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In 2017, Stepping Stones Counselling and Psychotherapy was formed by Rebekah Golds-Jones, who had a vision to provide reduced fee counselling for all 999 staff. At this stage, Rebekah had worked within mental health and learning disability services for 24 years which had included working closely with the emergency services, within both Ambulance and Police Street Triage teams. Rebekah has a core profession of being a highly experienced nurse, and began her journey to retrain in 2010, eventually qualifying as a Psychotherapist, Certified EMDR Therapist, CISM Practitioner, Mindfulness Meditation Instructor and Trauma Therapist.

 Rebekah's long affinity with mental health and wellbeing commenced at a very young age, with her passion for understanding the mind and how we as humans 'work' emotionally the direct result of her own life experiences and bearing witness to the experiences of others within her nursing work. Through experiencing her own life trauma, including the loss of her first child and coping with life changing illness, Rebekah has remained committed to reducing the stigma of accessing support for our emotional wellbeing, and enabling access to be considered as normal as attending a GP or Dental appointment. 

By this stage, Rebekah had also been the spouse of a member of frontline ambulance staff for 17 years and had experienced family life with a serving member of the emergency services; the long nights where shifts had overrun and there was no one to look after their children when she needed to get to work; observing the exhaustion as long, difficult shifts dug into family life; the times where her husband, Gareth, would arrive home having witnessed the death of a loved one which paralleled their own family and life experiences, or had attended traumatic, often major / high profile, incidents, which had a clear impact upon his emotional wellbeing. 

Over the years, Stepping Stones has become well known particularly amongst the ambulance community with large ambulance trusts awarding EAP contracts and the Stepping Stones team growing to include a broader range of therapists. Ultimately the service transitioned to become a Limited Company in 2020, with Rebekah at the helm as Managing Director and her husband Gareth supporting the service as a Non-Executive Director. Due to Rebekah's firm belief in recognising loyalty and hard work, she has awarded shares to all of her team in recognition of their commitment and dedication. Rebekah maintains a consistent commitment to ensuring the team act as a co-operative of voices and skills. All of the team meet fortnightly for supervision, both online and in person and are often commended by students on how supportive they are as a team to work within.

As the covid19 pandemic hit and lock downs occurred, Stepping Stones became even more widely in demand, and requests for support meant that it was time for Rebekah to step back more into a more Consultant based role, at which stage she appointed a Leadership Team to continue the day to day management of the service. 

Janine McCorry was therefore brought in as the Senior Lead Therapist for the leadership team and Lead Therapist for Referrals and Assessments, with Marisa Jakab coming on board as the Lead Therapist for Student Placements, Vanessa Tombs as the Lead Therapist for Supervision and Karen Polie as the Lead Practitioner for Service Development. The Directors, Leadership team and wider team are supported by Nina Aslett, who is PA to the Directors and Team Administrator to a team of 12 fully trained therapists.

 The Stepping Stones team is now providing a wide range of talking therapies, as well as Hypnotherapy, REWIND, EMDR, CBT, TF-CBT, Creative Therapy, Play Therapy, DBT and Systemic Psychotherapy, as well as therapeutic groups. Rebekah has continued her development by commencing her PhD at University of Central Lancashire in 2020, with her thesis focusing on Ecotherapy and the experiences of clients who opt for this form of therapy rather than the traditional consulting room. She has recently returned part time to the NHS to work within a very respected psychological service in London, as a highly specialised psychotherapist.

As we now move forwards from the pandemic, there are many exciting developments happening at Stepping Stones, which include an Ecotherapy service and a charitable arm which will enable UK ambulance staff to access therapy when needed without having to worry about cost. External specialists have been brought in to advise the Directors and Leadership Team around key business areas, and significant relationships have been formed with major players in the therapy world, who are fully supporting and enhancing the development of Stepping Stones  and enabling the specialist work provided to 999 staff to become even more enhanced. 

Rebekah and her whole team look forward to welcoming you to Stepping Stones, and to working with you to ensure you access the highest standard of therapy, through the safest and most secure platforms for online and telephone therapy, and in the comfiest, most welcoming surroundings for face to face therapy.

We are delighted that you are placing your trust in us.

With my warmest wishes,  Rebekah