Always on
This project successfully funded on 11th November 2025, you can still support them with a donation.
Highlands Psychoanalytic Collective
Inverness, United Kingdom
£315
raised so far
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Aim
When a young person asks for help, we should be able to respond. Accessible mental health support for young people in Highlands.
When a young person asks for help, we should be able to respond
When they finally build up the courage to ask for help, they should not have to wait for months for someone to listen. Yet across the Highlands, so many do.
Behind every statistic is a young person trying to manage distress, loneliness, anxiety, trauma, or hopelessness — often without somewhere reliable to turn.
In rural communities, the barriers can feel overwhelming: long travel distances, poverty, limited local provision, fears around stigma or confidentiality, and services stretched far beyond capacity. The Highlands also continues to experience some of the highest suicide rates in the UK.
We believe young people deserve better.
Who we are
We are the Highlands Psychoanalytic Collective —a new charity created to ensure that when a young person in the Highlands asks for help, someone is there to respond.
In a culture increasingly shaped by quick fixes and short-term interventions, we want to offer something different: space to think, to speak, to be listened to seriously, and to find lasting support with the deeper difficulties young people face.
We are building accessible psychoanalytic mental health support for young people across the Highlands, with a particular focus on the transition to adulthood, a time when the right support can change a life.
With your support, we can help more young people find the care they need when it matters most.
What we are already building
In our first year, we have already supported over 100 young people through over 950 sessions and begun developing important new projects, including:
A new Youth Psychotherapy Hub in Nairn, developed in partnership with Nairn HealthCare Group, offering accessible, developmentally sensitive psychotherapy for young people.
The expansion of existing support in Inverness, including early intervention work, psychotherapy, and support for parents and families.
Creative outreach projects designed to reach young people who may feel more comfortable engaging through sport, creativity, or non-clinical community spaces.
We are currently the only psychoanalytic organisation in the Highlands, and our work extends beyond direct clinical support.
We are also creating reflective and creative spaces for the wider community, including:
Support groups for frontline workers managing emotionally demanding roles.
Training and reflective spaces for professionals and anyone interested in psychoanalytic thinking.
Community events around film, poetry, and culture.
The Highlands Dream Bank, developed in partnership with the University of the Highlands and Islands — a creative project exploring dreams, imagination, and the inner life of the Highlands through art, writing, and collaboration.
Everything we build is rooted in the belief that meaningful mental health support grows through relationships, creativity, community, and time.
Why we need your support
Demand for support is growing rapidly – we have experienced an increase in referrals of 25% over the past year - and we are currently operating a waiting list for our service, with demand exceeding resource.
As a small grassroots charity with a clinical team of experienced, qualified psychotherapists, we are working hard to build sustainable, community-based mental health services in an extremely difficult funding climate.
Your donation will help us:
Reduce waiting times for young people seeking help.
Make sure young people who reach out can actually be seen.
Expand early intervention support across the Highlands.
Develop accessible psychotherapy hubs for rural communities.
Continue creating thoughtful spaces for reflection, connection, and recovery.
Referrals continue to rise, but our resources are limited. Every week, more young people are seeking help than we currently have capacity to support.
Your donation, large or small, helps us respond when a young person bravely asks for help.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made