About our training

Our training sessions help people to spot the warning signs for mental health issues and give them practical strategies to take care of their own and others’ mental wellbeing.

They teach participants about common mental health problems and about the importance of maintaining positive mental health, and aim to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health and offer messages of hope.

Common topics for our sessions include general mental health awareness, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, suicide and promoting positive mental health. However, we can tailor content on a ‘needs led’ basis.

All training sessions are based on sound clinical evidence.

Our sessions are delivered on a ‘needs-led’ basis. So while we advertise suggested session titles, trainers will consult organisations beforehand on what the specific needs are within the organisation and how they became aware of them. The topic(s) can then be planned accordingly.

When completing our online enquiry form it is helpful to think about if a specific incident has occurred and led to your request and what you are aiming to achieve as a result of your training session(s). 

Whether an individual or an entire organisation has received training before or not, we can deliver a course to suit you.

Where staff have not received any training before, we suggest a general awareness session is delivered with some focus on a key issue. This helps ensure all staff have a base knowledge on the factors contributing to mental health.

Where staff have received prior training, we suggest a more focused issue-based approach to increase staff confidence in promoting positive mental health and coping strategies, alongside confidence in responding appropriately to those in need of support.

Our courses, workshops and talks can be tailored for the specific needs of an organisation, or new materials can be developed.

The materials are delivered in a way that can be easily accessed and put into practice the next day. Our trainers work to recognised best practice standards including those of NICE, DfE, Public Health England, and the PSHE Association. This means organisations can have confidence that the trainer(s) they are booking will deliver safe and supportive sessions.

Our trainers will work in close consultation with your organisation to design a course most appropriate to the needs of the participants and the organisation’s aims and objectives.

All training materials will be created or adapted to ensure direct relevance to the organisation and its work.

We work very hard to ensure our courses and materials are accessible to everyone.

Accessibility requirements will be discussed with your trainer at the planning stage of your session where you will explore what adjustments need to be made to ensure the materials can be accessed.

We ask you to talk to the trainer you will be working with about the optimum length for your session. However, our trainers often travel long distances and so we are sometimes unable to justify short sessions in isolation.

To give enough time for trainers and participants to discuss key issues, we normally ask for a minimum of 90 minutes. We can, of course, accommodate twilight sessions, longer sessions or even day-long events depending on your needs. 

All our trainers have expertise in mental health and are teachers, clinicians or academics, and/or have lived experience of mental health problems. They draw on the latest research, clinical practice and their experiences to provide high quality, targeted training. They receive ongoing support from management, peers and wider CPD activities to ensure their knowledge and delivery follows recognised best practice.

Our trainers and speakers 

Our trainers will work on an individual basis with organisations to discuss the minimum and maximum number of attendees for each session or talk.

As a charity we need to ensure that our funds are used in a way that delivers maximum impact. Depending on the circumstances, this sometimes mean that we are unable to train very small groups of people.