Body & Soul Charity - London

Anonymous

Only had an assessment but it left me feeling extremely anxious. I was apprehensive about receiving DBT due to previously being told this was not an appropriate treatment for PTSD. I was also apprehensive about the charity itself given it's poor reviews. In answer to all my concerns the assessor kept repeating the line that programme only works if you commit to it. This is of course true of any treatment, but doesn't answer the question of whether it's the right treatment for PTSD; as an analogy, chemotherapy may be very effective for treating cancer, but you wouldn't prescribe it for pneumonia. Their explanation for the poor reviews was to turn the blame on the patients in question, implying that they hadn't engaged properly with the service. Given that there are multiple people alleging abusive behaviour from the same practitioner, this seems an implausible explanation. Overall I felt the assessor was blaming me for the failure of the treatment before the treatment had even began, and decided not to proceed. DBT may well be a very effective form of therapy for some people, (it may even be effective for PTSD), but I have too good a sense of self-preservation than to engage with a charity that speaks to prospective patients like this. If you are referred here, just a few words of advice: trust your instincts. If things don't feel right, leave.

Jacqueline Baguma

These are the people who can always be there for you in any situation. They have touched so many lives and our youth from childhood up.

It is the university. They provide so many different services for both Adults and children.

The volunteers are wonderful and doing great work without them and the funding B&S can't manage. This is Charity that every one needs to fight isolation depression and anxiety/mental health. Live long B&S.

Laura C

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!

China Li

The best mental health care I’ve ever received came from here. I have to emphasise that this is not a time-limited programme with a fixed number of sessions; the community exists for a member forever after completion. Prepare to realise how much everyone needs some DBT skills - if I could I would make all my friends and family take this course!

Amelia Broadway

I had such high hopes after learning about this charity. I was on a waiting list for over a year for DBT treatment. Our first groups sessions were online due to covid and I have never ever experienced or witnessed such disgusting treatment of myself and other group participants. Daryl was leading the zoom he refused to acknowledge peoples names and got sheer pleasure out of people crying and getting upset. He was vile nasty and just plain cruel telling stories of people he had kicked out of therapy and finding it hilarious using vile language and picking on everybody individually then laughing when they cried. After multiple of us on the group had psychiatric diagnosis’s he continued to tell us to not take our medications leading me to end up in hospital that night. after being discharged from the group for no given reason other then him saying I couldn’t be mentally ill because my childhood was healthy leaving me humiliated and lost in front of a group. NEVER ever go to this so called charity. Everyone there is horrid and not qualified to deal with traumatised individuals.

Phil Whelan

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.

gaia2407

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!

Yasmin Asset

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.