Time to Talk for Time to Change Today is Time to Talk day. Once again the Time to Change campaign is encouraging people to take some time to break the silence that so often surrounds mental health problems and have a conversation with friends, family or colleagues. Or, in this case, the internet. #Take5toBlog So…
Author: Clare Foster
How Headspace helps (or why Giles Coren is wrong)
Techno smegma? Giles Coren just called mindfulness ‘cynical, capitalist, techno smegma’ in Time Out. Now while I know it’s not only Katie Hopkins who is paid to spout controversial and potentially damaging opinions and these things are usually best ignored, I still wanted to write something in reply. Since my Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy course in…
Overcoming barriers to accessing therapy – a post for the RSCPP
RSCPP connects people with local registered therapists. It also contains articles and resources about issues you might face and the types of therapy available. Of course, these are private therapists. And therapy isn’t cheap (although if you get the right help, it can be immensely valuable). Much of the work I have done in the past…
Developing youth resources with the Miscarriage Association and Brook
Stage 1 – Online and face to face workshops with young people “I’ve honestly literally never spoken about my experience with anyone since I left sixth form, this is the first (and possibly last) time – but I’m happy that I’m using it to hopefully help others” I was recently approached by the Miscarriage Association to…
‘Crazy’ by Amy Reed – a review of a YA book about bipolar disorder.
A review of Crazy by Amy Reed – published by Simon and Schuster It’s hard to truly imagine what depression or bipolar disorder is actually like. The language of mental health is woefully inadequate. The word ‘depression’ has become part of the spectrum of everyday language used to describe feeling sad. We’ve all said or…
How do you run a good training session in an online chat room? 17 tips and ideas.
Last night I ran an online training session for YouthNet’s chat moderator volunteers (I’ve written a post about what is is like to moderate real time support chat for young people here). We all joined a chat room in YouthNet’s online volunteer community for an evening session. The focus of this chat was talking therapies…
Guardian Voluntary Sector Network Xmas Volunteering
Representing online volunteering in the Guardian Just before Christmas I wrote a piece for the Guardian on why I volunteer at Christmas. It was a personal explanation of my motivation to volunteer, why I’ve continued to do so since leaving YouthNet and why it’s particularly important at Christmas. It was one of a series on Christmas…
Motivation and depression
Exploring motivation, reverse motivation and getting motivated when struggling with depression Mental Health Chat and motivation Yesterday, just as I was finishing work for the day, I noticed that the #MHChat (Mental Health Chat) theme for the week was motivation. #MHChat is a twitter event where @MHChat poses questions on a weekly theme to encourage discussion….
Festive comparisons and the Facebook effect
An article exploring how the media forces us to make damaging comparisons in the festive season – and how we often magnify the effect with our own social media activity. A friend and old colleague Holly was recently published in the Vagenda. Her article was a spectacularly cynical but very funny piece called ‘How to…
Moderating real time support chat with TheSite community
What does moderating real time support chat online for 10 – 25 young community members involve? Support chat Every other Sunday I moderate support chat on TheSite.org. TheSite runs a number of types of chat – I’ve also been an expert for their recent Mindfulness chat. I used to do moderation as part of my role…
Online peer support training with Action on Postpartum Psychosis
Running a training day for volunteers working on a new online peer support service for APP I was really pleased to be asked to help out with APP’s new online peer support programme. APP has been funded to provide peer support to women with postpartum psychosis and their partners. They have been running an online…
Organisational Healthcheck Consultancy for Time to Change
Attending the Time to Change Organisational Healthcheck training and away day I recently attended a training and meet up day for Time To Change Organisational Healthcheck Consultants. As I mentioned when posting about the work I did on an anti stigma campaign for Richmond Borough Mind, there is still a lot of discrimination, misunderstanding and silence…
What exactly IS Mindfulness? Chatting with young people on TheSite.org
Earlier this month I found myself back at YouthNet Towers, this time as an expert for one of their expert chats. The Engagement and Support team at YouthNet oversee the running of a number of types of online chat. These include support chat (I also moderate support chats as a volunteer), general chat, film and…
Articles for ONEinFOUR
I’ve written four articles for lifestyle, health and mental wellbeing magazine ONEinFOUR. Spring-Summer 2013 – managing depression and anxiety in relationships The first was published in the Spring-Summer 2013 issue. It was one of the cover stories and explored managing anxiety and depression in relationships. Autumn-Winter 2013 More recently I’ve written three pieces for the…