This Can Happen Podcast

We have just launched 2024's This Can Happen Awards and in celebration I was delighted to speak to Hannah Longman from Deutsche Bank about being the Grand Prix Award Winner last year for all her fantastic work in the area of neurodiversity.  Due to her personal experience she has done some great work at Deutsche Bank.For information on the Awards please take a look here.

Ahead of This Can Happen's US online conference, I had the pleasure of chatting to Bhavik Shah on the topic of hate crimes and BIPOC mental health.  This is such an important conversation to share.

I was delighted to talk to broadcaster Sean Fletcher about his experiences and understanding of OCD.  Known for programmes such as Britain's Secret War Babies, Countryfile, Panorama and of course ITV's Good Morning Britain, Sean is a mental health advocate, with a special interest in OCD.

To launch the second series of the This Can Happen podcast, Zoe Sinclair was in conversation with 4 of our wonderful Ambassadors - Anita Guru, James Lindsay, Jack Ellis and Miki Demeter.  This really was an inspiring  conversation to kick start the series.

Ahead of our North America conference, I was delighted to speak to Amy Gallo who has recently published a book called Getting Along, how to work with anyone (even difficult people.)  An element of this book that was so interesting was the link that Amy made between workplace situations and our mental wellbeing.  This conversation explores those ideas and provides strategies.

I was delighted to talk to Kris Hall for our next podcast.  His personal experience has led him to be a pioneer of mental health in the hospitality industry.  From deadlines to manufacturing and from unsociable hours to manual work, this industry has everything in it and more.  Kris Hall shines a light on how they are opening up the conversations about mental health and what how this can be translated to other workplaces.For more information see https://www.theburntchefproject.com/

Joe Bellman is an extraordinary person who wowed the audience at This Can Happen 2022 with his ' spoken word' performance.  This podcast allows us to uncover a little bit more about him and understand further about the role grief has played in his life and the mechanisms he uses, as a 22 year old, to manage.

Dave Seglins is a Senior Journalist for CBC and advocate for wellbeing in newsrooms.  Dave has recently been part of the first ever national study of mental health among Canadian journalists and media workers.  It is showing alarming levels of stress and trauma amongst journalists.Whatever industry you are in, there is a lot to be learnt for all of us from this conversation which was a fascinating chat with a person who wants to make real change.

This Can Happen is delighted to be in conversation with Robin Hewings, the Programme Director of the Campaign to End Loneliness.  His knowledge and expertise in this area is second to none and the conversation covered many facets of loneliness.  We may have pre-conceived ideas of what loneliness is and who suffers from it but take a listen to this and you will be sure to understand a whole lot more.  It is so fitting that Loneliness is the theme of mental health awareness week this year.

As many of you know, the month of April is Stress Awareness Month so I was delighted to be joined by Clare Josa who has just published a Burnout Research Study.  Today Clare is going to share her fascinating findings which are essential for both us as individuals but also for line managers and HR professionals.  Clare Josa is the UK's leading authority on Imposter Syndrome, the author of eight books, and an expert in the neuroscience and psychology of performance. Her original training as an engineer, specialising in Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing, means her inspirational approach is grounded in practical common sense.You can check out the research at http://www.clarejosa.com/soulledleaders/burnout-research/ 

We welcome Victoria Wright to our podcast this week. She was the Grand Prix winner at the This Can Happen Awards 2021.  Together with her husband Matthew, she set up Riders Minds in 2019, an online bespoke resource dedicated to supporting the mental health and well-being of all horse riders, drivers and equestrians.  Sadly so, Matthew took his own life a year ago and today Victoria talks openly about the relationship she has with her 3 young children since Matthew's passing and her belief in strong communication.Warning - this episode contains conversations about suicidehttps://ridersminds.org/ - Victoria and Matthew's charityThe following are two organisations that Victoria has been using with her children:http://www.tomorrowproject.org.uk/https://www.childrensbereavementcentre.co.uk/

As we launch the This Can Happen 2022 Awards I was fortunate to sit down with Andy McAleese from Pacific Life Re to understand how one management meeting changed the course of his mental health which ultimately led to him winning Inspiring Leader of the Year Award in 2021.If you would like to nominate another Inspiring Leader or your own company for doing great work in the area of mental health, please go to https://www.thiscanhappenglobal.com/events/awards 

This session comes to you unedited from the This Can Happen 2021 conference this year.  We were absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to speak to writer and broadcaster Nicky Campbell who talked openly and honestly about his adoption and how it has been part of his mental health journey.

From the feedback from the obesity and mental health session that we held at the 2020 This Can Happen workplace mental health conference we needed to delve more into this subject.  I am delighted to welcome back Sarah Le Brocq who is the director of The UK Obesity Organisation.  We will be discussing the connection between mental health and obesity, how the individual fight against obesity is so much more than eating less, moving more and how obesity can have a profound effect on someone’s mental health. 

To mark World Mental Health Day, This Can Happen has teamed up with our charity partners Mental Health UK and Beyond to bring a great podcast.  We were delighted to chat with Jonny Benjamin and Louisa Rose from Beyond and Katie Legg from Mental Health UK. We cover a lot but focused on the responsibility of the workplace to their young people and the need for those young people to find their voice at work so that change can happen. We also discussed how we are all managing our own mental health.For more information on This Can Happen, visit www.thiscanhappenglobal.com

In today’s podcast, we welcome the inspiring Emily Hamilton.  Not only is she a This Can Happen Ambassador but a role model at her workplace, RS Components,  and within the Trans community.  Emily’s aim is to bring a greater understanding of those people who, in her own words, were 'born with the wrong parts.' Today Emily will be sharing with us her journey of gender dysphoria and being a closeted trans, the fear and shame that she felt for decades, and how this impacted hugely on her mental health.  

'I felt comfortable enough to come out as bisexual when I was 16.  I didn’t feel comfortable enough to come out as suffering from depression until I was 30.'Gavin Alexander is based in Massachusetts, USA. He graduated from law school in 2012 and worked in the corporate department as an associate at Ropes and Gray from 2013 – 2020. From November 2020 he has been a Fellow at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court standing committee  on lawyer wellbeing.In this podcast we hear Gavin’s inspiring personal story, how others reacted to it and how this lead him to help transform workplace culture.

Josh Krichefski is Global COO and EMEA CEO at Mediacom. He is a strong supporter of a mentally healthy workplace which comes from his own personal experience.  He is a global thought leader on the subject and is now campaigning for mental health reporting in business, all of which is explored in the podcast.

In the first This Can Happen podcast Zoe Sinclair interviews Barbara Harvey, Mental Health and Workplace Culture Campaigner and Speaker and former mental health lead at Accenture.  Having been awarded the Founders' Choice Award for Outstanding Service to Mental Health in 2021  it was only appropriate that Barbara launched our podcast series in her final weeks of working at Accenture.  She has made a huge impact on workplace mental health there and this podcast explores this in detail.