Lively Minds, the UK Mental Health Podcast

Australia’s nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award 2024, Matt Ottley, talks to us about his new work The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness, which explores experiences of bipolar and psychosis through art, word and music. Matt Ottley is an internationally acclaimed and multiple award-winning neurodiverse artist, author and composer from Australia, with more than forty

“Sometimes, people just need to be really very sad together”In this episode, we will be talking with funeral celebrant - or ‘funeralist’ - Andy Jones about funerals and mental health. We ask Andy what ingredients he thinks a funeral needs in order to best support the wellbeing of those that have lost someone.We also discuss how, as someone who spends his life around death a

What is Dramatherapy? How does it work? And how can it help us make better sense of our mental health? In this episode, Ellie and Will chat with Ciara McClelland of Dream Together, who is a registered dramatherapist and social worker.We explore dramatherapy's application in both individual and group contexts. From facilitating personal healing journeys to shedding light on pressing

Did you know, that in the UK, anyone - no matter what their qualifications or experience - can set themselves up as a counsellor, a psychotherapist, or indeed use any job title except for a chosen few that are protected by law?In this episode, we will be talking Phil Doré and Amanda Williamson about regulation - or rather, the lack of it - in mental health care in the UK.Amanda Wi

How can the arts help achieve positive change for people with mental health problems?Who can get involved? What counts as “activism”? Writer, director and Disabled rights activist: Vici Wreford Sinnott returns to the show to discuss these questions. She highlight some of her favourite examples of mental health-focused activism and talks about how those with and without mental h

How many times have you heard someone say “I’m being so OCD” to describe a random bit of preciseness or when they need to double-check something?Whether it’s newspaper articles falsely linking OCD to violent behaviours, unhelpful social media memes that perpetuate mistaken concepts of “intrusive thoughts”, or the names of brands which trivialise the experience - misinfo

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Why is mental health and learning disability so often confused? How do they interact? Why are learning disabled people more likely to experience mental health problems than the general population?In this episode, we will be talking to Paul Wilshaw, who is Associate Producer at https://www.mind-the-gap.org.uk/. As well as being an advocate for Mind the Gap, Paul uses his own lived e

Welcome to the first episode of SEASON 2 of Lively Minds!In this episode, we will be talking to Stuart Ralph who featured in what is currently our most popular episode of season 1, exploring OCD: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.Stuart is a counsellor and psychotherapist for children and young people, who has lived experience of OCD, is the co-founder of the Integrative Centre for OCD

We asked for your thoughts and questions, and you did not disappoint! Thank you to everyone who contacted us. In the second of our 2-parter, Ellie will respond to your questions about her experiences both working in and being admitted to mental health hospital. If you haven’t heard our three episode miniseries on mental health hospitals you may want to go back and listen to that