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JANE Freak, Rachael Sanya and Brooke MacInnes are exposed to a side of life many would rather not dwell on.

The Horsham counsellors are privy to people's trauma - including that of children - through their work at The Sexual Assault and Family Violence Centre.

The centre offers counselling to victims of sexual assault, covering all ages and genders.

The three women provide support to people in six shires and hope one day they can do more to further help people in the region.

Ms Sanya said counselling provided people with a safe space to talk.

"Sometimes family members don't always understand what it is like for someone who has gone through this, but we are here to give people a choice if they want some support," she said.

"It is a non-judgemental space for them to explore and try to understand what has happened to them."

People can access the centre's services by making an appointment, or through a referral process from another agency.

Ms Freak said the first step was an intake appointment.

"This is just to talk to them about what our services are, what we can offer, and a little bit about what's brought them to us, just to make sure that we are the right service for them," she said.

"From there, it is their choice if they want to come back - we are all about providing choice, especially after something has happened to them that has been out of their control."

The counsellors operate loosely on a 12-session model.

"From some people, it might be they only come in for a few sessions and that's enough for them, but for other people - particularly if they have had significant trauma over a long period of time - they might come in for 12 months or more," Ms Freak said.

Victims often find it difficult to talk about what has happened to them, but the counsellors said that was okay.

"If they don't want to talk about what's actually happened to them, we can focus on how it has had an impact," Ms Freak said.

"They might be dealing with nightmares, flashbacks or anxiety - things like that - and we can work on reducing some of those symptoms until they are comfortable enough to talk about what has happened.

"For some people, they might never talk about what has happened and that's okay. We respect that."

Ms Freak said she giving people a voice was important.

"For some people, this might be the first time they have ever spoken about what happened to them," she said.

"We see a variety of people, I've worked with little kids and I've sat with an 80 year-old who has never spoken about something that happened 60-odd years ago.

"She only came in once, we had a lovely chat and that was all they she needed - but she had been holding on to that for years.

"For some people, to finally have a voice and have someone listen and validate what's actually happened is pretty amazing."

The centre has an eight- to 10-week waiting list, which Ms Freak said was the lowest it had been for a while.

The three women are stretched thin across the region and try to provide support to as many people as possible.

Ms Freak also sits in Hamilton and St Arnaud, while Ms MacInnes travels to Nhill and Warracknabeal and Ms Sanya visits Stawell.

"We haven't got an outpost in West Wimmera - which we would love - but between the three of us, we are covering as much as we can," Ms Freak said.

"At the moment, we can cope with the counselling, but we've all identified that we would love to provide extra services like group work.

"There are some really great programs that our main office down in Geelong offers and we would love the space and time to be able to do that.

"For some people, doing group work and connecting with other victims would be ideal for them and they might not need counselling."

Trying to get to all the people that needed help was also a challenge.

"With such a broad area we have to cover, it's difficult to be accessible to everyone," Ms Freak said.

"I sit down at Hamilton but people in my catchment area there might still be driving an hour to get to me.

"This is the same at Warracknabeal or Nhill or St Arnaud, so we have to be creative about how we make our services accessible to people, especially when we don't have a good public transport system."

However, despite the challenges, the counsellors agreed that their jobs were very rewarding.

Ms Sanya said it was wonderful to see how much counselling could make a difference to someone.

"Sometimes you can just sit there and listen to someone talk and listen to them cry and they are so appreciative because that's exactly what they needed," she said.

"Seeing people come through that journey and seeing the difference it has made in their lives is the most rewarding thing for me."

The Sexual Assault and Family Violence Centre also provides counselling to family members of victims.

"Sometimes when you have a young person who has been sexually assaulted, their family is their biggest support and they want to know the best way to support their child, so we provide sessions on how to respond to their daughter or son," Ms Freak said.

The centre also does family violence counselling for women and children up to the age of 18, along with a program for children who are displaying sexually abusive behaviours.

"The sexual abusive behaviours treatment services is another program for children up to the age of 17, where they might have displayed some behaviour that's a bit out of the norm for their sexual development," Ms Freak said.

"So we work with them and their families to understand that behaviour and put them back on the correct path so that it doesn't become a problem behaviour down the track."

The Sexual Assault and Family Violence Centre is located at 25 Roberts Avenue, Horsham, and people can call them on 5381 1211.

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