ACC began its life as Littlehampton and District Counselling Service in 1983. The idea was to provide an almost free counselling to people in Littlehampton. The service was run entirely by volunteers. Training was provided by Joan Miller who was a trainer at the Westminster Pastoral Foundation. Joan was a Quaker and was much involved in the Friends’ Meeting House in Church St. The initial eight volunteers met in the upper rooms at Joan’s home in Arundel and undertook a four-year training course on counselling. Anna remembers the training as being gruelling and rigorous. The course was accredited by the University of London.
Back then ACC did not have its own premises and so clients were seen in lots of places such as doctor’s surgeries and the old Dairy in Littlehampton. Despite this service started to grow and by the time it was renamed Arun Counselling Centre it has 12 counsellors many of them trained or in training with Joan Miller. Eventually other counselling courses developed in West Sussex and Joan focussed on offering a counselling service rather than offering training as well. Many of the counsellors at that point undertook their training through other courses at Northbrook College in Worthing.
The service found its first home at what is now the mobility centre in Littlehampton, Anna Barnard, one of the original counsellors and later a Director and Chair of Trustees at ACC, recalls that ACC had “a very nice set of rooms there, for a very small amount of money”.
The service grew slowly and naturally. ACC moved to Dove Lodge in 2002. It gained charitable status and continued to offer low-cost counselling, but has always managed through prudent management to remain solvent. It continues to offer such a service and to provide valuable placement opportunities for students who are training with local providers such as Chichester University, Cara Counselling and other centres in Brighton and Horsham.
