Support for Men

You will be seen by one of our assessment team who can be either a male or female assessor, depending on your gender preference. The assessor will discuss a risk assessment and a support plan with you, to see how we can best help you. The assessment is very much a two-way process.

Once we receive your referral we will contact you via email to arrange an appointment. We recognise that taking that next step is very difficult and, if you prefer, we can carry out the appointment via a telephone call, to talk through any concerns you are experiencing and ways in which we can help you to overcome them. If you want to speak to someone who has had similar experiences to yourself, before talking to a counsellor, we can arrange for one of our male or female Friends of START to contact you.

Yes, we have a daily help and advice line specifically for males (telephone 01962 864433) which is available 10-2pm each week day. This is not an emergency line. We aim to return any calls left on the answerphone within 24 hours. We can also offer counselling online or by telephone.

If we feel you need other types of help, we will signpost you to other male services that we feel may be better placed to support you. These will be discussed with you and could be either the statutory services such as mental health, other health services or other specialist voluntary agencies. With your consent, we can contact them on your behalf. There are some national, male specific, helpful, online support services to which we may also signpost you, which offer help and advice.

We will keep you regularly updated on where you are on our counselling Waiting List. You can also attend one of our male-specific, STEPS Peer Support groups while waiting for counselling and we may also suggest other services which can help you while you wait. The initial assessment will identify any additional support we feel might help you, including possibly contacting crises teams on your behalf, as START is not an immediate crises service. These will be services which can work alongside START services.

Yes, to support you for the initial assessment or for a session of face-to-face counselling, but not at STEPS Peer Support group meetings.

No, we do not discriminate between males and females, as we view everyone we see as survivors, having experienced unwanted sexual trauma. We have unisex toilet facilities at our offices in Winchester and may have unisex or separate facilities for males and females at our locations in Andover and Basingstoke.

No, we operate an appointment only system.

Yes, we run STEPS Peer Support groups specifically for males. Self-referrals to these groups can be made through our website’s Contact page. These groups meet monthly and are led by male facilitators.

We use the RADAR issues and outcomes tool created by The Survivor’s Trust to record your presenting issues at assessment and to chart your progress through counselling. Progress will be reviewed every six weeks, with you and the counsellor completing a new RADAR form. You will have copies of each RADAR form so that you can see the progress that you are making, during the process and when the counselling sessions end.

While we try and match each individual with a compatible counsellor and will always ensure your gender preference is respected, in rare cases the counselling relationship doesn’t work as well as we would hope. Should this issue arise, you can raise it during your first three sessions and ask to have another counsellor. We will seek to find an alternative counsellor as quickly as possible.

Yes, we collect data using the details submitted on the referral form, adhering to current GDPR legislation. This information is used, anonymised, to support funder reporting and to determine trends and demands, which helps us in planning future service needs. Your personal details are kept on a secure computer database and once you end your contact with us, we destroy all personal records after three years as part of our GDPR policy.