Preparation – top tip for Day 3 #MHAW22

11/05/2022

My 3rd tip for 21st Mental Health Awareness Week ‘prepare to have a conversation’.

Think about where your head is at – are you emotionally in the right place to start a conversation?

Time – have you got time to focus on that person?

Location – somewhere private to talk

Body language – what’s your BL saying about you?

Words – how are you going to start the conversation? What open questions would you use?

Tone – showing empathy is critical. Make sure your tone it pitched appropriately to that individual

Empathy – NEVER sympathy – goal is to validate someone’s emotions and feel with them NOT fix them

Boundaries – how will you set your boundaries if the conversation veers into an area you feel uncomfortable with without making the person feel shame?

Listen – to understand NOT REPLY

ALWAYS reflect back to make sure you heard correctly and have not misunderstood anything

Make sure you act on fact not feeling.

These are some of the tools we teach everyone on the Growing Talent journey, enabling them to practice their own self-care, build resilience and support others.