New partnership to offer therapy for vulnerable adults and marginalised communities.

Vulnerable adults and people from marginalised communities will be able to access a new and free therapy service led by Goldsmiths and supported by Lewisham Health and Care Partnership.

Delivered by postgraduate counselling and psychotherapy trainees under close supervision from qualified clinicians, the service offers up to 20 weekly sessions of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. It is particularly for people from racially and religiously minoritised communities, as well as migrants and asylum seekers, who are often least likely to receive talking therapy.

" I am very excited to be managing this project”, said Beverley J. Weston a Goldsmiths masters graduate in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. 

The service is open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, with trainee therapists working under the close supervision of experienced, fully qualified clinicians, ensuring safe and professional care. 

Therapy will be offered to those suitable on a first come first served basis after completing an initial triage referral form. You must be registered with a Lewisham GP, live in the borough or consider Lewisham as your primary base.

Kelly Rhamie from Lewisham Health and Care Partnership said:

“I am really pleased to see this intercultural therapeutic service commissioned for Lewisham. Services like this show what is possible when we work jointly across organisations and genuinely listen to our communities. By grounding service design in real experiences and cultural understanding, we can support people in a way that feels meaningful, safe, and respectful. I look forward to seeing the positive impact this service will have for our residents.”

Many of the trainees have substantial life and work experience, not just academic training.

Stella Imadiyi, a CBT trainee at Goldsmiths, University of London brings her own history of caring into the therapy room. She grew up looking after both her parents - her mother living with depression and her father as her main carer. It’s this experience that shaped her path into mental health support.

“I remember we used to see therapists who were looking after us as a family. That experience drove me towards this point in my career.”

Stella volunteers her time to gain clinical experience, but says it’s about much more than course requirements:

CBT is about understanding how thoughts shape feelings and behaviour and then gently changing that pattern, Stella explains.

“If someone believes ‘I can’t do it’, or ‘I don’t believe in myself’, CBT helps move them forward towards a different inner voice that says; ‘Let me give it a try’”, Stella explained.

“The treatment doesn’t replace medication but offers practical tools to manage thoughts and reactions.”

Stella and her colleague Natalia Wolski, a psychodynamic psychotherapy trainee who also studies at Goldsmiths, both work with racially and religiously minoritised clients, migrants and asylum seekers who may be wary of statutory services or fearful about confidentiality.

Psychodynamic therapy looks more at how childhood and past experiences shape adult life. “It’s like getting into the passenger seat with a client and exploring the roads they’ve travelled,” Natalia explains, “the potholes they hit, the turn they took - to understand how they arrived at this point and how they might choose differently in future,” 

By integrating an intercultural therapy approach, the differences that race, culture, class, and faith make to our mental state and the path to our well-being can be faced. “Finally, being seen and heard can be profoundly empowering."