WellElder Counselling Trust

In a society with a growing community of older people there is increasing demand for specialist services to assist people with managing the challenges they face.

We rely on financial support from a number of sources to maintain our unique service in Wellington. A DHB contract provides the backbone of the funding that enables us to provide low cost counselling. We ask clients to contribute towards the cost of counselling as they can, from $10. But donations and additional funding are necessary to cover the full cost.

We counsel individuals, couples or family/whānau at centres in Newtown, Johnsonville, Porirua, Paraparaumu and in client’s homes or rest homes, if travel is difficult. In the last year we held 989 individual counselling sessions and ran 36 group sessions for 290 clients.

WellElder believes that we all face challenges as we age. We are never too old to learn new skills, change behaviour, grow in insight and understanding or maintain good emotional health. Older people are often challenged to cope with a number of significant changes, sometimes simultaneously, eg: their own reducing physical capabilities, becoming a carer for their spouse and shrinking social networks and opportunities.

Older people are used to getting on with life themselves, but a skilled professional is surprisingly easy to talk to. No issue is too big or too small – our relationships, the loss of friends and family, where we live, memories that we live with, coping with the daily demands of life, anxiety or depression – whatever it is that we face can be brought to counselling.