Founded in 1970, The Arbours Association is a registered charity providing personal, psychotherapeutic support and places to live outside mental hospital for people in emotional distress.

Our aim is to provide home-like, non-institutional settings where emotionally distressed individuals can feel safe and contained whilst attempting to resolve their life problems.

We believe that many people who might otherwise be trapped within an ill identity need the opportunity and encouragement to come to terms with their problems. We intend that Arbours should be a safe place where people may encounter selves long forgotten and where they can contain and regain their experiences and achieve a sense of integrity and autonomy.

We wish to relate to individuals as people not patients and strive to help them to take responsibility for their lives,

both practically and emotionally. Since the first Arbours Community opened in 1970, the organisation has expanded into an interconnected network comprising:

For over thirty years the Arbours has helped individuals with a range of problems including those suffering from depressive or psychotic breakdown, self-harm, eating disorders, sexual problems, anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties as well as problems relating to critical life events, such as marital breakdown and redundancy.