Our Story
 
Not Just You is a charity founded in 2021 by a community of survivors of sexual violence. We were assisted by East Kent Rape Crisis Centre who gave us a studio to meet in, put up posters to help new participants find our support, helped us navigate ethical decision making and even paid for some training. Our trustees, staff and volunteers are all survivors and have all attended our groups so they understand better than anyone what our community needs.

Our basic belief is that we need each other. When you share your darkest or most troubling thoughts, feelings or memories and another person looks you in the eye and says, “yes, I’ve had those thoughts, I know those feelings,” suddenly you are not alone in your darkness any more, someone is holding up a corner of that weighty covering and letting in a little bit of light.

Coming to terms with sexual violence can feel incredibly isolating and being together in that is the antidote.

We know that things can get better because we’ve made it happen for ourselves and we don’t ask you to do anything we haven’t already benefited from.

Our Promise to You

Our personal experience has led to professional learning and our professional learning has benefitted our personal experience. Our staff and trustees have undertaken training in counselling, safeguarding, peer support, creative writing for therapeutic purposes certification, trauma informed practice, peer support, therapeutic groupwork and more. We pass this training down to our volunteers and through psychoeducation in our groups.

Our facilitators undertake regular supervision from the Survivor’s Network, a charity with decades of experience providing survivor led care.
We registered with the Charity Commission in 2021. We abide by the ethical framework of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists. We have insurance and indemnity cover and abide by all applicable UK legislation. We are fully committed to working confidentially, ethically and safely in a non-shaming anti-discriminatory way.

Give it a try. It worked for us.