Who is it for?
This support is available to all Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service staff, whether they’re a member of the fire services community themselves, or the partner or spouse of someone in the service.
This includes wholetime or on-call firefighters, control officers, members of a support team, retired staff, or spouses and partners of those working for Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service.
What’s available?
We’re making three types of relationship support available:
- Chat with a Counsellor: A 25-minute session with a Relate counsellor available for individuals
- One Session Therapy: A 50-minute session with a Relate counsellor for couples
- Up to 6 sessions of Relationship Counselling: Available where one of the above services has been accessed and further counselling is recommended by the Relate counsellor.
What can this help with?
Relate counsellors are experienced in supporting people with a wide range of relationship issues. Typically, people might access support due to:
- Loneliness
- Impact of work or partner’s work on relationships/family life
- Problems communicating
- Arguments/conflict or problematic behaviours
- Outside or financial pressures on relationships
- Intimacy
- Infidelity/trust
- Coping when a relationship ends or fear the relationship is ending.
Sessions provide a safe and confidential space to be heard and to discuss what’s going on for you and/or your partner. Relate counsellors will help you to explore a range of coping strategies, tools and resources to help you communicate with each other better, reduce conflict, and enjoy a happy, healthy relationship.
Our short, one-off sessions can be really helpful to deal with something that’s just come up, or if you’re feeling stuck and need help to move forward. If you’ve a few things going on, the counsellor will help you prioritise the key issue to work on in the session.
Sometimes relationships can’t be fixed but Relate counsellors can help you to separate well, reducing the emotional impact for everyone involved, including children.
Your relationship doesn’t have to be in crisis to access this support, whatever the relationship concerns or hopes you have, Relate counsellors are here to help.
Is the service confidential?
To access the service you’ll need to speak to Fire Fighters Charity who will make a referral on your behalf. Once you access Relate, the service is confidential and the only information shared with Fire Fighters Charity will be anonymised data about service take up and the impact of the service.
For more information and details of when Relate may be required to share your details with someone else, you can read the Relate Privacy and cookie policy.
What happens if I decide to ask for help?
Getting in touch is easy. All you need to do is fill in the online form – HERE – which asks for some basic details and a short description of why you feel the support would be beneficial.
Please note, Fire Fighters Charity is completely independent from UK Fire and Rescue Services, so none of your information will be shared with anyone externally, or within your organisation.
Once you’ve filled in the form, the charity’s Intake and Navigation Team will get in touch with you to discuss the next steps and refer you on to Relate.
Once Relate receive a completed referral form, it will register your details and send you a link to our booking platform. Here you can view appointments available for either Chat with a Counsellor (individual support) or One Session Therapy (couples). You book your own appointment online at a time that suits you.
If after your Chat with a Counsellor or One Session Therapy session, the counsellor feels you would benefit from Relationship Counselling, and you want to access this, Relate will contact Fire Fighters Charity on your behalf to request this. Once approved, Relate will be in touch quickly, to book your first session. Where possible and appropriate to your needs, this will be with the same counsellor that you saw initially.
What can I get out of a one-off 25 or 50 minute session?
People are often surprised how much support they get in a brief session. The counsellor you see will be a trained relationship counsellor. They’ll spend the first few minutes of the session working with you to identify what would be most helpful. You may have a number of things going on in your relationship, but they’ll help you prioritise the issue that could have the biggest impact if addressed.
The counsellor will help to come up with a plan that you can implement to move forward. They may provide you with some resources to help or suggest other external support sources. If your counsellor feels that one session is not enough, and if you would like to access Relationship Counselling, they can make a recommendation to Fire Fighters Charity for this to be funded.