainees who are all nearing the end of their three year training with MHA’s Youth service, for all of our fundraisers and brilliant fundraising team who have done such an amazing job in a very challenging environment… and, of course, our thousands of clients and ex-clients as well as the wider community who engaged with our work through awareness raising events and social media. I am so dreadfully sorry for the loss you’ll all be feeling, and I echo it.

It has been such a tremendous honour to be part of MHA over the years. I have early memories of rattling a collection tin on “Flag Day” in the late 1980s, raising money for the charity then known as “Aberdeen and North East Association for Mental Health”. One of my first paid jobs in this sector was working in one of MHA’s Day Services, and my introduction to counselling practice was via the well-regarded “ACIS Volunteer Counsellor Training” in 2008. I was fortunate enough to be a Volunteer Counsellor at ACIS and One to One Counselling Service Deeside for eight years before the time was right for me to return to University and study for my Masters in Counselling, which then enabled me to combine my experience managing volunteers for another charity with my passion for Person-Centred Counselling, by being appointed as Manager at One to One, a fantastic accessible community-based project that served the local community of Deeside. The trust and confidence placed in me by my long-time mentor, Astrid Whyte, and the unwavering support she has shown me over the years has been a true gift – culminating in her encouragement of my career development to step into her role as MHA’s Counselling Services Manager in 2022.

I’m recognising that my heartbreak is part of the process of grieving… for an organisation I loved deeply, for my role, for all of the beautiful connections I have made over the last 17 years (plus)… as well as the awareness that I (rightly or wrongly) feel partly responsible for this. I keep playing and replaying the last 18-24 months, imagining I’d done something differently, and wishing I’d done more. My colleagues and I deserved more, the institution that was MHA deserved more, and most importantly all of our clients deserved so so much more than a sudden brutal overnight ending to their therapeutic work.

I am, however, cautiously and tentatively optimistic for the future of front-line free counselling for those who most need it. The ACIS Youth team have already rallied (led by the passion and commitment of Alan McTamney and his dedicated team of wonderful staff), there is a core of ACIS Adult counsellors who are considering options and keen to see what they can do, and myself and the One to One team are planning to meet and look at possibilities out here in Aboyne/Banchory. There is a lot of goodwill and public support for these saplings of ideas and, at the moment, for me, it’s a balance between having some time to grieve the loss of MHA while also capitalising on the strength of feeling and emotion that’s around, keeping up some momentum.

If you’ve got this far, thank you so much for reading! If I can help anyone in any way at this time, please reach out… also, if you’d like to chat further about any ideas for the future of the projects (One to One in particular), please contact me via laurasimmons-counselling@outlook.com or by calling/texting 07858 248 395.