Counselling for Renal Patients across Dorset

We are pleased to inform that all our renal patients across Dorset can now access free and confidential face to face or online counselling services. If you are due to start dialysis, or you are already receiving dialysis, please do not hesitate to ask a member of our renal team to be referred to the renal counsellor.

If you are waiting for a kidney transplant, recovering from a kidney transplant, or maybe you are an altruistic kidney donor, you can also benefit from this service with our renal counsellor.

You can also talk to our renal counsellor if you choose not to have dialysis or a transplant but choose for your kidney disease to be managed supportively.

What is counselling?

Counselling is a short-term talking therapy which can offer you the opportunity to explore issues, concerns or distress affecting your day-to-day life. The non-judgemental and empathetic environment built on trust between you and your counsellor can create the safe space where you can feel confident enough to express your deepest thoughts and feelings without the fear of being judged.

Renal counselling

Our renal counsellor offers up to 15 sessions on a weekly basis, and each session is up to 50 minutes long. Sessions can be arranged face to face or online using the platform called AttendAnywhere.

AttendAnywhere is a very simple way of attending the sessions and very simple to navigate. Your counsellor will text or email you the link to your appointment that will take you straight to the waiting room, which means you do not have to be an IT wizard to attend the session.

Face to face sessions are provided in both the Poole Dialysis Unit and in Dorset County Hospital Dialysis Unit.

If you think you could benefit from talking to our renal counsellor, please ask a member of the renal team to refer you. The counsellor will then contact you in due course.

Contact numbers

We hope that you have found this information useful. If you have any questions or are worried about anything, please speak to the following Dorset County Hospital staff:

Renal specialist nurses: 01305 254782
Renal secretaries: 01305 255269

Useful websites

www.kidney.org.uk
www.dorsetkpa.com
www.kidneycareuk.org

About this leaflet

Author: Eliza Modzelewska, Renal Counsellor
Written: May 2024
Approved: February 2025
Review date: February 2028
Edition: 1

If you have feedback regarding the accuracy of the information contained in this leaflet, or if you would like a list of references used to develop this leaflet, please email patientinformation.leaflets@dchft.nhs.uk