Early Intervention and Prevention
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.
The APS Early Intervention EFT Pathway™
A structured six-session early-support, programme helping adults understand stress-related coping patterns, reduce the intensity of urges, and build practical emotional regulation strategies for everyday life.
The River Room Songbook & MBIMB Tour
A trauma-informed music-and-movement programme supporting children's emotional literacy, body safety awareness, confidence and nervous-system regulation through engaging school and community-based learning.
STAND - Parents as Protectors
A preventative safeguarding programme supporting parents and carers to recognise grooming behaviours, trust their instincts, strengthen protective confidence and respond earlier when something does not feel right.
Latest Funded Projects for 2026
Family Recovery & Emotional Regulation / Survivors' Speakers Corner
Funded support for families affected by alcohol and drug use, strengthening emotional regulation, communication, connection and practical coping through trauma-informed group work. (SFAD 2026-27)
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Our Survivors Speakers Corner is a women-only safe space for female survivors to connect, be heard and share lived experience within a supportive, trauma-informed environment centred on safety, choice and dignity. (Volant Charitable Trust, 2026-29)
Harestanes - A Restorative Rural Setting
Our base at Harestanes sits within a beautiful rural environment surrounded by nature, offering a calmer setting for counselling, learning and community wellbeing.
The wider site also includes a cafe and independent shops, and a children's adventure park, making it a welcoming place to arrive, slow down and spend time before or after a session.
For us, the setting matters. Feeling safe, grounded and connected to the environment can be an important part of how people experience support.
Working With a Student Counsellor
Some clients choose to work with one of our carefully selected student counsellors as part of their counselling journey.
Our student counsellors are in the later stages of recognised professional training and work within clear ethical and professional boundaries. The receive regular support from A Positive Start CIC alongside external clinical supervision, and through their training provider.
Student counselling provides an accessible way to receive support while helping future practitioners develop valuable supervised experience.
- Carefully selected and supported
- Regular internal and external supervision
- Lower-cost counselling options available
Corra Foundation Boost Fund
Thanks to a £2,700 Boost Fund grant from the Corra Foundation, A Positive Start CIC is able to offer 18 x fully funded six-session counselling blocks at no cost to the person receiving support.
The grant contributes towards the cost of delivering the sessions, with A Positive Start CIC meeting the remaining cost.
18 x Fully Funded Counselling Places
£1,350 of grant funding remains available as of 21/09/2026
The River Room & My Body Is My Body
Our work with children and families includes two connected but distinct strands: emotional regulation through The River Room Songbook, and age-appropriate body-safety education through the My Body Is My Body Foundation.
Deborah Crozier is Head of Scotland and UK Ambassador for My Body Is My Body, as well as a member of the Foundations Advisory Board. She also collaborates with founder Chrissy Sykes on River Room resources and wider prevention work.
The River Room Songbook
The River Room Songbook supports children's emotional regulation through music, movement and simple, practical techniques that can be used at home, in school and in community settings.
The songs and activities are designed to help children recognise feelings, understand what is happening in their bodies and learn gentle ways to regulate, settle and reconnect.
It is an accessible, trauma-informed approach that helps make emotional learning simple, memorable and engaging.
My Body Is My Body
My Body Is My Body provides age-appropriate body-safety education for children, helping them learn about boundaries, safe and unsafe touch, speaking up, trusted adults and personal safety in a way that is clear, supportive, non-frightening.
The Foundation provides free resources for children, parents, teachers and professionals, including songs, educational materials and safeguarding tools that can be used across home, school and community settings.
Visit the My Body Is My Body website to explore the free resources and learn more.
Our Commitment
At A Positive Start CIC, we are committed to creating support that feels safe, compassionate and genuinely human.
We believe people should feel seen, heard and understood – whether they come to us for counselling, early intervention, education, safeguarding support or community-based programmes.
Our work is rooted in person-centred values, trauma-informed practice, prevention and the belief that meaningful change becomes possible when people are given the right conditions, the right support and the space to move at their own pace.
People First
We believe support should begin with the person, not the problem.
That means listening carefully, recognising individual strengths, respecting choice and creating space where people can feel safe enough to be themselves.
Our work is never out fitting people into a fixed process. We adapt our support around the individual, their circumstances and what feels most helpful to them.
Whether through counselling, early intervention, education or community work, our aim is to help people feel more understood, more connected and more able to move forward in a way that feels right for them.
More Than a Job
A Positive Start CIC was created, developed and grown from lived experience of trauma, recovery and healing.
As a third-sector organisation, this work is deeply personal to us. We understand how much it matters to feel genuinely seen, heard and supported because those values were shaped by our own experiences.
That lived understanding sits alongside professional training and experience, helping us create support that is compassionate, practical and grounded in the realities of people's lives.