From its earliest days the Council began providing practical help for people with ‘marriage difficulties’.

After the end of the Second World War the work of the Council began to grow rapidly with thousands of requests for help being received per month.

1945 also saw the year when training people to become counsellors started. This was at the request of the Citizen’s Advice Bureaux in London who were inundated with the number of people with marital problems coming to them.

With such a growth in activity in London it was no surprise that other groups were being formed in different parts of the country. This growth in regional groups led to some form of affiliation to the Council. In 1946 an independent London branch was formed. In 1947 the National Marriage Guidance Council was created and composed of representatives from each regional branch.

In recognition of the importance of having properly trained counsellors the then Home Secretary in 1949 established the Marriage Guidance Training Board to administer a grant for the selection and training of counsellors and administrative workers.

This government recognition and funding, coupled with increased links with mainstream medical bodies, was responsible for the continued growth of marriage guidance organisations in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

However, as society changed so did the perception of marriage guidance. The sexual revolution in the 1960’s, the women’s liberation movement, the growth of cohabitation and the decline in those who were getting married all meant that marriage guidance began to have negative connotations.

To combat this National Marriage Guidance Council was renamed Relate in the 1980’s. However, the London branch was unhappy about the new federal structure and decided not to join believing instead that London needed its own dedicated service.

To this day Relate do not provide a low fee service in Inner/Central London, making Relationship Counselling for London's service unique in its ability to serve all Londoners.

Throughout our existence the agency has had to change as London society around it has changed. The major changes in London’s demographics in the early 21st Century led to a major debate within the agency about its name. This debate ultimately led to us changing our name to Relationship Counselling for London, and the name has been retained for our clinical service since joining our new parent body, the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships in 2005. The change was made to convey to all Londoners,that irrespective of their marital status, age, income, ethnicity or sexual orientation "help is just a phone call away”.
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