Class barriers to psychotherapy and counselling

This paper focuses on the barriers to the uptake of counselling and psychotherapy from a social class perspective. It begins with a definition of class before discussing particular aspects that inhibit uptake. Barriers focused upon are those regarding travel, costs, child care, appointment times and location of actual therapists. Likewise barriers to the effective outcome, for example cognitive and verbal abilities of clients, are addressed and the way in which these barriers inhibit the referral rate from particular social groups. Finally the self-imposed barriers of certain social groups are explored regarding self exile from the counselling arena.