How Students are Transforming Support at Peile House

 At Peile House, YWCA Yorkshire’s homeless women’s hostel, the traditional boundaries of support are being expanded. Through a special collaboration between seasoned practitioners and a new generation of students, residents are gaining access to a holistic suite of therapies.

The students are being supervised by YWCA Yorkshire Project Manager Claire Harding and University and College Tutors. Together, with Project Worker Keeley Mountford, partners are managing the counselling assessments and referrals. Both Claire and Keeley are committed to growing and diversifying the charity’s therapeutic support offer. The duo have been fundamental in strengthening partnerships with universities and colleges to deliver new placement opportunities.

A qualified therapist with a Post Grad Diploma in Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy from Derby University, Keeley advocates better access to therapy for families and sees first hand the impact of talking therapies with people who have experienced trauma.  For Keeley, the integration of student placements at Peile House wasn't just about supporting placement students to meet their set ‘counselling hours’, it was about providing life-changing interventions that are often locked behind long waiting lists and can feel out of reach for many.

"Psychotherapy is a game changer," Keeley explains. "Our women, children and families have often experienced multiple complex traumas. At Peile House, we can assess the needs of people and start their therapy within a relatively short timeframe. This is quite different to what someone might expect if they tried to access therapy out in the community. Our approach is to support women recovering from homelessness to build a trusted relationship during a period of recovery, to help women grow their confidence and their understanding of behavioural patterns and to find long term solutions."

The Power of Movement: Shyla’s ‘Embodied Rebellion’

Among the students partnering with YWCA Yorkshire is Shyla Toulalan, a first-year Dance Movement Psychotherapy student from the University of Derby. Shyla’s approach is rooted in the belief that for those who have experienced trauma, sexual abuse, or are in drug recovery, movement therapy can access trauma that's stored in the body and open up new ways of being that were previously unknown.  Shyla uses movement to support women to open up and heal.

"Working with the body is like creating an embodied rebellion," says Shyla. "For me, growing up with ADHD, too many environments felt like they were suppressing what I needed to do in order to regulate myself. This can create internal chaos. The only way to release that is through movement."

Shyla is supporting young homeless women at Peile House every Thursday until June 2026. Her work begins not with complex choreography, but with being present and building relationships and trust.

"Movement might come later," Shyla explains. "It can start with the rhythm of speech. The goal isn't a time-limited intervention, but growing awareness and maintaining safety. "

Breaking Barriers: Nicola’s Accessible Therapy

While Shyla focuses on connecting movement and speech, Nicola Afzal, who is studying Level 4 Diploma in Counselling Practice at Chesterfield College, is busy dismantling the clinical barriers of traditional psychotherapy. As the first student therapist at Peile House, Nicola has opted for an ‘open-door’ approach rather than a rigid booking system.

"The women know I’ll be here every Tuesday," Nicola says. "It works because they can trust I’ll be around and people are starting to expect me, and are even waiting to tell me the things that happened the week before."

Nicola’s journey to re-training as a therapist happened later in life following multiple events of personal loss.  She decided to put her life experiences together with her natural caring and non judgmental nature and retrain for a meaningful career.  Through Peile House, Nicola is working with homeless women, aged 16 to 25. Many of the women have had previous experiences with professionals that have broken down or not been maintained for long enough. Thanks to Nicola’s considerate and no-pressure approach to building relationships, the women are gradually starting to open up in the safe space created at Peile House.

"Success to me is when a woman comes back each week because she knows I will be there and she knows that talking can help," says Nicola. "One woman told me, ‘I’ve been waiting to tell you something - I needed to share.’ That is the breakthrough. Peile House is a place of recovery, and it’s absolutely fantastic to be able to grow their support offer and meet women with what they need when they need it."

Research with Purpose: Eleanor’s Social Policy Impact

The support and student partnerships at Peile House extends beyond the therapy room and into the realms of systemic change. Eleanor Moody, a second-year Applied Social Sciences with Social Policy student at the University of Sheffield, is also working with YWCA Yorkshire, bringing an academic lens to the frontline service.

Eleanor is working with staff and residents on a research project to identify the impact and lessons learned from the Future Forward pilot project.  Future Forward is a 9-month pilot programme designed to lift young people (aged 16-25) in supported housing out of poverty. A partnership between YWCA Yorkshire and Sheffield Foyer, it provides tailored support to boost income, skills, and career prospects, helping residents overcome financial barriers while securing their housing benefits. 

Eleanor's role is to gather and analyse the outcomes of the project using her research skills developed on her university degree - linking the direct effects of social policy to people's everyday lives. 

Eleanor said: "From my perspective, I wanted to get involved with a real world project and really get stuck into understanding that causal link - there is a lot to be learnt outside the academic environment and this particular projects brings with it the opportunity to find something out that could lead to a systemic change - that is really exciting.”

Eleanor’s work will culminate in a research poster presented to the charity, highlighting issues with policy that could be used to advocate for the women she is meeting. For a student aiming for a career in the civil service or a think tank, the experience is invaluable. "It helps me explain academic jargon to non-specialists and provides the charity with research they might not otherwise have the resources to access."

A Holistic Future

Under the guidance of Claire Harding and Keeley Mountford, these three students—Nicola, Shyla, and Eleanor, are proving that the journey out of homelessness requires more than just a roof. It requires a safe space to talk, a way to move through trauma, and the ambition to advocate for a better future through policy change.

As Nicola observes, "It’s about the relationship and the timing - at Peile House, both can align for the young women who finally have somewhere safe to recover from homelessness and start building a better future.”