The Proper Mental Podcast

Richard Mabey

Welcome to episode 129 with Richard Mabey, a writer and broadcaster who has been writing about the natural world for more than 50 years and is considered by many to be the father of modern nature writing.

His first book Food for Free was published in 1972 and has never been out of print.  He has written over 30 books since.

At the age of 61 Richard endured a series of life events that led to a breakdown and a period of depression that lasted for two years.  He fell out of love with the natural world and was unable to write.

After some time in hospital, Richard moved to Norfolk to be cared for by friends and slowly started to write about his new surroundings, and his recovery, in real time.  This work became the memoir Nature Cure which was published in 2005.

In this episode I chat to Richard about his early years and how his interest in the natural world began.

We chat about his life and his experiences with mental ill health and we chat about the series of events that led to his two years of depression and how he came back from it.

We also chat about the association between nature and mental health and how we could be in danger of degrading nature in to a form of green anti-depressant.

Richard’s books are available everywhere and you can learn more about his work via his website www.richardmabey.co.uk

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

Another way to support is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from!

If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk

Thanks for listening!

Rachel Walker Mason

Welcome to episode 128 with Rachel Walker Mason, a multi-award-winning songwriter and mental health campaigner who has written songs with Grammy nominee’s and Billboard 100 artists.

She also runs song writing workshops for anyone who has experienced or been affected by post-natal depression and has been described by Prince Harry as ‘an inspiration’ for her mentoring and charity work.

Rachel experienced post-natal depression after both her pregnancies and in this episode, we chat about her diagnosis and what life was like for her at that time.

As part of her recovery from PND, Rachel joined support groups and found comfort in the experiences of others.  She collected some of these stories and, along with her own, published them in the best-selling book, Not the Only One.

In this episode we chat about recovery, what that looked like for her and how the pressure to be seen as a good parent can get in the way of asking for help.

We get in to the song writing workshops she does with people who have experienced PND, how creative process is affected by depression and how mental health features in songs written by those who have also faced challenges.

I loved chatting to Rachel and it was great to be able speak about parenting and mental health in such an open and honest way.

Connect with Rachel on social media @rachelwalkermason or learn more about her work via her website www.rachelwalkermason.com.

Her PND workshops can be found at www.lyricallight.com.

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

Another way to support is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from!

If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk

Thanks for listening!

Sam Delaney

Welcome to episode 127 with Sam Delaney, a journalist and broadcaster whose work has featured in Guardian, Big Issue, Talk Sport and many others.

He is also a podcaster and an author and I reached out to Sam after reading his recent book, Sort Your Head Out: Mental Health without the Bollocks.

It’s a great read and I can’t recommend it highly enough!  It was great to chat to Sam about his work in the media and why he started writing about his mental health.

We talk about feelings and emotions and how it’s easier to drink them away rather than actual feel them.  We also talk about why that strategy doesn’t work very well at all!

We chat about Sam’s struggles with addiction and how he got sober and we chat about the impact that his childhood and lad culture had on his mental health as he got older.

We chat about boozing, anxiety, looking out for your mates and going to therapy.

It’s a really open and honest conversation between two blokes who both had to learn to talk about this stuff the hard way and it was a lot of fun to be a part of!

You can connect with Sam on Twitter @DelaneyMan or Instagram @theresetsam and links to everything is does can be found at www.samdelaney.co.uk

Sort Your Head Out (Mental Health Without the Bollocks) is available now in all bookshops.

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

Another way to support is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from!

If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk

Thanks for listening!

Debbie Rogers

Welcome to episode 126 with Debbie Rogers, who is the founder of Sean’s Place, a safe place for men to get social support and therapeutic support in a non-clinical and non-judgemental setting.

Debbie started the service after losing her brother Sean in 2019, after a long battle with his mental health.

Sean’s Place offers a range of practical, proactive support that is free to access that includes therapy, hypnotherapy, medication support, as well as yoga and mindfulness sessions, an angling club, drop in socials and a whole host of different courses and activities.

In this episode, Debbie ad I chat about setting up the service and building different support options based on what the members need.

We chat the usual barriers that stop men attending sessions or asking for help and the challenge of just letting men know that this help is out there.

We also chat about Debbie’s brother Sean and the story behind this wonderful space which highlights just how vital places like Sean’s Place are to the local community.

I was lucky enough to visit Sean’s Place and get a guided tour before recording this episode in person.  It’s an incredible space filled with incredible people and I can’t thank Debbie enough for having me.

Please go and follow Sean’s Place on social media @seansplaceuk. 

You can learn more and have a look at the time table via the website seansplace.org.uk

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

Another way to support is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from!

If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk

Running Fundamentals is available now at www.movementrestored.co.uk/programs

Thanks for listening!

Sally Orange

Welcome to episode 125 with Sally Orange, who is an endurance runner, mental health campaigner and speaker.

She holds 11 Guinness World Records, has ran over 70 marathons and has completed 22 years’ exemplary service in the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Physiotherapy Officer. This included an operational tour of duty in Afghanistan.

She captained the first British female team to complete the relentless Race Across America, the world’s toughest cycle race and has also ran the toughest footrace on earth, the Marathon des Sables. 

And she’s also cycled the length of New Zealand, swam the English Channel relay and skied 250km across the largest plateau in the Arctic Circle.  Most of which she has done dressed as various pieces of fruit to start stigma busting conversations about mental health.

In this episode I chat to Sally about her first marathon at the age of 34, why she started running and how it led to these adventures.

We talk about her own life long mental health challenges and how she balances looking after herself with taking part in these endurance events.

We also talk about fancy dress and starting conversations, her 22 years in the Royal Army Medical Corps and how to dig deep when you need to.

It was amazing chatting to Sally about her adventures and equally amazing to hear the mental health story behind them!

You can follow her on social media @sallyorange and learn more about her future adventures on her website www.sallyorange.com.

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

Another way to support is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from!

If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk

Running Fundamentals is available now at www.movementrestored.co.uk/programs

Thanks for listening!

Josh Fletcher

Welcome to episode 124 with Josh Fletcher, who is a psychotherapist, author, speaker and self-confessed anxiety nerd.

He became a therapist after his own challenges with panic attacks, agoraphobia and intrusive thoughts and is now one of the leading voices in anxiety support and recovery.

In this episode Josh and I chat about his own experiences, where his version of anxiety came from and what he did about it.

We chat about the different ways that anxiety can present and go through some of the different ways to deal with it.

We cover exposure therapy, proving anxiety wrong, using compassion and retraining the brain.

It’s a fascinating conversation and it definitely gave me a better understanding about anxiety and all the stuff that comes with it.

You can follow Josh on all social media platforms @anxietyjosh and learn more about everything he does via his website schoolofanxiety.com

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

Another way to support is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from!

If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk

Thanks for listening!

Yvette Caster

Welcome to episode 123 with Yvette Caster, who is an award-winning freelance journalist who regularly writes for some of the most well known media outlets about travel, food, sex and mental health.

She has also co-hosted the acclaimed podcast, Mentally Yours, since 2017 and in that time has interviewed some incredible people about all aspects of mental health and mental illness.

Yvette has diagnosis of Bi Polar Disorder and Binge Eating Disorder and in this episode we talk about her early experiences with mental illness and everything that came with it.

We chat about what it's like to experience a manic episode and the depression that can follow and we chat about the importance of medication, therapy and self-care in living with these things.

We also chat about her time in a young person’s mental health unit and growing up with a mental illness and we chat about podcasting, relatability, and the stigma surrounding emotional eating.

Yvette was so lovely to chat to!  Her story is moving and emotional and her openness and passion for helping others by telling it is a wonderful thing.

You can connect with Yvette on social media @yvettecaster or via her website Yvettecaster.com.

Mentally Yours is available wherever you’re listening to this and if you need a place to start you could try my episode from 2021!

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

Another way to support is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from!

If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk

Thanks for listening!

Joanna Fortune

Welcome to episode 122 with Joanna Fortune, who is a Psychotherapist specialising in the parent-child/adolescent relationship. 

She is the author of 4 best-selling books 15-Minute Parenting (0-7 years; 8-12 years and teenage years) and Why We Play and hosts her own podcast, 15-Minute Parenting.

She is also a TEDx speaker and regularly contributes to a variety of print media outlets.  

In this episode I chat to Joanna about therapy and learning to explore our behaviour through self-inquiry.

We chat about emotions and feelings and how we can learn to explore these things with our children in a way that will help them as adults.

We also chat about play and its importance in looking after our mental health and how we can bring more play in to our busy, modern lives.

We chat about parenting, building self-esteem, boredom and how to work on emotional fluency.

I got so much from this conversation!  It’s not just for parents and so many of the things we get in to here could help you to understand the human experience and how childhood impacts us as adults.

You can connect with Joanna via social media @joannafortune or via her website www.solamh.com.

You can watch her Tedx talk here: Social Media - The Ultimate Shame Game? | Joanna Fortune | TEDxHa'pennyBridge - YouTube

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

Another way to support is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from!

If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk

Thanks for listening!

Tatton Spiller

Welcome to episode 121 with Tatton Spiller, who is the founder and director of Simple Politics, which is an online platform that aims to explain politics in a way that everyone can understand.

He previously worked as a teacher before starting Simple Politics in 2015.

Tatton has been interested in understanding politics from a young age and found campaigning to be a useful outlet for the anger he felt as a young man living with mental health conditions.

After going through a breakdown in 2014 Tatton would eventually be diagnosed with BPD and Bi-Polar Disorder with a little Depression and Anxiety sprinkled in for good measure.

In this episode we chat his early experiences with both politics and mental illness.

We chat about diagnosis, defining mental health, the good and bad bits of mental illness, music, literature and the chaos of keeping up with the news.

This is a wonderful conversation that goes absolutely everywhere except politics!

You can connect with Tatton via @simplepolitics or @tattonspiller.

Or stop by simplepolitics.co.uk or tattonspiller.co.uk

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

If you would like to support Proper Mental by buying me a virtual coffee, please go to www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental

Another way to support is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from!

If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk

Thanks for listening!

Dr Lucy Foulkes

Welcome to episode 120 with Dr Lucy Foulkes is an academic psychologist at the University of Oxford who researches mental health and social development with expertise in adolescent and student mental health.

She is an honorary lecturer in psychology at UCL and her book ‘What Mental Illness Really Is (and what it isn’t) explores how we talk about mental health and mental illness and explains why we need to rethink the conversation around these things.

In this episode I chat to Lucy about her book and what inspired her to write it.

We chat about the language that is used to talk about mental health and mental illness and how the words we choose can have both a positive and negative impact.

We look at the need to distinguish between the 'normal' challenges of modern life and actual illness and discuss the medialisation of human emotions.

We chat about the good bits and the bad bits of mental health awareness and have a good look at what that even means and who that conversation helps.

We get in to social media, environment, parenting, diagnosis and everything in between.

This was a fascinating episode to record!  It’s a deep dive in to a topic that is not straightforward and it was great to get the chance to explore it with both nuance and compassion.

Follow her on Instagram @drlucyfoulkes and Twitter @lfoulkesy

Her website is www.lucyfoulkes.com and her book is available everywhere!

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

If you would like to support Proper Mental by buying me a virtual coffee, please go to www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental

Another way to support is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from!

If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk

Thanks for listening!