The Cambridge Psychotherapy Assistance Trust, registered as a charity in 1989 (Registration No. 800946), helps local people get psychotherapeutic help they could not otherwise afford.

We raise money and receive donations which we give out as grants to help people pay for psychotherapy, specifically those who wish to take up or continue the longer-term psychotherapy associated with psychoanalytically-informed psychotherapy.

This may be by providing a grant to help a person get started in a therapy; by supplementing a patient’s own limited funds during a course of long-term therapy when it would harm the therapy to cut down for purely financial reasons; or by providing interim help for those already in therapy who find themselves in unexpected financial difficulties.

We support individual, couple, and group-analytic psychotherapy. Occasionally the Trust can offer some financial help to the parents of children who need therapy.

This help is restricted to those living or working in the Cambridge area whose therapist has qualified from an approved analytic training.

We aim to reach those who are in most financial need, for example:

  • People with low incomes. We are particularly concerned to offer help to those people who cannot afford even short spells of therapy because their financial circumstances and family commitments do not allow it. Many of these people may be in stressful jobs, unemployed, or may have difficult lives.
  • Single parents and the recently bereaved, who are often having to deal with a reduced or low income and increased responsibility for children.
  • Students. Even though there are several student counselling services in Cambridge, we find that students can need our help, especially graduates.
  • Caring professionals. The work of those in the caring professions is often very stressful and poorly paid.
If you are seeking psychotherapy and think you may meet the conditions for our help (see Applying for a Grant) we can put you in touch with a psychotherapist on our list of qualified psychotherapists, who support our work by taking on patients at lower-cost and paying an annual subscription to the Trust. We can also refer to trainees in the later stages of their trainings who are on the UKCP register for Trainees.
Alternatively, you can find a therapist using the ‘Find a Therapist’ sections of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy and the British Psychoanalytic Council websites (www.psychotherapy.org.uk, www.psychoanalytic-council.org) which provide contact details of psychoanalytic psychotherapists both in the Cambridge area or where you live if outside Cambridge. These are nationally-recognised professional bodies for the accreditation of psychotherapists. All therapists on our list are either registered with these professional bodies or have trained with their constituent member organisations.
If you are a psychotherapist and have a patient who you think may benefit from our support, you are welcome to contact us to discuss the situation (we are concerned exclusively with financial matters and have no interest in, and do not enquire into, the confidential details of the therapy).