Urgent help
If you need help right now
This website is not a crisis or emergency service, and enquiries by email are not monitored around the clock. If you are in danger, or worried about your safety or someone else's, please use one of the services below straight away.
If you are in immediate danger
- Emergency
- Call 999 or go to your nearest A&E
- Urgent, not life-threatening
- Call NHS 111 and select the mental health option
- Samaritans
- Free, 24 hours a day. Call 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org
- Shout
- Free, confidential 24-hour crisis text line. Text SHOUT to 85258
Why this page exists
Ann Purves Counselling is a private, appointment-based practice. Sessions are booked in advance, and there is no facility to respond to messages immediately or provide support outside of arranged appointments. If something urgent comes up between sessions, or before a first session has been arranged, the services above are there for exactly that: free, confidential, and available right now.
If you're not sure it's an emergency
You don't need to be certain something counts as a crisis to reach out to Samaritans, Shout, or NHS 111. They're there for any level of distress, not only the most severe. Reaching out early is not an overreaction.
Ongoing support
Once any immediate risk has passed, counselling can be a good place to work through what led to that point. See services & fees or get in touch to arrange an introductory chat.