Dedicated volunteer reflects on 40 years of offering relationship guidance in Chesterfield

Teresa Cresswell, who lives in Somersall, was recruited as a trainee relationship counsellor in 1983, completed psychosexual training in 1985 and counselled until 1989 when she became a member of the board of trustees which she now chairs.

She said: “I have been proud to play a part in ensuring that Relate Chesterfield continues to thrive and provide the much needed quality provision to the people of north Derbyshire. My mission is to continuously ensure the quality and secure our future.”

Among the changes that Teresa has experienced during her time with Relate was the withdrawal of council funding, leaving the charity solely reliant on client contributions. She said: “Because of the socio-economic demographic of Chesterfield and North Derbyshire, our self-pay income is low. Our charitable aims are to see people when they need help irrespective of their ability to pay. So a significant change has been to seek contracts from Health and Derbyshire Council and also to seek grants from trusts and trust providers to provide us with the resources to maintain our services and provide our clients with either free or much reduced costs for counselling provision. Currently we are extremely proud to say seventy percent of our clients receive a free or subsidised service.”

Diminishing access to health and social care, in particular mental health provision for young people and adults, has had an effect on charities such as Relate. Teresa said: "People are more and more turning to the charitable sector for help. This has impacted upon the type of problems we see, thus culminating in increased training to help counsellors manage more effectively with the problems people are presenting with, in particular mild to moderate mental health problems, in the young and older people and domestic violence.”

Chesterfield Relate was the first in the country to pilot telephone counselling and to establish in partnership with Derby Relate a service for young people called Safe Speak during the early Nineties. Since then Chesterfield has launched a new provision for young people called SPACE involving five specialised young people counsellors and offering table tennis, football, snooker, arts and crafts to those who are waiting for counselling or who have been through counselling but still need support and confidence to be independent and access education.

Two years ago Chesterfield Relate office relocated to Dents Chambers in New Square from Sheffield Road. Teresa, 73, said: “We were able to sell the property and invest the money to provide us with further income to maintain our counselling provision. We now have eight counselling rooms all designed to meet Covid reqirements and provide space for other similar organisations to utilise our premises at reduced cost. This provides us with additional resources to see our clients. Our premises are known as the Relate Hub, where we hope to open it further to attract greater partnership working to help maximise interagency support for the people we see.”

Teresa’s commitment to Relate has been honoured by fellow trustees who presented her with an engraved vase at a celebration to mark her 40 years of volunteering.

Relate (formerly Marriage Guidance) has changed considerably since Teresa joined. She said: “The word ‘Guidance’ was never reflective of the counselling ethos, where the work has always been to equip people with the skills to consider their options and make decisions best suited to them. Relationship counselling is a vehicle for this, and equips people with the skills to go on and manage their difficulties more effectively.”

Teresa was working for the NHS when she was selected to join Relate. She said: “Whilst I was a health visitor I realised that many families were asking me about relationship difficulties and I did not have the skills or knowledge to support them, nor were many able to travel to access help. I recognised that I needed to acquire counselling skills to help families and individuals reach conclusions on how to manage their own difficulties. This way individuals were better equipped to manage things for themselves.”

Working for 13 years as a health visitor mainly in the Clay Cross area, Teresa was active during the miners strike in supporting families who were in stressful situations and experiencing food poverty.

She then moved into the role as health promotion co-ordinator for Chesterfield and secured funding for the multi-agency project UNIT 10 which included housing, benefits, nursing, youth provision and counselling.

Teresa was later seconded to the Department of Health to work on developing the National Sure Start Programmes and mainly worked from the Midlands to the North. She was ultimately appointed as the Sure Start Lead for Health in Derbyshire, working closely with councils, voluntary sector, child specialist services, health visitors, midwives, housing, benefits and education. She said: “The Sure Start Programme was a successful multi-agency integrated programme that provided early intervention in areas where the need was great. The Queens Park Centre was a flagship centre for the Sure Start Programme, not just for the setting but for the integrated working.”

Teresa is married to Brian, has a daughter Emily and has lived in Chesterfield for 54 years.

She is a volunteer with the Cinnamon Trust, a charity that supports people who are frail or elderly and need care for their animals when they are unable. She said: “I foster care dogs and currently have a dog, Jasper, on permanent fostering.”