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THE DOVE!
The Newsletter of Dove House Counselling Service
Belle Isle Christian Centre, Belle Isle Avenue, Barnsley Road, Wakefield,
WF1 5JY.
www.dovehousecounselling.org
e-mail: [email protected]
“Thank you for journeying with us”
April 2015 Bulletin
Co-ordinator’s Thoughts
This will be the final letter I write as Co-ordinator of Dove House. I write this with deep sadness yet also with acceptance
and a knowledge that it is now the right time, with immense gratitude and with a sense of excitement as to ‘what next?’
A combination of circumstances have helped us to realise that it is now time to bring Dove House to completion, and we
will be closing at the end of April.
How do you feel about endings?
An ending marks the beginning of a new stage in our lives, but it can often bring up acute feelings of loss.
It can often be the poor endings we experience in life that bring us to counselling in the first place. Sometimes we avoid
endings.
At Dove House we choose to learn from the experience of having a proper ending – acknowledging the work that has been
done with heartfelt thanks, saying goodbye with love, and moving to new beginnings.
To live is to embrace change, yet the love of God and His healing power remain the same. It has been our immense
privilege as counsellors to be entrusted by clients who have been willing to work on themselves and see lives transformed
by love. To walk beside clients who start to love themselves from a place deep within and then share that God given love
with others is to experience a miracle for which I give my deepest thanks.
As I write, I recall all the past and present dedicated counsellors and steering committee. I remember you each by name as
I give thanks for your commitment which doesn’t come without a price, not forgetting also the support you have given to me
as co-ordinator for the past 11 years. When I joined Dove House as a counsellor on its first birthday in 1997, little did I
realise how huge a part of my life it was to become. And so I thank my family, as well as counsellors and committee
members’ families, as giving voluntarily affects family life also.
Thank you too to our independent examiner for 14 years, our web designer, St Paul’s and BICC for use of your premises,
and the colleges and universities through which we have had placement students.
Thank you to each person I have met in my role as Co-ordinator. You have all shaped Dove House and taught me much.
And last but not least, a huge thank you to all of you who have prayed and supported us in so many ways.
Although Dove House as a charity is ending, the work we do as individuals will carry on. From Dove House we have those
who will continue as private counsellors, supervisors, ‘Empowering Women’ group facilitator (self-esteem for women), and
counsellors within other settings. If you require further information please contact me [email protected] Our
website and email address will remain open for a while too, to redirect clients to counselling and to answer any queries.
Dove House leaves a legacy of lives that have been changed. Mine included.
My deepest thanks and love,
Mary Flatman
“To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
1 Timothy 1 v 17
Words from a client
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to write this. It
has been so very healing and has helped me to realise
how far I have come.
I am just one person, but i have no doubt that Dove
House has touched the lives of so many people and
families. There is a season for everything under heaven
and for Dove House it has come to an end, but as one
door closes a new door opens.
“As I sit down to write this, I write with tears in my eyes,
tears of Joy and tears of sadness, to write about the work
of Dove House is my absolute privilege.
I walked into the room at St Paul’s Church Walton for my
first counselling session in September 2000, a very, very
broken 25 year old. I walked in with fear and trepidation
of the unknown, I had never been to counselling before
and really I had no idea of what to expect. I was greeted
by two lovely ladies who quickly helped me to feel calm
and ‘OK’. That was the beginning of a journey that has
shaped me and helped me to be the person that I am
today. At different times over the last 15 years I have sat
in that very same room week after week, month after
month, working on relationships that all my life were so
hard, working on myself as well as a child bereavement.
I am the wife that I am, the mother I am and the daughter
that I am and the person that I am, because of the work
of one very special lady, who through Dove House has
accepted me for who I am, who has helped to take all
that broken clay and by working with me, has helped to
mould the Rachel that has boundaries, that can love
herself for who she is and accept the person that God
created her to be.
I will never mean this word again as much as I mean it
now ‘Thank you’
In the words of a wonderful hymn ‘We will praise Him for
all that is past and trust Him for all that’s to come’.”
Beginnings and Endings
Beginnings can be kind: A first drop of
rain,
Tip of the sun rising at morning,
First green shoot that signals spring.
Awakenings of all kinds, these beginnings,
Like a newborn’s joyful snatch at breath.
Endings can also be kind: A lull in the rain,
Sunset drawing day to a close,
The scatter-art of autumn leaves.
Sleepings of all kinds, these endings,
Like a man’s last troubled snatch at
breath.
We make so much of our beginnings and
endings,
Clinging to wakefulness, dreading our
sleeping,
Blind to the beauty of cycles as
Rain gives way to sunshine, day to night,
Spring to autumn, our first breath to our
last.
Our ending too can be kind, it is not so
hard,
Without endings there can be no
beginnings.
Rob Radcliffe
Rachel
Dove House Personally Recommended Counselling Services
(donation basis)

UCHM - Christian and secular counselling, very similar
to Dove House, Huddersfield area. www.uchm.org
tel. 01484 461098

Bereavement counselling – 5 sessions free, Wakefield
area - Levi’s Angels Tel. 01924 200399

Well Women Centre
www.wellwomenwakefield.org.uk tel. 01924 211114
And finally…..
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until
we meet again, may God hold you in the palm
of His hand.
A traditional gaelic blessing