A CHARITY set up in memory of a teenager who died after falling from Accrington’s Arndale Centre is set to offer the free mental health therapy she was denied.

Burnley-born student Lauren Johnson, 17, was fatally injured after plunging from the sixth floor of the car park, in Union Street, in June 2014.

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Following her daughter’s death, Dawn Johnson set up the Lauren’s Place charity, which offers support to teenagers battling mental illness.

For the first time this weekend the charity will be offering free counselling and workshops at their new base at The Elysium Centre in Great Harwood.

Mrs Johnson, who lives with husband Ian, in Blackburn Road, Oswaldtwistle, said: “We’ve got workshops sessions that will be starting on January 9. They’re going to be open to 16 to 18-year-olds as is the aim of the charity. The first one will look at stress management, stress in school and relations and how to deal with that.

“We want people to have skills to deal with situations going forward.

“It’s going to be a confidential self-referral service so people don’t have to go through their GP or mental health team. People can contact us and we will put them in to an assessment field and that will determine what therapy would be most suitable for them.”

Mrs Johnson said the counselling sessions would take place every Saturday afternoon and the workshops would be every other Saturday. From 7pm to 8.30pm on Tuesdays will be art therapy and the centre will host counselling and clinical hypnotherapy at the same time on Wednesdays.

She said: “The art therapy was something that was recommended for Lauren but wasn’t made available to her at the time. She was let down in that sense.

“I think she would be really pleased that these workshops are now being made available to others.

“She wanted to be an ambassador for mental health in young people. She was always a person who helped others. She would give up her dinner money so someone wouldn’t go without. So I think she would be really pleased with this.” Mrs Johnson said long-term Lauren’s Place wants to get its own premises so it can offer even more services to young adults.

For more information or to book a place on a course visit http://laurens-place.org.uk/ or search for ‘Laurens Place’ on Facebook.