ACCORD N.Ireland Catholic Marriage Care Service CLG, Belfast

Marriage & Relationship Counselling
ACCORD NI Catholic Marriage Care Service counsellors are professionally trained in the complex specialism of Couples Counselling. They draw on the latest thinking in this growing field to enable couples and individuals to identify the underlying causes of their relationship distress, and to discover how they can build closeness, trust and commitment while reducing conflict and learning how to understand and work with their differences.
ACCORD NI CMCS are a charitable organisation committed to providing a professional counselling service to couples and individuals, married or in a relationship, regardless of faith, denomination or none. We accept and value clients irrespective of their religious or ethnic background.
Providing a counseling service incurs considerable costs. To cover some of the costs involved (training, supervision, continuing professional development, utilities etc), ACCORD has set a minimum client contribution of £30 per session (not per person).
Charges for a counselling session from other agencies or privately can be between, £40 & £60 per session.
If your financial situation is such that you are not in a position to pay, you can discuss this with your counsellor at the first session. ACCORD will never refuse counselling to anyone because of inability to pay.


Marriage Preparation
ACCORD NI Catholic Marriage Care Service Preparation Programmes offer an opportunity for couples to take time out from the pressures of wedding planning to focus on their relationship, identify their current strengths, and discover practical ways to build on areas that are in need of closer attention.

Couples Counselling
All ACCORD NICMCS counsellors are professionally trained in the specialism of couples and relationships counselling and, through the provision of a regularly revised, cutting-edge Continuing Professional Development programme, have regular access to the latest thinking in a range of associated areas of professional interest, such as:

• Working with the particular challenges presented by infidelity and its aftermath;
• The identification and handling of cases where domestic abuse is present;
• The complex challenges that emerge when diversity, in all its forms, plays a central role in challenging the stability of the couple relationship;
• The additional challenges which present within step/blended families.

Potential clients who contact ACCORD NI wishing to access the couples and relationships counselling service will be provided with an appointment to commence the ACCORD Needs Assessment Process. The Needs Assessment Process is designed to ensure that:

• The highest standards relating to privacy, safety, and ethical practice are discussed, agreed, and in place,
• To identify whether ACCORD NI CMCS counselling service is best suited to their current needs.

ACCORD NI CMCS counselling service is open to all couples and individuals who wish to work on their couple relationship. This includes those individuals who are co-parenting with a former partner and wish to improve the quality of that relationship.

Preparing For Marriage
The values underpinning the programme include:

• Encouraging the self-awareness and wellbeing of the participants as individuals;
• Focusing on the central importance of the couple relationship;
• Developing the skills needed to strengthen the intimate connection between the couple;
• Raising awareness of and developing the spiritual life of the couple;
• Highlighting what the couple can gain from/bring to their local Christian community.

Sessions are carefully managed by ACCORD facilitators to allow opportunities for Personal Noting, Couple Time, Time to Reflect and the noting of Actions for Later.

Courses are delivered by professionally trained facilitator teams based in ACCORD Centres in Ballymena, Belfast, Derry, Downpatrick, Enniskillen, Maghera, Newry, Omagh and Portadown. Couples may choose to attend an ACCORD Marriage Preparation Course elsewhere on the island of Ireland.

The course content is challenging and some aspects can take time to talk through and examine in the weeks following the course. If there is very little time remaining before the wedding day, there can be few opportunities to find quiet time together to work through important issues. Experienced ACCORD facilitators advise that couples book a course which is taking place at least six months before their wedding date.

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