Who we are
Sequoia is a new service designed to support people with complex emotional needs and personality difficulties (CEN/PD). Sequoia is an NHS-commissioned service that is delivered in partnership between Rethink Mental Illness and Avon and Wiltshire Trust Mental Health Partnership Trust (AWP).
Our service was named after the species of tree. Sequoias are redwood trees and grow to be the largest species of tree in the world. The name was chosen as these trees represent strength, the ability to cope with adversity, and a life lived best in communities – these are the values we associate with how people with CEN/PD survive and thrive.
Sequoia is open to everyone in our communities who has CEN/PD, with some broad criteria for who is best suited to the support we have available. At the heart of Sequoia is lived experience; we have been built from the ground up with input from experts by experience. Throughout development, from planning how the service will operate and what it offers to delivery of the support options themselves, individuals with lived experience of CEN/PD have been instrumental.
The service is staffed by a mix of Peer Support Workers, Clinicians, Wellbeing Practitioners, Leadership Staff and Administrators.
How we can help
Your choice of which intervention you feel is most appropriate for you is important to us. If Sequoia might be right for you, you will be invited to a Welcome Session. At this session, Sequoia staff will discuss the interventions on offer. We offer three main group support options that you’ll be able to choose from, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) informed course, Peer Support groups and Understanding Yourself and Others - an interactive learning course. In the future Mentalization Based Treatment (MBT) will also be available.
Staff will help you choose between these options. Before starting any of the interventions staff will meet with you to discuss the intervention in more depth and check it is right for you. These meetings are either in person, online, or via a phone call. If it is agreed between you and the service that the intervention is right for you, you will then be invited to the next available group.
Once you have finished the group intervention, staff will offer to meet with you again to review how things have been and think with you about the next steps. After this review, we ask everyone to have some time to put the things they have learned into practice. This period of consolidation lasts between three to six months. After this, you are welcome to come back and take part in another Sequoia intervention, either the same one again or a different one. These support options aren’t a promise of recovery or a fix-all – we know recovery and healing is a continuous journey. However, what they can do is help you connect with others and develop tools you can use to lead a more fulfilling life.