Relate West Surrey is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee, which operates within seven local boroughs. It is also part of the Relate National Federation. Its charitable objectives are as follows:

To educate the public concerning the benefits of secure couple relationships, marriage and family life in order to improve the emotional, sexual and spiritual wellbeing of individuals which is derived from committed relationships.

To seek to enhance the good health, both mental and physical, of adults, children and young people by increasing public awareness of the benefit of committed couple relationships, marriage, and family life; and working to prevent poverty, hardship and distress caused by the breakdown of such relationships.

To provide counselling, advice, education, guidance and relief to adults and/or children in relation to any aspect of contemporary life or work which may prejudice their physical and mental wellbeing or influence, either directly or indirectly, their present or future family or couple relationships.

• To relieve those in need by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantages.
• To promote research into all of the above objectives and make the results available to the public.

Couple relationship breakdown is a common feature of today’s society. It has damaging consequences both for the affected adults and their children. Relate West Surrey performs a front-line role in seeking to prevent this. Our counselling not only helps our immediate clients, it also benefits the wider community in many ways, for example:

• Reducing working time lost by stress and mental health issues
• Discouraging domestic violence
• Helping to prevent or stop drug and alcohol abuse
• Preventing or stopping child abuse
• Improving the attendance and performance of children at school
• Stopping disruptive and anti-social behaviour
• Reducing levels of teenage pregnancy

This, in turn, reduces pressure on agencies such as the Police, NHS and Social Services, including Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.