Change was the overriding theme at our AGM this year, held aboard Hobbs of Henley’s New Orleans boat. It was an opportunity to reflect on a year of significant change for Riverside Counselling Service, both in how we operate as a charity and in the difference our counselling has made to the lives of the people we support.
During the 2025–2026 year, we supported 308 beneficiaries and delivered 3,854 counselling sessions, providing vital mental health support to people across our local communities.
It has also been a challenging year for the charity. A reduction in grant funding meant we had to restructure and streamline our services, including scaling back our provision in Berinsfield and Didcot. These decisions were not taken lightly, but were necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of Riverside Counselling Service and to focus our resources where they are most needed.
Chair of Trustees, Cath McLaughlin welcomed everyone and thanked the Trustees and staff for their support over the last year.
CEO Sophie Wellings said, “Change has been huge and it wouldn’t have happened if not everybody was on board. Change is hard and never easy. It was needed to ensure our survival and organisational resilience.” Even though the charity has gone through restructuring Sophie emphasised that the charity’s mission to continue to provide affordable, accessible, clinically excellent, high-quality counselling in the community to local residents was still at the heart of everything the charity does.
The AGM started with two keynote addresses from Henley MP Freddie van Mierlo and Henley Mayor Councillor Ian Reissmann.
MP Freddie said, “I think the fact that you are able to provide something at an affordable and ongoing level means is such an important value. I realized going through my own therapy that a handful of sessions just isn’t enough. The last thing you need as well is a ticking time bomb.”
“We’re supposed to have parity of mental health and physical health, but we don’t. The proof point for me this year of that was when Oxford Health via the Integrated Care Board cut three mental health services. I made a big fuss of it through the media saying this is a big deal. To be honest, I heard crickets. Nobody really cared. The ICB got away with cutting that silently, quickly, without any backlash. If that had been a cancer service, all hell would have broken loose. There’s a lot of people who are going to suffer as a result of this.”
Henley Mayor Ian said, “At the finance meetings of the Council when we do our awarding grants, we get a number of applications from really worthy organisations in the town. We have to make what nowadays people call difficult decisions. But I have to say the decision to fund Riverside Counselling was not a difficult decision. You’re a great charity and you’re in an important space. As has already been mentioned, the issue of mental health is something that for a long time, it’s still true, it’s relatively hidden.”
Ian recounted his therapy experience, he said, “I still remember vividly some of the conversations I had with my counsellor, who was excellent, some of the advice she gave and some of the coping mechanisms. You live with those and they stay with you. Although I wasn’t by any means the worst affected of the kind of people who you do treat. I still find myself falling back on those strategies and remembering her very kind, supportive and healing words. So the work you do, don’t every underestimate it.”
Treasurer John Morrow confirmed that the charity is now in a good position with a surplus in the bank at the end of the year of £89K. The charity’s income for 2025-2026 was £246K with an expenditure of £216K. John said, “We have turned the corner and in a much better position. We are in a fortunate position unlike many charities who are struggling.” He praised Sophie, “Sophie has turned the fortunes around with a firm handle on the rudder.”
Head of Therapeutic Services, Emilia McIntyre outlined the impact Riverside’s work has made using the results from the CORE questionnaires that clients complete before starting and ending their counselling. Clients are asked about their day-to-day functioning in relation to their stress with scores ranging from ‘healthy’ to ‘severe’. Emilia confirmed that 98% of clients demonstrated an improvement in their CORE scores meaning those who were struggling with day to day tasks were able to complete them at the end and those at the severe end who were living without hope, gained some.
A new Riverside video was then shown telling Bella Hobbs’ story by her mum and Riverside Trustee Suzy Hobbs on the initial help she received from Riverside, how she overcame addiction and is now studying psychology.
The AGM ended with a question-and-answer session with special guest and former England international rugby player Josh Lewsey. Questions covered the pressures on mental health during his rugby career, how he coped after leaving the sport, the support he received from teammates and what excites him every day. Speaking about his son going into rugby, Josh said: “I don’t envy young professionals now. Back when I was in the sport, we didn’t have mobile phones, we were just having fun. I don’t envy the attention that now comes with the sport.”
His advice to young people was to choose carefully who they allow into their lives: “Choose who should be a piece of glass in your disco ball and pick different people who you want to be in your life.”
You can read our full 2025-2026 Impact Report here.