Meet The Team
Neshomo is a Jewish, culturally sensitive, confidential mental health charity for adults. We strive to be accessible, welcoming and accepting of all. Our goal is to improve emotional wellbeing and reduce stigma within the Manchester Jewish Community.
Racheli Bass
Clinical Manager
In her role as Clinical manager, Racheli oversees the clinical aspects of Neshomo's client care across the services. In her triage role, she advises, informs and signposts clients to services within and outside of Neshomo.
Originally from Israel, Racheli Bass has been living in Manchester since 2005 with her family. After graduating with a BSc Psychology & Counselling, PGDip Applied Psychology and MA Counselling, she started her own counselling service. Racheli volunteered as Befriender for Neshomo before joining their professional team in 2020.
Gavriel Goldblatt
Befriending Service Manager
As Befriending Service Manager at Neshomo, Gavriel supports individuals in the community facing mental health challenges by matching them with volunteer befrienders.
Gavriel recruits, trains, allocates and supervises these befrienders, ensuring they are well-equipped to provide necessary support.
With a first-class honours degree in Psychology and ten years of experience as a social skills mentor for adolescents with neurodiversity, Gavriel brings a wealth of knowledge and compassion to the role. His years of clinical supervision from mental health professionals provide him with an excellent understanding of people, perspectives and professionalism.
Currently also acting as SENDCo at Ahavas Torah Boys Academy, Gavriel is dedicated to creating inclusive environments and supporting people with different needs.
Zahava Smith
Assistant Manager - Befriending Service
In her role as Assistant Manager, Zahava assists in managing the Female Befriending Service.
Zahava is a Person Centred Psychotherapist, specialising in bereavement, anxiety and relationship issues, and is a member of the BACP.
Zahava has extensive experience in the voluntary sector
for AgeUK as well as working for JAMH.
Zahava speaks 5 languages fluently (English, Yiddish, French, Hebrew and Dutch) which has proven to be a valuable resource when dealing with people from foreign countries.
Leah Raffles
Fund Manager
Leah works "behind the scenes" to help in any way needed to set up, coordinate and facilitate the smooth running of Neshomo's projects.
Leah is a qualified social worker and has a PhD in Applied Social Science. She has been project manager for a Children’s Centre and has worked in a variety of fields in and out of the charity and education sector.
Elisheva Kahan
Administration
Elisheva is the Administrator for Neshomo, supporting all the other members of the team.
She ensures the smooth running of our service, in particular making sure that our befrienders are DBS checked and references are checked.
Elisheva has a wide range of experience in administrative and organisational skills.
Sherelle Dresner
Service Manager
Sherelle has been involved in special education since 2015, and prior to that worked for the NHS as a dietician.
Sherelle has training in mental health, youth work and counselling as well as extensive experience in administration and project management and brings all this experience to Neshomo to develop the charity to the next level.