Our Approach
At A Positive Start CIC, healing begins with being truly seen and heard.
We create safe, non-judgmental spaces where individuals feel reassured, understood, and supported. Our work is rooted in person-centred principles — congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathic understanding — ensuring that every interaction builds trust and encourages personal growth.
A Positive Start CIC currently provides one-to-one counselling and therapeutic support for adults aged 18 and over. Work with children and young people is delivered through school outreach, structured prevention programmes, and community projects rather than individual therapy.
Central to our practice is the TRUST framework, our trauma-informed model that recognises the impact of lived experience and supports individuals in reconnecting with their strengths and capacity for healing. Through compassionate understanding and practical guidance, we help people move towards greater self-awareness, resilience, and well-being.
Alongside counselling support, much of our work focuses on early intervention and prevention — helping people understand stress responses before patterns become more difficult to change. This approach reflects the priorities of the Scottish Government Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which emphasises the importance of accessible community-based support and earlier responses to stress and adversity across families, schools, and services.
Early Intervention & Preventative Programmes
A Positive Start CIC delivers a range of educational and preventative programmes designed to strengthen emotional safety in families, schools, and communities. While our one-to-one counselling support is currently available for adults aged 18+, our work with children and young people takes place through structured school-based programmes, community initiatives, and support for parents, carers, and professionals.
These include:
The APS Early Intervention EFT Pathway™
A structured six-session early-support intervention helping adults understand stress-related coping patterns, reduce the intensity of urges, and develop practical regulation strategies.
The River Room Songbook & My Body Is My Body Schools Tour
A trauma-informed music-and-movement programme delivered in partnership with schools and community settings, supporting children’s confidence, emotional literacy, body safety awareness, and nervous system regulation. Developed in collaboration with Chrissy Sykes and the My Body Is My Body Foundation, the programme helps children learn about feelings, boundaries, and safety in accessible, engaging ways.
STAND – Parents as Protectors
A preventative safeguarding programme rooted in lived experience and delivered in partnership with Safeguarding Fundamentals, supporting parents and carers to recognise grooming behaviours, trust their instincts, and take confident action to protect children before concerns escalate.
Creating Trauma-Informed Futures
Training, workshops, and workforce development opportunities for professionals, schools, and organisations seeking to build safer, more responsive environments and strengthen trauma-informed practice across services.
Together, these programmes support earlier understanding, increased confidence, and stronger emotional safety across communities, reflecting Scotland’s national commitment to prevention, resilience, and community wellbeing.
Working With a Student Counsellor
At A Positive Start CIC, some clients choose to work with a student counsellor as part of their counselling journey. Student counsellors work with adult clients aged 18 and over under supervision as part of their professional training.
We are an approved practicum placement site for several universities and colleges. Counselling students complete part of their training with us while gaining the supervised client hours required to qualify.
Our student counsellors are in the final stage of their HND counselling training and are working towards professional registration with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
Carefully Selected and Supported
We take great care in selecting the students who train with us. Each student counsellor has demonstrated strong personal qualities for therapeutic work and a genuine commitment to supporting others.
Many bring valuable life experience and previous employment in caring or supportive professions, enabling them to offer thoughtful, compassionate, and grounded support.
Supervision and Professional Standards
Student counsellors do not work independently.
All student counsellors at A Positive Start CIC receive:
- regular internal supervision within the organisation
- external supervision through their university or college training programme
- ongoing guidance to ensure their work meets professional and ethical standards
This structure ensures clients receive safe, supported, and high-quality counselling.
Many clients value the warmth, care, and fresh perspective student counsellors bring to the therapeutic relationship.
Your Choice
When accessing counselling through A Positive Start CIC, you can choose whether you would prefer to work with a student counsellor or a qualified counsellor.
A Restorative Rural Wellbeing Setting
As A Positive Start CIC continues to grow, our work is developing within a new setting at Harestanes — a calm rural environment that supports reflection, regulation, and connection with nature.
This move reflects our commitment to creating spaces where people can feel safer, think more clearly, and reconnect with themselves at their own pace.
Alongside counselling and early-intervention support, the Harestanes setting will support the development of a wider wellbeing community environment, including:
- trauma-informed counselling and therapeutic support
- the APS Early Intervention EFT Pathway™
- preventative family and safeguarding workshops such as STAND – Parents as Protectors
- schools outreach through the River Room Songbook & My Body Is My Body programme
- practitioner learning, student placements, and professional training
- community-based emotional health and regulation learning programmes for adults and community groups
This setting is part of our longer-term vision to strengthen trauma-informed futures across communities in the Scottish Borders.
The River Room
The River Room takes its name from the River Teviot, which has always flowed alongside our work in the Scottish Borders.
Rather than belonging to a single building, the River Room embodies a therapeutic approach shaped by movement, reflection, and reconnection. From our riverside base in Hawick, to restorative stays at Hornshole, and visits to our developing wellbeing community setting at Harestanes, the River Room reflects a shared intention to create spaces where people can slow down and reconnect with themselves at their own pace.
The River Room also inspired the River Room Songbook, developed to support children’s emotional regulation, confidence, and well-being through music and shared learning. This work is delivered through schools and community learning settings rather than individual therapeutic support for children and grew through collaboration with Chrissy Sykes and the My Body Is My Body Foundation, bringing together body safety education and nervous system awareness in ways that are accessible and engaging for children, families, and schools.
The River Room supports:
- regulation-focused learning and reflection
- restorative wellbeing stays connected with nature
- early-intervention emotional health learning programmes for adults, families, and community settings
- community connection and belonging
- creative approaches to children’s emotional regulation through the River Room Songbook
- opportunities to step back from everyday pressures and regain clarity
It reflects our belief that change does not need to happen all at once. Like a river, healing often unfolds through steady movement over time.
When we create the right conditions, people begin to find their own natural flow again.
Supporting Families & Communities
We are committed to strengthening the safety and well-being of families and communities through education, awareness, and preventative support.
As part of this work, A Positive Start CIC partners with Safeguarding Fundamentals as a Regional Ambassador in Scotland. Through this partnership, we support organisations, parents, carers, and professionals in strengthening safeguarding practice and creating environments where children are safer and better protected.
Through training, partnership, and community education, we aim to increase awareness, build safeguarding confidence, and equip adults with the knowledge and skills needed to recognise concerns early and respond appropriately to protect children.
Accessible Support for All
A Positive Start CIC aims to ensure that trauma-informed support remains accessible while sustaining safe, consistent services for the community. One-to-one counselling support is available for adults aged 18 and over.
Alongside standard session fees, we offer concessionary and funded places where available, helping ensure support can still be accessed by people who may otherwise face barriers.
We work with a combination of self-employed practitioners, student counsellors, and funded placements so that people can access support whether they are:
- living on a low or reduced income
- referred through funded services or local authority support
- seeking lower-cost support through supervised student counsellors
- able to access standard counselling provision
This approach allows us to balance accessibility and sustainability while maintaining high-quality, locally delivered trauma-informed support.
Our Commitment
Through a holistic understanding of mind, body, and emotional well-being, A Positive Start CIC is committed to helping individuals heal, grow, and reconnect with themselves.
We work with schools, colleges, community organisations, and workplaces to help create environments where people feel safe, respected, and valued.
Together, we can build a safer, healthier, and more compassionate trauma-informed society.