I was going through a really difficult time in my life, it was quite a stressful time.
The problem with our job is it can be really full on, and you’re stuck in a bubble; be it a parish, be it a community like the one I’m involved in. Your social life and your ministry life, it all gets interlinked. It's a joy, but it can also be a difficult thing as well. The family feel it because you're there in the vicarage and it can be very intense.
It's quite a difficult thing to pick up the phone or to email someone saying, 'Listen, I need some counselling. Can you help me?'
The person I spoke to at Clergy Support Trust was just wonderful, sensitive, and caring and they just made it so easy. They didn't ask any sort of inappropriate questions or make me feel guilty or like I was doing something wrong.
It was so refreshing to know that they just understood.
As a Christian, I believe that God is interested in my mind, my body and my soul and even though my mum's a counsellor, the hardest thing in the world sometimes is to make that decision to go and see someone because you’re struggling. You can use all sorts of excuses not to get help.
Clergy Support Trust took the ‘I can’t afford it’, out of the equation and so it was just down to me. Its support enabled me to get some sessions to see someone. I hooked up with a counsellor and Clergy Support Trust paid them direct, so I didn’t need to worry about that part.
The counselling - it was just a massive game-changer for me. It was amazing not just for me, but also for my ministry, because if I’m not 100%, then my ministry is affected.
The more healthy I am in my head, physically and all the rest, the better I am to serve in the way I do.
I can't speak highly enough of Clergy Support Trust. The fact that they’re being proactive in helping you to help yourself, it’s just really refreshing.