LifeLine Johannesburg is as a community based, non-profit organization (NPO) providing free mental health services to vulnerable communities.
Lifeline was established in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1969. We have been in operation for over 50 years.We operate in the Johannesburg Metro area as well as virtually throughout South Africa and internationally.
Our reason for existing
Private mental health counselling is unaffordable to most who need it. Government services are overwhelmed and difficult to access. The majority of South Africans are not able to access quality mental health support.
We offer free mental health services to individuals, couples and groups. LifeLine Johannesburg fills this gap between unaffordable private services on the one hand and overwhelmed government services on the other.
Our ethos and work modalities
How we
connect with you
Our mental
health workers
Our mental health interventions and courses are informed by the Person Centred Approach, Positive Psychology, Transactional Analysis and Solution Focused Counselling.
We serve clients and trainees through a blended approach of face-to-face contact and virtually. We operate face-to-face services from 20 sites across Johannesburg. We access clients and trainees nationally across South Africa and internationally through our various virtual platforms.
We number 107 staff members and over 100 volunteer counsellors. Our work force consists of a blend of registered social workers and trained volunteers. Volunteer counsellors are trained for a minimum of 127 hours over an 11 month period. All our mental health workers receive clinical supervision towards maintaining quality of service and preventing burn-out.
Our range of services
1. Mental health counselling
While we offer telephone counselling, our strength is in our unique and important face-to-face and online counselling sessions with a dedicated counsellor. We offer an ongoing journey with the same counsellor allocated to a client towards sustained growth and progress. Counselling services include individual, couples or group counselling and debriefing. We counsel clients on all life issues and provide trauma debriefing using predominantly the Person-Centred Approach developed by Carl Rogers as well as tools from both Positive Psychology and Solution Focused Counselling;
2. HIV Testing and Counselling Service
This service is offered face-to-face in high infection areas within the Johannesburg Metro. In addition to HIV testing and counselling it also includes TB screening, sexually transmitted diseases screening as well as blood pressure and glucose testing. We provide these services mobile, taking it directly to the streets of Johannesburg;
3. Gender-Based violence interventions and support
We offer Gender Based Violence prevention and post-incident response face-to-face and virtually from our offices as well as from 17 sites across Johannesburg;
4. Victim Empowerment Programme (VEP)
We assist and support victims of crime through emotional support. We are situated in the following local police stations: Norwood, Jeppe, Booysens, Brixton, Yeoville, Moroka, Dobsonville, Hillbrow, Diepkloof, Protea Glen Main, Protea Glen Satellite, Lenasia, Lenasia South, Naledi, Jabulani, Meadowlands and Orlando.
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Office hours: 09:00 - 15:00 (Monday - Friday)​
Contact VEP: 063 780 5635
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5. Training lay-counsellors
We offer a part-time comprehensive course that includes both self-growth and counseling skills. The training period comprises a minimum of 127 hours over a 11-month period. We offer this course both face-to-face and virtually.
6. A range of Soft Skills courses
Our reach
Annually, we average over 30 000 contacts with clients through our various projects and programmes.
Social Enterprise
We operate a social enterprise and income-generation division offering training and Employee Wellness Programmes to corporate entities for which we charge market-related fees. This self-generated income contributes to funding our free services to the key and vulnerable populations we serve.
Our Employee Wellness Division offers counselling and coaching services to the employees of small to medium sized companies.
Our Corporate Training Division runs courses face-to-face, virtually or using a blended approach. Topics include communication skills, trauma and trauma containment, stress, conflict management, assertiveness and emotional intelligence. We use experiential training as our training method. Our training is informed by the Person-Centred Approach, Positive Psychology and Transactional Analysis.
OUR DONORS
