Mind Reviews

I don t recommend

The only reason why this organisation has gained a star from me is due to an amazing experience I had with a counsellor called Neusha Pirouzi at Mind in Herts But my second experience with Natalie Dawn Barso and what to come from this organisation is vile diabolical and seriously lacking compassion The first experience was great I was paired with a lived experience counsellor called Neusha She was SO professional lovely compassionate and caring We worked through so much in our sessions and was gutted that the sessions were limited I never felt judged and she put a lot of effort into listening analysing what I am saying and coming up with solutions She was also very brutally honest she d give honest hands on advice even if it sounded very blunt initially So I am one who can easily take criticism and take advice on board even if someone uses the cruel to be kind approach to push someone towards healing This is what I loved about Neusha she was honest down to earth and real She sadly then left So I reached another difficult time and self referred but this time I had to pay at a deducted rate which I was happy to I was then teamed up with Natalie and felt an off vibe She was very adamant on me being on camera for zoom meetings especially after me explaining that I have body dysmorphia and feel uncomfortable But I did it anyway and it worked for the better Problems started as I opened up about some really horrible and traumatic stuff For context I have severe health anxiety So much that I pursued a single mother s by choice route as I read so many health scares when it comes to women s fertility I also convinced myself that I was infertile through obsessive googling spending hours on mumsnet forums and digging myself into an early grave at only 26 I was a complete prisoner Through the grace of god my body rejected the 1st attempt and I miscarried 2nd time I decided to terminate the pregnancy for mental health reasons I am also totally against donor conception and would not personally choose that for myself or my future children due to the risks just look at articles into donor conception or watch the Netflix series The man with 1000 kids - Those losses and that realisation took a TON of strength to even begin to heal from Then Natalie said I m not surprised that you took action as your biological clock IS really ticking Look at your age - Me being 29 at the time I m no spring chicken but given the context of the situation she was callous inhumane and lacking compassion Neusha on the other hand was worried for my safety and reframed my health anxiety worriesI thought that she was trying to help initially but made more demeaning comments about me being out of work I have Autism PMDD and severe anxiety which impairs my cognitive abilities and ability to function normally at work She also kept virtue signalling about how she volunteers for mind and pushing me to volunteer - When it s not voluntary She kept trying to guilt trip me for not contributing to society and with all of this brainwashing style coercing Let me tell you this Mind are NOT there to help disabled people But only guilt trip them The truth is she also abused her position at Mind as a counselling volunteer to siphon money out of service users and sell her services She did offer me private sessions at 90 each So I googled her to see if she was on any counselling directories or the BPS website out of curiosity There were endless articles about fraud cases linking back to the name Natalie Barso All of the article information matched up with online photos dissolved business addresses and her husbands name Nobody else shares her name Her and her husband are frauds and I m shocked that she could work with a criminal record and that mind did not do proper background checks So I reported it Instead mind kept harassing me with calls Asking questions in a patronising and threatening tone and claiming that it was because She didn t tell me what I wanted to hear They kept calling and I had to get aggressive with them to stop Next I get an email of them denying everything and said that she doesn t volunteer there anymore They also reiterated that they asked if she offered private sessions and she denied And obviously took her word for it covered everything up and closed the case Luckily I reversed all of the charges due to the psychological damage caused and PayPal ruled in my favour after reading my case Mind do not care for their service users I d rather stick to retail therapy than waste my time with them They are very discriminatory towards the mentally ill and disabled push toxic work culture on those who cannot function in the workplace and are a bunch of bullies You should all be ashamed of yourselves