Maya Centre TRIO Referrals
Information for Support Workers and Referrers.
Project Summary
The purpose of this project is to provide rapid access to therapeutic assessment and
counselling for women living who are homeless or living in temporary or insecure
accommodation. TRIO workers will identify and refer women to the project.
Maya Centre staff will undertake a detailed therapeutic assessment for each woman
referred to the project and up to 5 sessions of follow-up counselling sessions for
those women for whom it is appropriate. The assessment may be completed in one
meeting, but may require 2-3 sessions. The Maya Centre will offer longer term
counselling if this is needed and the resources are available. The therapeutic work
will usually take place at the Maya Centre, unless an appropriate alternative venue is
required and can be identified.
The Counselling
The therapy provided by the Maya Centre for this project is supportive counselling
and psychotherapy. It aims to:
 Provide support to the client to cope emotionally with the changes she is
making/needs to make in her life
 Help the client develop coping strategies and different ways of managing and
looking at her life
 Change her perspective of herself and her problems
Referral Criteria
It is important that women referred to the project are able to engage in a therapeutic
process and a talking therapy. Therefore referrers should ensure that the client has a
basic understanding of what counselling means and is willing to engage, and that:
 Any drug or alcohol use is being actively managed or is stable
 The client does not have a diagnosed long term psychosis or schizophrenia
 The client does not have a learning difficulty which significantly impairs her
ability to communicate
 The client has sufficient cognitive ability and motivation to engage in a talking
therapy
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The Maya Centre can provide counselling in a variety of languages if needed. This
needs to be discussed on referral.
Referral Procedure
There is a specific Maya Centre referral form for TRIO clients and this must be used
to ensure the client is fast-tracked and funded.
When we receive the referral form we will:
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Contact you, the referrer to check the information and establish the best way
to contact the client and move the referral forward
We will then allocate the client to a counsellor for assessment
The counsellor will either contact you, or the client, to arrange an
appointment, depending on what arrangement has been made. Be aware that
if the contact is with the client it, the counsellor will try to avoid speaking with
the client before their appointment so the contact will be by letter or from our
clinical coordinator.
When we are arranging the first appointment will ask the client to complete a
CORE form which helps us to understand her state of mind at the beginning
of her therapy. Clients with poor literacy may need your help with this.
At the End of Therapy
Ideally, clients will end their therapy with a final appointment and review. This helps
to contain the process she has been through and enables the therapist to help her
think about her next steps. Sometimes life gets in the way, or clients will avoid an
‘ending’. We would ask you to encourage your client to attend for a final appointment
even if she doesn’t want to continue with the counselling. If she doesn’t attend the
final appointment we would still like feedback and will ask for your support in helping
her to fill out the end of therapy questionnaire.
Things to be aware of
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The Maya Centre is a women-only service so if you are a male support worker
accompanying a client to an appointment you will not be able to wait in
reception (there are some good cafes very near).
We will charge the TRIO project for no-shows (less than 24hours notice) so
please make sure your client attends or lets us know in good time that she is
not able to come.
The experience of counselling is often quite challenging as it requires looking
at issues in the past which are painful. It is important to do this as unprocessed (buried) problems and experiences in the past affect our behaviour
and feelings in the present. However, you may find that your client is
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sometimes quite ambivalent about attending and may need your
encouragement and support to do so.
Counselling is confidential and we will respect a client’s privacy around the
content of her counselling sessions. We will share practical details like
attendance and our confidentiality is limited in respect of serious risk of harm
to the client or others.
You can find more details about policies and counselling at www.mayacentre.org.uk
Key contacts at the Maya Centre for TRIO referrers and support workers are:
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Michalina Popiolek, Clinical Coordinator – for enquiries and information about
referrals - michalina@mayacentre.org.uk
Jo Ansell, Director – for problems or organisational issues –
jo.ansell@mayacentre.org.uk
Our phone number is: 0207 2818 970
Our address is: Unit 8, 9-15 Elthorne Road, London. N19 4AJ.
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