About Respect for All
Putting our clients first
At Respect for All we offer humanistic client led counselling & educational and peer support groups for autistic people, for learning disabled people, and for their families and carers, throughout the whole of Greater Manchester.
What makes us unique is that all our counsellors and facilitators are either neurodiverse themselves or have significant lived experience with our client group. We can offer services in English and British Sign Language.
Our team of specialists deliver various models of therapy tailored to meet the needs of the client. Therapeutic approaches may include, but are not limited to, person centred, integrative, solution focused, trauma informed, play therapy, neuro linguistic programming (NLP), cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and non-verbal and art therapy.
We believe that everyone is unique and different, and we all deserve the space and time to explore our thoughts, feelings and beliefs in order to gain a better understanding of why we think, feel and act the way we do.
Our History
RfA was set up in 2002 by 4 counsellors who had working/family experience of people with learning disabilities and autistic people. As experienced counsellors, they were aware of a real gap in provision and understanding of this client group, so they founded Respect for All (RfA) to provide skilled and timely counselling provision across Greater Manchester.
As RfA’s reputation spread, the organisation successfully applied for charitable status which meant it could apply for funding grants which included among others Lloyds TSB Foundation, Trust House Foundation and more notably a 5 year Grant from the Big Lottery.
All our counsellors are self-employed and choose the number of hours they work for us, we now number 34 counsellors who have a diverse mix of skills, experiences, expertise, genders and ethnicities, so we are able to offer a wide range of therapeutic interventions. All our counsellors have personal or lived experience of autism and / or learning-disabilities. We also provide student counsellors placements and many of them have gone on to work with us after qualifying.
We do not have an office base and work 100% remotely, initially the organisation was run by the founding members overseen by the Trustees.
We are always looking out for new counsellors or student counsellors to join us, please do get in touch if you want to know more or have any other questions about the charity. Email: info@respectforall.org.uk
Who Are Our Clients?
Learning Disabled People
A learning-disabled person can have difficulties in understanding new or complex information and may find it hard to cope independently. These difficulties have been present from an early age.
There are many other kinds of learning difficulties, for example “specific learning difficulties” such as dyslexia, or people with head injuries or recovering from a stroke. We are sorry our service does not include people with these kinds of difficulties. Please contact us if you are not sure whether you would be eligible for our service.
Learning disability or limited communication skills do not prevent you from taking part in counselling, but some mainstream services have difficulty offering the flexibility and understanding needed.
Autistic People
Autism (including aspergers) is a lifelong condition that affects how a person communicates with, and relates to, other people. It can also affect how they make sense of the world around them. Autistic people may also experience over- or under-sensitivity to sounds, touch, tastes, smells, light or colours.
It can be difficult to get a diagnosis for Autism and so we do not require that you have a diagnosis. Please contact us if you are not sure whether you would be eligible for our service.
Families and Carers
We believe that a holistic approach is crucial when working with clients. Families and carers can be such an important part of everyone's lives.
We work with families and carers to explore and better understand autism and learning disability in the context of relationships, family dynamics and how your beliefs and society influences how we think, feel and act.
For families and carers the most difficult part of accessing our service can be finding the time! We try to be as flexible as possible with regards to how we support you. This could be online or in person or over the phone. We can also help to signpost to other agencies which may be of use.
