Wonderland – the Trouble With Love and Sex, on BBC2 on Wednesday night, is an animated documentary set to the voices of three people being counselled by Relate. Here's a brief guide to the organisation.
▶ 156,000 people used one of Relate's services in 2009/10.
▶ 71% of clients seek relationship counselling, but family counselling (7%) is the fastest growing area. Sex therapy accounts for just under 3%.
▶ £45 is the average hourly cost of a session: counselling lasts six sessions on average.
▶ Relate operates 77 centres across the UK.
▶ Relate launched as the Marriage Guidance Council in 1938 "to safeguard the family as the basis of community life". It was re-named in 1988 in recognition that it was also dealing with same-sex couples, single people, children and families.
▶ Relate's busiest periods are around Christmas and new year, and in September when children return to school with family holidays having triggered conflict.
▶ 15% of its clients are in their 20s, 38% in their 30s, 31% in their 40s, 10% in their 50s and 6% in their 60s
▶ Most people turn to Relate when their relationship is seven years old.
