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.
(You can also get to know some of the team in advance over on our Meet The Team page so you can put a face to a name before an appointment)
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 Street rather than to us, 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. (Follow the short path with the black metal handrail from the carpark, down a slight slope, and we’re through to our black gate on the right – photos below).
What3Words: grain.home.sound
By car:
There’s plenty of free on-street parking along Dominion Road.
But unless you’re a Blue Badge holder needing a disabled bay, please do not park in the little carpark. The carpark is allocated parking for multiple organisations and is in regular use for on-call staff members.
There are 2 disabled parking spaces within the staff carpark that are available to visitors with a Blue Badge, shared with the Foyer.
By public transport:
– the No.5 bus from Bath city centre and main Bath Spa train station stops on Twerton High St every 10-15mins. Or if you’re coming from Bristol’s direction, people usually find it easier to get the X39 bus to Newbridge and then take a 10-15min walk across by one of the 2 not very scenic alleyway cut throughs by The Locksbrook Inn or Lidl instead of going all the way into the city centre and back out.
– we’re a 30min walk from Bath Spa Station or gentle 15min walk from the smaller Oldfield Railway Station in Bath.
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 Offices
We have 2 small office spaces split between the therapy team and charity team. The main office can be quite quiet, or it can be a hive of activity.
Our team of 9 all share the same 2 spaces, and as a result, the office is 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.
Alicia & Giles mainly share the room with the stripy carpet which is a cosy room mixing a traditional therapy room with space filled with a table and a range of art resources too, so the room looks slightly different every time.
Johanna & Louise have the big art room which is full of materials, cushion corners, and a LOT of plants.
And Janet and Lucinda’s room has the cream-coloured armchairs and is usually lit by cosy lamps.
Our therapy rooms are very individual to the therapists 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 🙂
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.
