Our Support Centre and main charity office base is in the middle of the Twerton, a bustling part of Bath with a huge community focus.
Our Centre is in the grounds of the Foyer (a residential support service for those aged 18-25), but we have our own separate space and small garden.
We know that visiting a new place can be an anxious time for trauma survivors, so we thought we’d give you a tour of the main space so that you can get acquainted and know what to expect:
The Centre is a bit tricky to find if you’ve not been here before.
It’s Breakthrough, The Foyer Annex, Dominion Road, Bath, BA2 1DF
Using the postcode sometimes takes people to Twerton High St, but we’re just off from there, so follow Dominion Road all the way around to the little staff carpark, and we’re the building through the picket garden fence at the other side of the carpark.
There’s free on-street parking along Dominion Road, or if you’re coming by public transport, the No.5 bus stops on Twerton High St every 10mins, and we’re a gentle 15min walk from Oldfield Railway Station.
There are 2 disabled parking spaces within the staff carpark that are open to visitors, shared with the Foyer.
View from the staff carpark
The main gate, press the buzzer on the left
Reception
Once you’re here, one of the team will sign you in, offer you a tea/coffee, and you can wait in reception until your appointment.
We have a community noticeboard with information about upcoming events, and pictures from some of our art therapy classes.
The Office
The main office space can be quite quiet, or it can be a hive of activity and conversations with different team members talking at the big group table, or working on some admin – and as a result, it’s almost always a mess! 🙂
Sorry about that!
Therapy sessions and assessment appointments are held at the other side of the building (through the door at the back on the left).
We know it can feel a bit daunting walking through the middle of an office, but we’re a lovely bunch, we promise.
Therapy Rooms
We have 3 comfortable therapy rooms for sessions, assessments, chats and meetings.
Therapists usually use the same rooms, but we do occasionally move around.
Giles’ has the room with the super-comfy sofa.
Louise’s small room is full of art materials!
And Jess’ room has the cosy cream armchairs.
Our therapy rooms are very individual to the therapist working in them, with sessions designed to meet the needs of each client, so we sometimes change the rooms around to match, make space for some roleplay work, bring in some softer lighting, or decorate each room with new plants!
The Group Room
Every organisation needs a multi-purpose room, and this is ours!
Our large group room is where we hold our therapy groups, art groups, meditation and exercise, daily community chats, team meetings, trustees meetings and training courses / events.
This room is constantly changing – in the morning it could be set up formally for a meeting, but full of fairy lights, stuffed toys, props and activities for a therapy group that evening, and then host to a messy art therapy class the next day!
You never know 🙂
The Den
The Den is our quiet room / small group room.
It’s full of comfy sofas, boardgames, beanbags, blankets and an art space. Designed to be like any community/family lounge space.
We know that the time between sessions can be difficult on a tough week, or that sometimes therapy sessions can be hard and you might need some space to sit and process after.
The Den is somewhere all our service-users can use throughout the week when they need somewhere safe to just ‘be’, or want to pop in to chat to one of the team over a cup of tea.
Breakthrough Community Life
The Breakthrough has a HUGE community ethos, so our Support Centre is a community space – people are welcome to ‘come as they are’.
Our Support Centre is a mix of life in all it’s ups and downs – full of great conversations, hard conversations, fun, tears, sadness, happiness, work and relaxation.
We hope that it is a space where people can find what they need, and meet with others who understand the experience of surviving trauma. Because people are stronger together.
