I've had a great day supporting mental health awareness week.
My packed week of talks about how to have mentally healthy conversations kicked off, appropriately enough, with a session at TalkTalk! Thanks to all at TalkTalk for your reception and feedback. Much appreciated.
In-between my talks, I'm also running Evenhood's campaign to make it normal for people to talk about their wellbeing in our workplaces, universities and schools by using an Evenhood Card to identify the environment that works best for their wellbeing.
I'll be doing that by displaying a number of wellbeing discussion documents. Here's one for Olivia.
It shows how straightforward it can be to discuss wellbeing if we avoid the medical complexities and instead focus on the practical things that can be done to support wellbeing.
Show your support for this too please by sharing, liking, commenting and - if you like - by asking me to produce a wellbeing document for you too. Just send your details to me at makeitnormal@evenhood.org and I'll send you one back for free.
About Jonathan Phelan
Jonathan is the author of “The Art of the Mentally Healthy Conversation” which tells the story of how Jonathan learned to manage the challenge of a mental health condition following a child bereavement. The book helps the reader discover how to have mentally healthy conversations, which are more likely to result in support, rather than stigma. It also promotes the benefits of workplaces, universities and schools nurturing a culture in which it is normal for people to talk about their mental health and to offer mutual support for wellbeing and resilience.
Jonathan has held a senior leadership position in a large financial services organisation since 2004, with a long-term career in law, law enforcement and consumer protection. When he went through the trauma of a child bereavement he gained an insight into the obstacles people face when they have mental wellbeing challenges. More importantly he learned how to overcome those obstacles by improving the way we talk about our wellbeing and resilience.
Through his talks, workshops and book Jonathan shares his personal story. Using the drama of how mental health has been portrayed in film, and his own particular take on how our brains process information, Jonathan guides the listener to discover more effective ways to talk about mental wellbeing. Jonathan also promotes the concept of mutual support for wellbeing; based on the belief that we should all aim to make it normal for people to talk about their mental wellbeing, just as we are already willing to talk about physical wellbeing.
The Art of the Mentally Healthy Conversation is available on Amazon or from the Evenhood website.