A HARWICH woman has shared her experience of domestic abuse trauma as she encourages people in the town to open up about their mental health with the ‘Port in a Storm’ helpline.

Claire Bridges, 45, is the manager of the Ark Centre.

Shesaid: “When I saw Reach Out for Mental Health was starting a project for Harwich, I knew I understood the community by working in it already.”

Port in a Storm started nearly a year ago and has grown from one evening a week to three days.

Brave - Claire Bridges has opened up about her own experience to help normalise talking about mental health and traumaBrave - Claire Bridges has opened up about her own experience to help normalise talking about mental health and trauma (Image: Submitted) The service, on Mondays and Fridays, from 11am to 1pm, offers one to one outreach support.

On Wednesdays from 5pm to 8pm, at the Ark Centre on Main Road, there is a Crisis Café service which has three support workers.  

Claire said: “All of us have experience of suffering with mental health, going through trauma or addiction, or another life changing event.

“When you are talking to people, people know if you are giving information from a textbook or if you can genuinely understand what they are going though."

Listen - The role of the lived experience workers such as Aga Kapusinska is to listenListen - The role of the support workers such as Aga Kapusinska is to listen (Image: Submitted) Claire says she wants to make talking about mental health more normal, and speaks openly about her own experiences.

She said: “I was a victim of quite severe domestic abuse.

"I went through trauma-led depression, and I really struggled with my mental health.

“I had different forms of counselling. I could only talk about my trauma and mental health when I was ready – you cannot be forced to talk about these things.”

Claire said people living on a peninsula like Harwich were often “extremely isolated”, a theme she has also seen while running the Ark Centre.

But she says the main problem in accessing services is not geographic isolation, but "internalised stigma", with people worrying that going to the NHS or clinical services would lead to "crisis intervention".

Claire said people are helped directly or referred elsewhere.

She said: “I think if people were really truthful, everyone has a wobble from time to time.

“You know need to know the services are there and you can access them – that was like a lightbulb moment for me.”

A male volunteer is needed for the Wednesday sessions.

The Port in a Storm helpline numbers are 07927 579250 and 07927 579252.