“I wonder if your donors actually know how important their gifts are—that they are actually life-saving. I don’t know who they are, so I can’t thank them personally, but I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them.”
These words came from one of Shalem’s clients recently as she reflected on her time in counselling. Many of our clients experience periods of deep distress and have times when they just don’t see how they will make it through the painful things they are dealing with. Some become actively suicidal, seeking a way to end their intolerable emotional pain.
When they receive treatment from Shalem’s psychotherapy team, they find additional ways to cope with that pain, alternatives to suicide, and hope to continue on. They receive support in making changes in their circumstances or relationships that alleviate the pain and help them move toward healing and even begin to find pleasure in life again.
Because Shalem doesn’t receive government funding for its general psychotherapy program, there is a sliding scale fee for psychotherapy services. But not everyone can afford to pay the fee, and that is where the Counselling Assistance Fund comes into play.
Donations to Shalem Mental Health Network help fund most of the work we do across our programs. Some of these donations are allocated to the Counselling Assistance Fund to subsidize counselling sessions, allowing clients who would otherwise not be able to receive the help to attend sessions.
As a result of these donations, counselling fees can be reduced or even waived altogether if needed.
By making donations to the Counselling Assistance Fund, donors provide invaluable, even life-saving sessions for clients who desperately need them.
From all our clients who don’t know who the donors are and can’t thank them personally, please accept this THANK YOU!
And as you consider past or future donations, please recognize how important your gifts are—they are actually life-saving for some!
Susan Winter Fledderus is a Clinical Therapist with Shalem Mental Health Network