Alice Vine, our amazing founder of Purple House Clinic Lincoln founded the Purple House Clinic Lincoln back in 2018. On 17th July 2023, she celebrated her fifth anniversary of providing mental health services across the Lincolnshire area. Through challenges and triumphs, the clinic has flourished, responding to the increasing demand for specialist mental health support services in the region.
“I started Purple House Clinic Lincoln because I wanted to have the autonomy to shape my own service for families, young people and adults,” said Director, Alice Vine. “We’ve had to adapt and grow to meet increasing demand in Lincolnshire. There are long waiting lists for mental health support in the surrounding area, and coupled with Covid, it has made it much harder for people to get the support they need, and that’s had a knock-on effect.”
From its humble beginnings five years ago, Purple House Clinic Lincoln now has four employees, including an administrator, practice manager, service manager, and a Clinical Psychologist, and ten specialist associate clinicians who support over 245 clients in and around Lincoln. They are continually looking to add to the multidisciplinary team of clinicians to meet the ever-growing demand for services, particularly with neurodiverse assessments (ASD/ADHD) where they have seen a 50% increase in demand since they started.
“When I started the business five years ago, I knew it was a risk,” said Alice Vine. “All new business ventures are, but I’m hugely proud of how far we have come. It feels like we really get to make a difference in the local community. Mental health is so important and the more we talk about it, the easier it is for others to express themselves. We still have more female than male clients, but we have seen a clear shift in more men seeking help. This is partly due to a more widespread general awareness and acceptance – something that we welcome.”
As demand has grown from clients, the number of services that Purple House Clinic Lincoln offers has also increased. Alice is particularly passionate about increasing awareness of the efficacy of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) – a growing treatment that Prince Harry and Miley Cyrus have both credited in interviews as having a significant positive impact on their mental health.
Alice shared her upcoming plans, saying, “In the future, we would like to be a central hub for professionals and clients in specialist trauma provision for children and families. We will continue to build an increased focus on trauma specialist assessments and interventions and develop our skills in working with EMDR with these client groups. Our aim is to meet the growing demands, whilst continuing to offer a high level of service with a strong commitment to our core ethical framework WISE.
“We’re passionate about working with local schools in the future and helping develop a greater understanding of mental health and neurodiversity in the classroom. We have achieved a huge amount in the last five years, and with our strong clinical and administrative team we now have in place, this has given us a really solid foundation to build upon for the future, where we can help more professionals be able to transform trauma narratives with young people and their families. We live in a rapidly developing world, but we’ll continue to be a leader of ethical, personal and easy-to-access support when people need it most.”
We’re extremely proud of how far Alice and Purple House Clinic Lincoln have come in the last five years and can’t wait to see what they achieve, now and into the future.
Purple House Clinic Lincoln is located at The Terrace, Grantham St, Lincoln LN2 1BD and serves clients across Lincolnshire. The clinic works with both adults and children, helping a range of mental health difficulties including depression, anxiety, phobias, PTSD, complex trauma and personality issues. The clinic also provides a number of specialist assessment services including assessments for ASD, ADHD, learning difficulties (Educational Psychology), and sensory difficulties (Occupational Therapy).