Body & Soul Charity Review

This amazing place is truly possibly the very best place in the country for HIV pos women, their partners, familys and their children. It has a incredibly dynamic youth team, for the kids of positive parents or young positive teens. It is run by the most incredibly wonderful women and men too, with a premises that is sooo welcoming and inviting -you just MUST check out their beautiful website which has all the info you could need about the huge range of wonderful programmes and opportunities the offer. This place is truly special and i have seen a lot of others. It grew out of a seed from the passion and determination of 2 incredible women (Emma and Paula) who fought so hard with every ounce of energy and fight they could muster, because they believed in what they were doing, and they believed in the women themselves and what they needed, which was not be addressed back then, even at the hieght of the HIV epidemic. You cant not be completely impressed by this place and its people, and you will, im just certain, want to return. Check out their website and look at all the incredible servicves and support the offer. All wrapped up in love, family, good food, and belonging. They all deserve a medal of the highest order! We love you!!! xxx

Nice place. Good staff. Wonderful interior. They provide great services for young people

Good for work shop or meetings - they provide free condom at the restrooms Hihihi...

Good people doing some great work in a really important area of charity work.

Nice building, friendly staff, good amenities and refreshments

This is a lovely venue run by committed and enthusiastic staff. The rooms are bright and airy, the food is fantastic and it is a pleasure to work there.

Five stars is easy to click, but the real awards line the shelves right there in reception, and rightly so. So many good things happen there, and it's a rock in a great many people's lives who are impacted by an HIV diagnosis. Family focused, a warm safe environment, and a privilege to have volunteered there.

I am proud to say that I work for Body and Soul. Their efforts are tireless, their creativity relentless, their warmth is all encompassing.

These are the people who can always be there for you in any situations.

I don t even want to give it one star tbh. Appearances aren t as they seem with this so called charity. Seemed like a lovely venue and environment but it s actually toxic. I m still to this day not received an email back for my complaint that was supposed to be escalated to the CEO. I was forced to leave due to staff and DBT therapists actions and attitude and it was the same for my friend who went here. Personally this shouldn t even still be allowed to run. I wouldn t recommend this to anyone who needs DBT.

In my history of services I have encountered (I grew up in care so it was a lot) I have never and probably will never again encounter what I did when I went to Body & Soul charity and the experience I had with them. To cut a long story short there will be a lot left out so please bare that in mind. I was so hopeful when I found this place, in fact I cried when I did. To be able to find a service within the U.K to look AT THE TRAUMA you have been through is very hard, it it almost all about dealing with present behavior those individuals are displaying and not the trauma that was inflicted on them. This place advertises that YOU WILL LOOK at the trauma inflicted on you. This is untrue. I had an assessment with someone called Daryl who told me it was not important for him to know my seconded name but it was for me to know his, because once I google him - to which i interrupted and said what I will see all these amazing things about you? I am not here for you, I am here for me. He also did not say anything to me when collecting me from reception and instead insisted on small talk whilst going up the stairs to our assessment room, which made me very uncomfortable. When I had concerns about the program they was referring me onto (which Daryl runs) I was told to take it up with Daryl at my second assessment as my first assessment was with someone else. Yet, when I did this, the programme facilitator was defensive rather then inclusive of my concerns that this was just another "coping with current behavior" thing and he was extremely combative with me. He also kept asking me if I wanted to leave - and this is supposed to be a place for traumatized people?!? This all came out of me just saying I want to deal with my trauma not current behaviour. I was then told by Daryl I will kill myself if I looked at my trauma. He then casually took out a piece of paper and read everything off casually in a bullet point way about my current struggles. Nice. After about the 10th time of him asking me if I wanted to leave and saying "are we done here?" I got up and walked out. I was very upset and was crying. Someone in the main office asked me how it went on the way out of the building to which i turned to her and said loudly you guys are what makes people like me worse you said I can look at my trauma - to then i was interrupted by Daryl trying to usher me out the building using his body, speaking over me and telling me to leave. I continued answering the lady's question and he continued to usher me out. No one in the office did anything. He managed to push me as far back as the main door to which i said to everyone in the office you have a fully grown man doing this to me in front of all of you and you are all just sitting there gawmless, not doing anything. And I swore at them and went out the door that Daryl had pushed me back to. I have faced immense amount of trauma in my life, and it took every bone in my body and all the previous help i have received not to attack Daryl and smash up the building. I am adding this so people understand the elements and such complex needs people like me have and these incompetent people are advertising to come. When I left that appointment, I wanted to kill myself. I felt hopeless, abused, belittled and in despair that a professional place can treat me like that. The whole appointment was recorded on Daryls phone, I dont know if it was personal or work. I rang within 10 minutes to request my data most importantly the voice recording and basically I was fobbed off till they had enough time to write up the report and delete the recording. So I received my data after a month of that appointment after numerous emails and countless phone calls ( I called about 6 times on the day this all happened and every day after) and has SPECIFICALLY requested the voice recording in all correspondence, and what did I receive? I received a written report from Daryl himself of our assesment. That was it. No voice recording, nothing. Then they started ignoring me. I did google you Daryl - Your a P.E teacher. That explains it.

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!

Not a bad word to say about them they have given me so much support.

A great place for both members and staff! An open, warm and welcoming space with a real and genuine family feel. Leading the way in treating and supporting those with emotion regulation difficulties, those affected by HIV and adoption among many others. Deserve more than 5 stars in my opinion!