About / Our Founder
It began with a voice on a night bus
Karen Ager has spent 36 years alongside people living on the edge of society. In 2016, that lifetime of work became Pathways For All People.
A lifetime of walking alongside
Karen Ager is a qualified, accredited, experienced counsellor and therapist with 36 years' broad experience of working with all kinds of people between the ages of 11 and 70-plus — including those with learning difficulties, the elderly, the homeless, people struggling with substances, children and teenagers in difficulty, and those living on the edge of society.
Karen specialises in all types of abuse: sexual, emotional, physical and self-abuse. She also has deep experience with social exclusion, post-traumatic stress, relational and anxiety issues, loss and bereavement, depression, and all types of dissociation and attachment issues.
Qualifications
- BSc (Hons) Therapeutic Interventions for Addictions
- Accredited Counsellor Practitioner
- EDI Level 4 NVQ in Leadership and Management for Care Services
- Mental Capacity Act Level 3
- Advanced Groupwork Training
- Safeguarding Adults for Managers
- Advanced First Aider
- Risk Assessment Level 2
- Fire Safety Manager
Karen's story
My name is Karen Ager. I have been working alongside people who find themselves living on the edge of society for 36 years.
The idea for Pathways For All People came about out of the blue shortly after I became a Christian — before that, I worked in the electronics industry.
I was sitting on a bus one night going home, and the doors of the bus opened to let someone off. I saw a guy sitting in a shop doorway with a blanket over him. I heard a voice out of the blue saying that one day I would be working with people like that. In my mind's eye, I believed it was God talking to me — and I replied, "OK Lord, as long as it's not in London!"
Life ticked by for a couple of years. After my partner was tragically killed, I had more time on my hands, so I thought it was a good opportunity to dip my toe in the water and started helping out at a drop-in centre. I took to it like a duck to water, and after the second week I became second in charge — supporting people by attending court with them, visiting them, and helping with housing. I supported those with mental health issues, often visiting people in psychiatric hospitals, and supported their families where needed.
I soon left the electronics industry behind and started working with people as they left large institutions and re-adjusted to living in the community. There were some very sad situations — including one lady who became pregnant at 16 and was kept in an institution until the age of 81. It was my job to help her re-adjust to normal living, which gave me great job satisfaction.
As time passed I branched out into the homeless field — I was fortunate to be successful in every vacancy I applied for! I joined a new organisation of like-minded Christians; we lived in Surrey, commuted into Kings Cross, and brought people back to Surrey if they wanted a fresh start in life. That experience laid valuable foundations for my career.
I went on to run a homeless project in Hounslow, and quickly discovered most of the people there had addiction issues — so I trained in addiction, completing an honours degree in Therapy for Addictions and becoming an accredited counsellor.
I took six weeks out to work in Hong Kong with people who had lived with heroin addiction for forty-plus years, and watched them become drug-free through prayer. While sitting on Hong Kong Island at 6am one morning, an eagle flying overhead, I heard a voice again: "I would like you to work with women with addictions."
Back in the UK, I was asked to manage a women's rehab — within the month I had moved to Dartford. When funding cuts turned that programme into a day service, I was headhunted to manage another women's rehab, this time for mothers and babies, in Andover. The work was hard — I was the only therapist and counsellor — but deeply satisfying.
After working in Southampton with Street Scene, I had the idea of branching out on my own. A care-providing team assured me that if I set up, they would support me with clients for a year until I was established. I soon became a victim of my own success!
After 11 years, funding within social services began to dry up — so in 2016, Pathways For All People was set up to help support those who find themselves living on the edge of society.