Cygnet North East began back in November 2014, when we set out on our new venture because Kelly was looking for more from her career. She spent many years working in the voluntary sector supporting various client groups from a wide range of backgrounds.

Following a number of redundancy situations and wanting to progress her career, she set up Cygnet as Cygnet Career Counselling Ltd. That name didn’t last long though as it was a mouthful and a bit American and so we shortened it to Cygnet Careers.

In May 2017 Cygnet North East Ltd was formed – a company limited by guarantee to allow us to work with the clients we want to work with more easily through funded projects.

Kelly encouraged her husband Ian to be a director of the company right at the beginning as she knew his skills would be beneficial to Cygnet. Later, Kelly worked on a festival called Under the Dome and met Steve who has a much better head for figures than her and brings that help to the company.

What we do

We work with many different people who are experiencing dissatisfaction with their work or their mental health or both, and we have a particular interest in working with people with brain injury and other disabilities and health conditions.

Life after brain injury / disability can be tricky but we like to look at what you can do not what you can no longer do and inspire your rehabilitation, which can be difficult but can be done with the right help and support.

How we do it

We help you to improve your skills

It can be difficult to be successful in getting a job, particularly when you haven’t applied for anything in a long time or you’ve had a change in your health since last time you applied.

We can provide you with the help you need to not only be successful and be offered the job, but we can be your critical friend. We will give you timely and honest feedback about your application and help you produce the best CV you can.

We don’t write the CV for you because we know that you will be more successful if you write your own CV (with our guidance) so that it truly reflects who you are, your skills and your passions.

Emotional Support

Finding a job can be hugely stressful so we will be your biggest supporter, helping you to overcome those self-defeating thoughts, giving you tips to deal with interview nerves and helping you to identify what makes you the best person for the job.

If you have a health condition that makes it difficult to manage work, we will help you to identify a suitable job and support you to ensure that your employer is aware of all the help they can get to make reasonable adjustments.

We are happy to work with you on a one-to-one basis, but most of our work is done through funded group workshops. You can find more information about our work and how we can help on our careers page.