Clients of Colchester-based charity the Haven Project say their "lives have changed" since signing up.

Initially set up as a community interest company in 2004, the Haven Project became a registered charity in 2016 and offers support to people suffering from different types of personality disorders.

After the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Haven Project began working with the Crisis Café in 2021, after receiving their first statutory funding in seven years.

Last October, the project became an open community and is keen to keep growing.

Pernille Peterson MBE, 70, is the current CEO of the Haven Project and has worked there for more than 15 years.

“We want to show that the pressure on the NHS is going down as a consequence to the work that we’re doing,” Pernille said.

The Haven Project offers many services, including craft, psychology and friendship groups, as well as a safe and social space for clients to visit and feel understood.

The organisation also run different programmes and hosts many fundraising activities to spread the word and raise funds.

Pernille said: “Fundraising activities bring the clients together.

“They meet each other in a different setting to do something positive and practical."

Staff at the Haven Project are available to clients, via email, at any time and open their phone lines between 5pm and 8pm every day for support.

Due to her father’s post in the Navy causing her family to move around a lot, Pernille experienced difficulties in her earlier life, but began to develop a passion for helping others  

“I was between schools and was bullied for being the odd one out – I felt very marginalised and learnt how damaging that can be," she said.

“I have a great passion for justice, and the society we’re living in at the moment is very unjust,

“When I was a hippie, with peaceful movements and radical democracy, if someone had told me society would be this way 50 years on, I would never have believed it."

Pernille feels strongly about helping those suffering with mental health-related disorders and urges others to help where they can.

“If something isn’t right, you can either stick your head in the sand and be corroded by guilt, or you can lift your head up and do what you can.

“I can’t just look the other way - I’m not built like that. Human suffering is something that needs attention."

The Haven Project currently has seven or eight people on its books.

Following a 12-week period in hospital, Mandy Benson, 49, was made aware of the Haven Project and completed the organisation’s community recovery programme.

In September 2023, she asked to become a registered client and attends the group on a weekly basis.

“When you’re in hospital you feel really institutionalised, and when you leave you come back into everything, but you can’t adapt very well," she said.

“Being able to come here was such a great help as I’ve really struggled to fit back in to society.”

Since joining the Haven Project community, she has made many friends and feels more confident in herself.

“When I first came here, a couple of the ladies asked me to help them unload the car after an event – it made me feel part of the team," she said.

“Everyone makes you so welcome – you’re not treated like a new person.”

Mandy said she always felt "lost" after finishing other therapies and programmes, but the lack of pressure and unlimited time that the Haven Project offers has made her feel much more at ease.

“You can come in for a chat, do some crafting or just sit and listen if you want to – there’s no pressure," she said.

“Knowing that the programme is here – that it’s not time limited, and there’s people that understand you – it makes such a difference.

“You find your friends here and I’ve learnt to cope with the feeling of wanting to keep to myself – I’ve hit a good turning point."

Haven Project staff don’t encourage clients to discuss details of their past traumas to prevent triggering or setbacks, but offer one-to-one therapy sessions for more in depth and focused discussion.  

Julie Hexley, 67, has found the one-to-one sessions very beneficial.

“I’ve found I’ve been able to disclose the details of my past in the sessions, because I’ve developed a foundation of trust – it’s made such a huge difference for me,” she said.

Julie was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in the early 1980s, following a difficult and traumatic upbringing.

“I’d be in and out of hospitals and I didn’t have the best experiences - I was very anti-establishment and felt no one could help me.

“But when I got to the Haven people just understood me.”

Julie has struggled with self-worth her whole life and is grateful to the Haven Project for boosting her confidence, allowing her trust in staff to grow.

“I never trusted anyone, but when I met Pernille I came to trust her in a short while because I thought here’s someone who believes me and believes in me.

“I didn’t even feel I should even be breathing, but at Haven, they brought me up and I never looked back,” she said.

Julie is now the chair of the Haven Community Forum.

The forum is a group of individuals who generate ideas, which are sent to the organisation’s board to put into action.

Julie feels her position as chair and her attendance at various fundraising events has increased her self-confidence.

“I consider myself a nervy person – very anxious,

“But when I’m out at the events, where I’m focused on doing it for the Haven and I feel I have a purpose, I become really confident.

There is a national lack of knowledge and awareness surrounding mental health-related traumas and personality disorders, meaning many sufferers are going without the proper support for years at a time.

An example is, 60-year-old registered Haven Project client Tina Amphlett.

Tina was diagnosed with bipolar and personality disorder (PD) in her early 30s, but was only made aware of the support available at the Haven Project four years ago.

“I’ve gone through the main part of my life without help, apart from pills," she said.

“I was rejected by a different service and – as someone who suffers with abandonment issues – it really hit me. If a mental health service can’t help me, I must be beyond help,

“When I arrived at the Haven and saw the younger girls, I almost felt cheated – I wish I’d have been made aware sooner."

Tina feels her life has taken a positive turn since joining the Haven Project community and has enabled her to be more open about her conditions.

“Up until I came here last year, no one knew I had PD – I was too ashamed to tell my family," she said.

“It was only since coming to the Haven Project that I started to be more open about it,

“My life has changed since coming here. I’m more confident and have made dear friends – we understand each other.”

In the Haven Project’s recovery groups, clients and staff discuss childhood experiences, focusing on examples instead of personal details – teaching clients how to manage their conditions, as well as positive alternatives to unhealthy coping mechanisms.

Pernille said: “Some people benefit from breathing sessions, gratitude journals, arts and crafts – it’s about finding what works for you,

“We want to help clients understand and be able to say, ‘this is not who I am, this is a result of what was done to me'.

“You can paper over the personality disorder with different pills and anti-depressants, which definitely do play a part,

“But the issue is elsewhere – the personality disorder must be treated first.”

The whole team are desperate for the Haven Project to continue, but it needs funding to do so.

The organisation is grant funded, as well as through programmes such as the Community Recovery Programme, and Pernille is working hard to apply for further funding.

“I really want our programmes to continue, because it’s a model of recovery to other people – as well as our registered clients,” Pernille said.

“The more funding we get, the more that can be offered. If we were better supported, we’d be able to do much more for existing and future clients."

“I’m lucky I’m still here and with something like the Haven, it gives you more of a chance,” Tina said.

“We all just hope the Haven keeps going,

Julie added: “I would like to find my own inner peace and, with the Haven’s support, I’m getting there."

For more information on the Haven Project, and for their contact details, visit thehavenproject.org.uk