‘It was like a lifeline’: the money clinics helping women escape financial abuse

‘We’re going to go through it all step by step.’ Sally Renfrey offers financial counselling through money clinics run by the Centre for Women's Economic Safety. Photograph: Ellen Smith/The Guardian

“Welcome to the money clinic,” Sally Renfrey laughs, gesturing to her dining room.

The sunlit dining table – set up with her laptop, coffee, an A4 notebook, two phones and some white chrysanthemums – is where Renfrey conducts financial counselling sessions, usually with her black labrador, Piper, lying at her feet.