Beginning by listening
The project began in the early 1990s when two Christian midwives found that women suffering from various crises surrounding pregnancy needed more listening and counselling support than was already available. The ladies began intentionally praying together around this issue and slowly others joined them including Barbara Keyes (the current Borderline manager.)

The group prayed and investigated the possibility of opening a Christian counselling service and in 1996 the Borderline counseling service opened.  From the beginning the project was affiliated with Care for the Family who provided training and support although Borderline had their own management committee in place.

Advertising in the right places
The service was initially advertised through press releases and a sticker campaign on toilet doors in pubs, clubs and public loos. Although the numbers coming through the doors was low to begin with, those who were helped in the early days included those contemplating abortion or dealing with the psychological effects of having had an abortion.

Through the pregnancy crisis centre, the counsellors found that women were coming with many more emotional issues than they knew how to deal with and so the work expanded to become a general counselling service. This greatly increased the number of clients and the project quickly outgrew their small flat.  In 2003 they moved to a terraced house where the new centre was opened by the local Bishop and Mayor.

Ripples of Change
Testimonies of clients using the Borderline service show the difference the service makes. One former client, Helen, had battled with alcoholism for many years. “In what I suppose was desperation, I sought out, again, the Christian faith that I had grown up in, but then turned my back on. Christian counselling at Borderline helped me to learn to live without alcohol. I learned to search my heart and to use other ways to deal with those things that hurt and confused me.” And in turn this change led to improvements in all areas of Helen’s life, acting like ripples of change, all coming about from her use of the Borderline service.

Helen was helped so much that she wanted to put something back into the project, so she gave one day a week to be the receptionist. Since then she has completed level 2 training in counseling and will soon complete the level 4 diploma. “This summer will, I hope, see me counselling my first client with an alcohol problem. When that happens I shall have completed the circle that the Lord set me on all those years ago.”

Clients are very diverse, from doctors and lawyers, to pastors, home group leaders or women in pregnancy crisis. One woman having had an abortion came to the centre and was counseled by Barbara “she was so depressed that she was having suicidal thoughts. After being assessed and given a series of counseling sessions she came out the other end with a smile on her face. She had been through a grief journey which these women need to do.”

Barbara explains that most woman looking for counselling following an abortion are at a stage where they are angry or depressed, grieving or struggling with immense guilt and shame. “Abortion causes an unrecognised grief in our society. If you had a miscarriage friends and family console and greatly support you but many women who have had an abortion feel real shame. But they need to be helped through the recognition that they are a mother, forgive themselves and begin to move on. ” Women needing post abortion counselling may have had the procedure many years ago but a current trauma or bereavement has caused the feelings associated with their past termination to resurface.

Diversifying funding and developing training
As with most projects, funding continues to be an issue for Borderline. Previous schemes such as “Be a 1 per center for the Borderline centre” were successful in getting people to commit to paying 1% of the project overheads, and they still have regular givers, one off gifts, donations from clients and occasional grant funds.  However most of the money now raised comes through being a training provider.

Barbara and the team of volunteer counsellors needed additional training to gain expertise in new fields, however they found training was costly and there was little available in the surrounding area which meant the added expense of travel. So Barbara and another trainer set about writing a training course to meet the Christian Counsellors Association (CCA) criteria, which the CCA were able to accredit. Borderline now offers one day training on specific topics such as bereavement counselling, post abortion and more - Listener days, Workshop days, Pastoral Care, Level 2 in counseling and soon Level 3 in counselling.

Borderline offers the courses at extremely reasonable rates but it provides enough income to sustain the project. These courses benefit participants in many ways. Barbara recalls, “a lady from a local church completed a listening course with Borderline. Her job meant she often had to deal with peoples problems and the course gave her the skills to cope with this much better. So much so that her boss asked her what course she had done to be able to deal with the issues so well.” Another church wanted to train their pastoral care workers in listening and responding so put a whole team of people on a Borderline course.

Pursuing professionalism
The professionalism of Borderline shone out to me on my visit, and when I mentioned this to Barbara she commented “we have to be professional to be accepted as a legitimate counseling service. Our vision is 'To be an established centre of excellence in Christian Counselling', to have excellence you must be professional.”

These days Borderline does not advertise their service since referrals from GP’s and word of mouth continues to bring new clients. When a new client has their initial assessment it is stated that Borderline is a Christian run centre and all staff are Christians. At times clients have requested prayer or asked questions about faith. At these points counselors have been able to direct clients to local Alpha courses or churches. Faith is central to the work “prayer under girdles it all, we believe prayer makes a difference. This place is Christ centered and it’s because of our faith that it is here.”    

The project is currently undergoing changes with Barbara retiring from the management side of her role but Borderline have plans for the future. With West Cumbria being such a rural area they would like to place counsellors in more rural locations to make the service more localised. Also, with the success of the Carlisle project, Barbara and the trustees would like to be able to help other Christians or churches set up similar Christian counselling services in their area. But in all they hope to do, Barbara and the team want to see the project continue to strive for excellence as it does in Carlisle and nothing less.

If you would like to know more about Borderline Counselling Service please contact office@borderlinecounselling.wanadoo.co.uk or 01228 596 900.