Natasha Benjamin
Social Handle:
@freeyourmindcic
About
Born in Birmingham, living in London for 15 years, Natasha founded and created Free Your Mind in 2013, stemming from her personal experience of growing up around domestic violence trauma and recovery – along with her infectious passion for healing. She is First Aid and Mental Health First Aid trained (Youth and Adult) by Mental Health First Aid England. Elected Council Governor for North East London's NHS Foundation Trust.
Natasha has a Diploma in Child and Adolescent Mental Health trained in Trauma Focused CBT and DBT, A Certified Trauma Professional (CTP) trained in the following, Cognitive behavioural therapy, Solution based counselling, Reiki Therapy and teaching, The Emotional Freedom Technique, Restorative Justice. Natasha has been studying Trauma recovery, mental health and wellbeing for the past 13 years and is the author of two books.
In 2013 Natasha was nominated for an Inspirational Woman of The Year Award by national newspaper The Daily Mail and in 2014 was nominated for 3 other awards: Motivational and inspirational business woman of the year by EBR, a National Diversity award, a Beffta Award and won a social entrepreneurship Award by Unltd and finished 2014 with a certificate of recognition at the London Leadership and Peace Awards and recently was awarded a Star Award at the Lift effects Extraordinary lady speaks conference. In 2018 she was voted by the public for The Independent's Happy List 2018, for making the world a better place, appearing at the number 10 spot.
Natasha was awarded Inspirational woman of the year award given in October 2019 by the ITV show Lorraine and that year she was also placed on the NatWest WISE100 2019: Top women in social enterprise list.
Last year Natasha was recognised by the Mayor of London on International Women's Day as one of the women that make London better.
Free Your Mind CIC is a London and Birmingham based not for profit service that supports individuals that have experienced childhood domestic violence and mental illness as a result of the trauma, the services team of trained professionals with lived experience have worked with hundreds of children over the years.
1 in 3 children will have an issue with mental illness directly linked to the experience of seeing domestic violence at home. On a whole 1.8 million children are affected across the UK. Through our 1-2-1 therapeutic sessions, group work, awareness campaigns and support services, we aim to give survivors the tools to look after their own happiness and well being, and to promote the importance of having healthy relationships.
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