Thrive in the City are passionate about creating a safe, creative, inspiring and physical space for workers and residents in the City of London. Outside of the normal working environment, the space will enable people to be who they are, provide choice, create support networks and leave behind the stigma, hierarchy and pressures of everyday working life.

But before we do that we first need to know what City workers and residents want and what they need. ‘Thrive in the City’ is a programme of events celebrating Mental Health in the City on 27 November 2017 and is being curated in collaboration with Business in the Community, Business Healthy, Mind, Thrive LDN, Minds@Work, City Mental Health Alliance, Team London Bridge and the Dragon Café.

We believe that providing ‘choice’ is an important component to support our mental wellbeing. Our focus is specifically around creating ‘choice’ to both prevent mental ill-health and to offer choice in ways we can support our recovery. Over 60 practitioners and 20 venues have generously donated their time and space on the day for free to explore ways we can offer that ‘choice’ to support ourselves, our friends and our colleagues in the City with their mental wellbeing.

All we ask in return is for you to book onto a free ‘Thrive in the City’ session and give us feedback on the session you attended.

To book any of these sessions – please use https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/thrive-in-the-city-comes-to-london-bridge-tickets-39556002067

08:00-09:30 Breakfast Seminar - “Managing Mental wellbeing in small and mid-size businesses”

Panel discussion and Q&A - Louise Chunn, founder of therapist platform welldoing.org and former editor of Psychologies magazine, will be leading a conversation about protecting mental health when working in small and medium-sized businesses, including startups. As well as talking about her own experience, Louise will be talking to psychoanalytical psychotherapist Ajay Khandelwal and integrative psychotherapist Helen Mayor. Both have practices in SE1/The City. Ajay often works with individuals and organisations who experience serious work place difficulties; Helen has been involved with tech startups and the media before training as a psychotherapist.

Welldoing specialises in providing easy, online access to professional experts and resources able to help you enhance all aspects of your health & wellbeing.

10:00-11:30 House of Colour – Claire Bannister ​www.houseofcolour.co.uk

How to make the best visual impact at work using colour and style - build your self-esteem and confidence by understanding how to feel and look amazing every day at work. Understand what your clothes say about you at work and how to ensure that you make the most impactful impression visually you can.

12:00-13:00 What is stress – Heather Darwall-Smith www.whatisstress.co.uk

Stress is what arises when something you care about is at stake. Our goal at what is stress is to demonstrate their physiology of stress. We make it fun through a unique visual approach. We show how stress works, how and why a range of interventions work so that attendees can start to understand how to replace the negative stress cycle with a positive cycle of self-care.

13:30-14:30 The Well And Healthy Co – Caroline Brown www.wahcoco.com

Yoga class/workshop with a focus on mindfulness and meditation. Mats will NOT be provided, please remember to bring your own.

15:00-16:30 Building Personal Resilience – Mark Mulligan www.thriving.london

How to thrive no matter what is going on around you. The session has been designed to support you to build your personal resilience. You will learn the difference between good and bad stress, how the mind and body contribute to stress and manifest it. You will explore what resilience means for you, what helps/sabotages you personally and develop strategies to be at your best. The session is run by Mark Mulligan an ex FTSE 100 Finance Director who has experience of managing resilience in the most challenging corporate environments.

17:00-19:00 Mental Health First Aid Training – MHFA www.mhfaengland.org

Free 2 hour introductory Mental Health First Aid training session, teaching people to spot the symptoms of mental health issues, offer initial help and guide a person towards support.

To book any of these sessions – please use https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/thrive-in-the-city-comes-to-london-bridge-tickets-39556002067