The local charity, which offers counselling to islanders regardless of their ability to pay, tends to be particularly busy at the beginning of the year, said director Alison Rimington, who is also about to qualify as a student counsellor.
‘We see an upturn in enquiries in January, with a 50% overall increase year on year,’ she said.
On top of all the commonly-known contributors of this long month – miserable weather, minimal daylight hours and heightened financial struggles – Mrs Rimington said Christmas, and post-festive reflection, was often largely to blame.
‘Christmas shines a bright spotlight on relationships – both family relationships and our personal relationships. It puts us under so much pressure to provide, to perform and to be the best version of ourselves. It can sometimes also lead to people recognising ruptures in their relationships, or showcase the reasons why they don’t want to spend Christmas with their family.
'Often people are off work over this time, so there’s a break in routine, too. And an extended period of time, often with family members. It’s intense. Christmas can highlight the issues within their family that they’ve never really addressed. Cracks appear that they can’t get away from, and the flip side to that is – those who are on their own.
‘That spotlight can also shine on loneliness, and isolation or on bereavement. It just brings a lot of stuff up. And then the New Year comes as another massive pressure to think about your life – a reminder that another year has passed. Are you where you hoped to be?’
Enquiries at the GCS were up already this year compared to last, she said. Exact figures have not yet been shared, but previous data shows that last year the service received 183 enquiries, 49 more than in 2024. In the same year, it held a total of 784 sessions – an increase from 656 sessions the previous year.
‘You will tend to see an uptick in any general counselling service like ours at this time,’ said Mrs Rimington.
‘I remember years ago Relate putting some statistics out about how they got a massive increase in referrals to their services in the first couple of months of any new year. There’s a lot of things that play into that, which can all be quite complex.’
Mrs Rimington added that counselling can help address the root cause of mental struggles, and offer relief.
For a chat visit the GCS website.
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.