WHO WE ARE, WHAT WE DO, AND WHY

WHO WE ARE

PODS was set up by Carolyn Spring in 2009-2010. Carolyn developed dissociative identity disorder as a result of extreme childhood abuse and you can read more about her here.

The very original focus of PODS was to support partners of dissociative survivors (the original meaning of the acronym PODS) but we soon realised that we were being contacted by far more survivors and professionals than by partners or supporters. We therefore changed our name to Positive Outcomes for Dissociative Survivors in 2011 to reflect our principal focus and added a tagline of making recovery from dissociative disorders a reality through training, informing and supporting.

We formed a charity START (Survivors Trauma and Abuse Recovery Trust) in 2011, which became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in 2015. This delivers the support side of all we do and is supported mainly by Friends of PODS, donations, and surplus income from a trading company, PODS Trauma Training Ltd, which raises income to support the work through delivering training and publishing resources.

We have evolved over the last few years into a team of four:

• Carolyn Spring, as the director, delivers all of our training and writes our publications.
• Andy Stephens, as operations manager, is the man who makes things happen – office management, graphic design and overall logistics.
• Elisabeth Allan, as client services manager, runs the helpline, support service and counselling centre.
• Luke Cawley, as IT and digital content developer, helps us with all things technical as well as supporting the delivery of training days and our online courses.

WHAT WE DO

Our work falls into three main areas, in line with our tagline:

• training
• informing
• and supporting.

TRAINING

We have delivered over 125 training days since 2010, welcoming over 13,500 delegates in that time. Our courses have evolved to be primarily aimed at counsellors and psychotherapists, although many cater for other professionals and some are also appropriate for survivors to attend. We also deliver a package of online training alongside our live days. Find out more here.

INFORMING

Our website contains a wealth of information and articles about trauma and dissociation. In addition, we have published a large number of resources, including books, booklets, leaflets, posters, and grounding resources such as mantra cards. We actively promote knowledge about dissociative disorders within the NHS and elsewhere by sending out our Information Leaflet for Professionals and other materials.

SUPPORTING

For survivors we run a helpline and support service, provide a ‘find-a-therapist’ service, and offer free screening assessments.