A WOMAN who suffered post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following a break-in at her home is helping York people tackle their mental health issues.

Katie Rees was living in Leeds in 2013 when burglars broke into her home and entered her room before stealing items. She was not physically injured, but the trauma of the event meant she no longer felt safe, and she was diagnosed with PTSD.

Now living in Thirsk, Katie said: “It left me terrified to be alone on my own in the house, particularly in the evening.

“I’ve said to my therapist in the past I don’t think it’s that bad a thing to warrant the impact it had on me, but they said the impact is the important thing, not how it came about. People relate PTSD to being in the war, but it doesn’t really matter what caused it - if you have the symptoms, you have PTSD.”

Katie started volunteering in forestry school programmes and decided she wanted to develop her own project to help others, so founded KindleWoods - a not for profit social enterprise which runs events in York, Thirsk and Knaresborough.

She said nature and spending time outdoors was an important part of her recovery. People who experience anxiety, depression, stress, loneliness and isolation now visit KindleWoods to learn outdoor and bushcraft skills, including how to make a fire from natural tinder, and baking bread over a campfire.

Katie said: “We get people with a whole range of challenges, from stress at work right through to eating disorders, PTSD, autism and severe depression.

“One visitor said it helped her more than 20 years of counselling. That was just one session. People just said it’s essential to them and helped them to be part of something."

She added: "They are connected with a group of people after being incredibly isolated. It’s just a completely different setting from any other service that’s provided, and somehow it just speaks to people.”

The next KindleWoods session starts on November 1 as part of York Mind and City of York Council mental health activities programme. To find out more or book a place, go to kindlewoods.com