gaia2407

Review of Body & Soul Charity

Was full of hope when I learned about this charity...

Was full of hope when I learned about this charity but was completely dissapointed. The staff are absolutely not trained in how to handle trauma. My initial assessment was absolutely awful- I was being asked very specific questions about my child abuse and being asked to go into a lot of detail.

As I have PTSD this obviously triggered me and I spent the rest of the day in a meltdown. I have had NHS assessments for the same type of therapy and never been asked to go into details of my abuse, in fact the NHS assessor told me they were wary of triggering me and assured me I didn't need to go into detail if I didn't want to. The woman at Body & Soul was pressing for as many details as possible.

I also specifically asked for EMDR as I feel DBT would retraumatise me, at the time the woman assessing me agreed but when I was contacted again I was told they'd decided to sign me up for DBT- despite the fact I explicitly told them it isn't appropriate.

This place is potentially very dangerous as they're referring people suffering with trauma to a therapy that is not suitable, as well as triggering them unnecessarily in the initial assessment. Even their manual for their DBT group is completely lacking in empathy stating things like "there will be phone support but it's not for you to ring up and complain about your life".

I'm also confused about how HIV and childhood trauma have been lumped together as if they're related? A very bizarre concept for a charity. Maybe they're better at helping people with HIV but if you're wanting help for trauma then avoid these people at all costs. Do your own research and make sure you know what you want!