A charity shop opens to the public today, Tuesday May 4, in Norfolk Street, Lynn.
Veterans At Ease is a charity shop with a difference, which houses a therapy room upstairs from the shop and is run by management team Tony Wymar, Paula Phillips and Sharon Hall.
As Head of Operations and Senior Therapist, Tony served in the Armed Forces including two tours of Northern Ireland and with that experience and after facing challenges on his own, he trained as a therapist, moving from Northeast to Lynn.
He said: “We have a therapy room upstairs and if someone phones today I will guarantee they will be seen within seven days which is better than anyone can offer.
“The Dereham store has opened and a store in Norwich is planned which means we will have two therapy centers in East Anglia.
“The service aims to help veterans, current members of the armed forces, immediate family and the money raised goes to this service.
“No one does what we do and I focus on Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and psychotherapy and identify the person’s needs and break them down into levels.
“People don’t necessarily need intense therapy, but it’s important that within seven days the person is sitting in the room.
“It’s something I’m passionate about and the hardest thing for people to do is make that phone call, open the door and walk in, which I admire.
“If only the NHS used other therapies and my main goal was to involve more GPs, it would be about working together.”
The opening of the store was in the hands of the team and Paula and Sharon were actively involved in creating a different charity store.
Paula, manager said: “I was a carer for a long time and had a primary career in retail and wanted to go back.
“I wanted to work in the charity sector, I saw the ad and applied.
Sharon, assistant manager, said: ‘I had worked in care for over 30 years and it came to a point where I needed a change.
The management staff have all experienced mental health issues and with a relaxed atmosphere at the store it is easy to talk to them.
Paula said: “Everyone can be affected and linked to mental health.
“The difference we have is that we were going to have a therapy room upstairs.
“We raise funds and people can see the service provided.”
Tony has veteran experience himself, having served with the Royal Logistics Corps for around six years and with Veterans At Ease’s mission statement as providing high quality veteran therapy for veterans, he understands that maintaining mental health is a proactive thing, no different to physical training and that there is a stigma to going to therapy.
He said: “I never thought I would all have therapy and it has not only been life saving but life changing. We work with PTSD, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and use psychotherapy, NLP and coping techniques.
“The mental fitness takes the time it takes and we work out the issues. I’m excited to have it brought back to Norfolk and hope the public will support us with donations and volunteering as we need to volunteers.”
Veterans At Ease is a registered charity that supports veterans because military spirit matters.
Visit the website for more information
Comments are closed.