Where do LION clients come from?

Clients who have completed their year at Pause (a national charity which helps women who have had a child taken into care) can be referred for LION Therapy. Also clients can be referred through the Care Leavers’ Association, NHS primary and secondary care services (Complex Needs, AMHT, GPs), ‍ Social Services or Probation, or indeed by self-referral through the LION website. Suitability for LION is assessed by an emailed questionaire, then clients have an initial assessment with a LION supervisor to ensure they are in the right place to start the work, both psychologically and practically.

How does LION contract with clients?

Clients sign a contract laying out what they can expect from the therapist and what the therapist will expect from them when they decide to start weekly psychotherapy, for a minimum of 24 months. They make a financial contribution for every session, according to their means, which counts towards the £50 the therapist receives. This is likely to be in the £5-£25 range. If, after 24 months, client and therapist wish to continue the work together, they can contract to do so independently of LION Therapy CIC. Hopefully by this point the client will be successfully earning and can pay for their own therapy.

The reason for offering a minimum of 24 months of therapy is that in order to deliver the therapeutic phases described in What is LION, there is a significant period of time during Phase 1 where the client may need time to learn they can trust their therapist. This is especially challenging for Lion Therapy clients, since life has taught them to expect people not to stick around.

Ideally, LION Therapy would be available to any care-experienced individual nationwide. However, to begin with, LION Therapy will only draw referrals from across Oxfordshire.

How is LION Therapy’s Efficacy Assessed?

To judge whether or not LION Therapy is effective at improving client’s well-being, functionality and efficacy in the world, clients fill out the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire when they start and when they end, and complete an Assessment Questionnaire on a monthly basis, so LION Therapy can track changes in their mental health over the 24 months of treatment.

The Reflective Functioning Questionnaire is designed to demonstrate shifts in self-esteem. Self-esteem is a quality derived from two independent variables: 1) self-efficacy and 2) quality of relationships. Both these factors have a profound effect on whether someone can manage their emotions well (or whether they can’t and turn to unhealthy support mechanisms, eg. substance abuse, threatening behaviour or actual violence). These variables also determine how well they cope with challenges in their personal and working life eg. can they productively resolve differences with a boss/partner/child, thereby keeping themselves employed, in a relationship and parenting effectively.

A thorough evaluation of LION’s efficacy is undertaken every 24 months of operation and the findings will be published on the website.