Our centre is a safe space for women to experience a therapeutic journey leading to emotional and psychological awareness and healing and empowerment to enjoy life and plan for the future. This is why the Maya Centre is supporting Mental Health Awareness Week. This year, the theme of the campaign is Stress: Are we coping?
Taking part in this campaign is important to us as chronic stress is a significant root factor to mental health problems. It is vital for women we work with to acknowledge their trauma and stress, and understand how past experiences can affect their present mental health.
We have created our own hashtag for mental health week #HelloStress as we want to highlight the importance of acknowledging stress that we see in the women we support everyday.
Please make a donation and help us to provide our vital service to vulnerable women in Islington and surrounding boroughs.
(These figures do not reflect the overheads of running the centre)
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Stress… What is this that’s happening to me?
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We asked our service users their thoughts on stress
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Artwork by our service users related to stress
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Free counselling at the Maya Centre
Free counselling at the Maya Centre is a life line to the vulnerable women we support, who have mental health issues.
The women we work with have experienced trauma, which may stem from domestic violence, physical abuse or sexual abuse in childhood and experiences of war and conflict as well as harmful traditional practices. In addition to pre-existing family and financial problems, this trauma results in chronic stress, pulling them into a cycle that they find hard to break.
To support women we use our particular expertise in working with trauma, neglect, deprivation and complex multi-layered experiences, few examples include: homelessness, fleeing a violent partner, or at risk of neglecting or harming their children.
Our work is about enhancing emotional wellbeing and developing a healthier society, including increasing the functioning, resilience, connections and education of women at risk in our community.
At the Maya Centre, we respond to their distress through talking and creative therapies.
Safe Space
We provide a safe space for women to come to terms with what has happened to them, find their ‘voice’ and learn healthier ways to relate to themselves and others. As result, we enable women to break the cycle of abuse for themselves and their children, to become more resilient and develop the skills and confidence to have a better life.
The services we offer support women to alleviate their stress factors, which leads to them being better able to engage in community activities in Islington and surrounding boroughs and improve relationships with children and family. The women we support are more willing to both talk about and report abuse or recognise abuse is happening, therefore, reducing the likelihood of remaining or re-entering in abusive relationships.