The Sanctus Podcast on Mental Health

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Latest Episodes:

Body Image May 09, 2019

Show notes

James Routledge and George Bettany, founders of the mental health startup Sanctus, have been on a mission for the last two years to try and change the perceptions of mental health - with the intention of one day putting the first mental health gym on the high street.

Their experiences with mental health from before Sanctus and through their work with businesses around the UK to create impartial, safe spaces for employees to work on their mental health have made them realise just how much the perceptions need to change and how we need to get people talking about their mental health in day to day conversation.

After a traumatic and memorable experience from just the age of five in Poland, Agnieszka Walczuk developed a strong sense of comfort with food. From then on, an issue with her body image arose that developed throughout the years.

Whilst she came close to adopting a bulimic approach to dealing with her body image issues, her relationship with a relative dealing with anorexia allowed her to see where that route could get her.

After forty two years of battling, Agnieszka is more comfortable with her body that she has ever been.

She sits down with Sanctus head coach, Sophie Miller, and James to see issues that they find are arising around the topic of body image.

If you feel like you may have an issue with body image or know somebody who is, please check out our directory for suggestions of how to get help:

(Click the hyperlink in the blog for the full guide)

https://sanctus.io/the-sanctus-directory-of-mental-health-services-professionals-eda7d4316a58

Addiction Apr 25, 2019

Show notes

Whilst finding himself drinking four times per week, Brad found himself returning to AA for the second time to help finally deal with his addiction. In 1995, he finally had his last drink.

In the decades to follow, Brad has developed a real awareness of how addicted we can be nowadays - whether that is to drugs, social media and even other people.

Recently, one of the Sanctus founders, George Bettany, has taken a smaller step into taking a break from alcohol - a choice becoming more popular with people nowadays.

James sits down and grills both of them on what the similarities are with how we deal with addictions nowadays - whether that is simply a matter of reducing an unhealthy habit or getting support for a compulsion that is damaging your mental health.

Where we went wrong Apr 18, 2019

Show notes

After a handfull of brave and awesome listeners responded to our request and agreed to come and have a coaching session that would be published online, we were flattered by their dedication to help show what a coaching session could look like - in the hope of breaking the enigma around it.

But as we reach to the time we were intending to publish the mini-series, we’ve decided not to publish the episodes.

Why?

Whilst it was nothing at all to do with the wonderful individuals that volunteered to come on, there were a handful of things that came up that played more of an affect that originally anticipated.

James and George sit down and have a chat about why we wanted to do it, what ended up happening and how a lot of things brought up reflect on the mental health industry as a whole right now.

Finding a job that’s good for your mental health Apr 11, 2019

Show notes

Has mental health ever come up in a job interview for you? Have you ever asked what a companies policies on mental health are? How about when thinking about what works in your own career, what will the impact be on your mental health?

We’re always preaching at Sanctus how relevant mental health in every aspect of your life and your career, whether in a workplace or outside of it, is an undeniably huge factor for all of us.

The problem is not many of us take into account.

We will each value different aspects of what a career can offer - whether that’s security, creative freedom, independence, micro-management etc.

Ben Graham, Sanctus Head Coach, fairly quickly came to the realisation that secure and fixed workplaces was not the right fit for him and soon found him pursuing a freelance life in the world of coaching and psychotherapy.

Vic Lloyd, Sanctus Head of Operations, was in several different workplaces that offered different pieces of knowledge at each, before taking the cheeky punt to throw herself into the trenches at a little known, newly founded startup - Sanctus.

Join George as he quizzes the pair on how they found out what was the right career for them and what they needed to do it to find the job that was good for their mental health.

Get in contact with us at -> hello@sanctus.io

#49: Pregnancy, parenthood & mental health Apr 04, 2019

Show notes

Pregnancy can bring incredibly different experiences for every mother, but it certainly brings a huge amount of challenges with it.

One of the original Sanctus coaches, Victoria Smith-Murphy, recently had her child Hudson. Coffee & TV Operations Manager, Leonie Moreton, is currently pregnant with her second child after her first, Freddie, but both mothers have different experiences of how it has impacted their mental health.

From discussing the physical challenges pregnancy can bring to where the lowest points has come for each of them, with Victoria’s transition back into running her business actually being the hardest point for her so far and Leonie’s equally being the juggling act between parenthood and working life, the conversation between the three deeply explores the current attitudes the workplace has towards maternity and paternity leave - and how those attitudes need to change.

MUSIC CREDITS:

"Loopster, Perspectives, Dreamer" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

#48: Comedy for your mental health Mar 28, 2019

Show notes

Changing the perceptions of mental health quite often doesn’t mean holding up a huge billboard saying ‘Work on your mental health!’ (even though we would 100% do that anyway), but it means encouraging people to work on themselves and creating safe spaces to chat about their mental health openly.

One of the most successful nights Sanctus has run is ‘That’s Mental!’ - the comedy night. Why?

Because it did exactly that.

It encouraged such open conversation without people even realising that was what was happening.

So this week, George (who tried stand-up for the first time at the first event) sits down with the person that made it happen, Willy Kosovich, about the impact comedy has had on both of them and trying to open up people’s minds to potentially give comedy a go.

https://com4com.website/

https://www.instagram.com/_com4com/?hl=en

MUSIC CREDITS:

"Loopster, District Four, ZigZag, Dreamer, Digya" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

#47: Mental Health for Creative Types (w/ Kalon Rae) Mar 21, 2019

Show notes

Mental health and creativity is an enigmatic but apparent link that can spring up in many different ways.

Whether drawing is your outlet from the stress of everyday life, or you’re a professional singer having to be creative to earn a living - its impact on our mental health is both undeniable and variable.

Singers Kalon Rae (seen on The Voice 2018) and Valentina Passiona, both involved with Urban Voices Collective, join James talking about how important creativity in each of their own mental health.

With James often expressing himself creatively through his writing, the three of them explore the feelings of exposing yourself publicly, external validation and most importantly - filtering out the bad stuff and getting to the rewards creativity can give to our mental health.

https://www.kalonrae.com/

http://www.urbanvoicescollective.com/#home

MUSIC CREDITS:

"Loopster, Anamalie, Perspectives, Dubakupado" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

#46: The Reality of Reality Shows (w/ Alex Hobern) Mar 14, 2019

Show notes

Channel 4’s ‘The Circle’ is a show dubbed a cross between ‘Big Brother’ and ‘Gogglebox’, where contestants go into their own individual flat in a block but never physically meet each other. Instead, they communicate only via a bespoke social media platform called ‘The Circle’.

However, there are no restrictions into how truthful you can be.

This week, we speak to the shows winner ‘Alex Hobern’ who won both the public and contestants vote when he portrayed the character ‘Kate’ after the three weeks he spent isolated in a flat.

The show brought up important messages about how we use social media and how people portray themselves online - something that Alex himself wanted to raise awareness of when going onto the show.

James is joined by Sophie Miller, Sanctus Head Coach, as they delve into the twofold discussion of exploring Alex’s mental health during and after the show as well as the topics of social media the show raised.

MUSIC CREDITS:

"Loopster, The Builder, Perspectives, Dreamer" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

#45: Preventing Burnout Mar 07, 2019

Show notes

Burnout is becoming a much wider discussed issue nowadays.

Put in its simplest terms (by this week’s guest - Clare), it is a process that happens overtime leading to an extreme physical, mental and emotional exhaustion. The issue is, how one person experiences that exhaustion and the reasons for ending up in that position can vary from person to person.

Clare, now Sanctus coach, was hospitalised multiple times before she even admitted to herself that she was burning herself out; George’s previous experience with Matchchat led to his burnout - but both had different drivers that got them there.

In this episode, Scott (Sanctus Creative Director) fills in as host to delve into the two stories and assist in finding out about the enigmatic issue many of us are facing in today’s heavy working society.

MUSIC CREDITS:

"Loopster, Cold Sober, Light Thought var 2, Dreamer, Jarvic 8" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

#44: What's the difference between coaching and therapy? Feb 28, 2019

Show notes

The enigmatic topic of coaching and therapy is one that often leads to only more confusion. So after a failed first recording of this episode, the three people spearheading the Sanctus movement in coaching sit down again to chat about their personal experiences in both coaching and therapy.

James (coaching and therapy user) chats to Sophie (coach) and Ben (therapist) about what you should be considering if you’re not sure whether to look for a coach or a therapist to support your own mental health.

They discuss their initial reservations around the predatory nature of what it is to pay for a relationship and further explore the differences between the two mediums, before finally concluding with how their experiences have led them to the positions they are in - looking to incite change in the industry.

Music Credits:

"Loopster, Jarvic 8, Dreamer, Perspectives" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/