In this episode of the JPF First Aid Podcast, host John Fogarty speaks with Lynne Walsh, a counsellor specialising in bereavement, loss, and health-related issues. Drawing on her background in palliative care and counselling, Lynne offers compassionate insights into how people experience and cope with grief. The conversation explores the uniqueness of bereavement, the impact of resilience and vulnerability, and the importance of personalised support.

Key Takeaways

Grief is different for everyone. Each loss brings individual emotions based on the nature of the death, personal relationships, and life circumstances.

Bereavement doesn’t follow a set path. Some may feel worse after the first year as the reality of the loss sinks in.

Our past experiences, support systems, and overall wellbeing, including housing, finances, and mental health shape our ability to cope with loss.

Overworking, alcohol, or emotional suppression may offer temporary relief but can delay healing and increase pressure over time.

Key Moments

“We never get over the loss of someone significant; we adjust to a life without them.”

“There’s often relief after the first year of milestones, but sometimes that’s when the sadness deepens.”

“Staying busy might work for a while, but emotions can build up like pressure behind a dam.”

“The person struggling may not be who you expect; it’s important not to make assumptions.”

About the Guest

Lynne Walsh is a qualified, BACP-accredited counsellor with over 20 years’ experience, including work in palliative care and with a national bereavement organisation. With a background in nursing, she offers compassionate support across a wide range of issues, including grief, loss, illness, disability, carer support, and life transitions. Lynne creates a calm, safe space for clients and believes counselling can be life-changing, helping individuals make sense of their experiences and find a way forward, whatever challenges they face.

Connect with Lynne: https://www.bacp.co.uk/therapists/71282/lynne-walsh/burton-on-trent-de15

About the Host

John Fogarty has a training background dating back to 2005, with achievements including a teaching qualification and assessor standard. He has previously worked with two first aid charities, delivering sessions in workplace and educational environments.

John has consistently received excellent feedback for his delivery and customer service, as evident in numerous reviews. He ensures learners enjoy and achieve their goals, and works with customers to select the right courses and resolves any issues promptly.

Find out more at www.jpffirstaid.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of JPF First Aid, we're revisiting a powerful conversation with Mandy Gutsell from Know Limits Ltd about the impact of menopause. Mandy addresses the stigma surrounding menopause and shares advice on navigating this natural phase of life. We delve into practical tips for creating supportive environments both at work and in everyday life. Mandy stresses that although it can be a difficult process to go through, it’s a time of natural change and that you are never alone in what you’re going through.

In this episode, we discuss a lot of the challenges posed by menopause, and steps you can take to help cope, with tips and tricks to make people more comfortable in both the workplace and everyday life.

Key Takeaways

Menopause is a time of natural change. It's not like you wake up one day and suddenly there's this dramatic change, it tends to happen over a period of time and Mandy addresses some of the signs and symptoms of it.

Mandy believes that there’s a stigma around menopause, particularly in Western culture. We dive into some of the reasons as to why this may be, and how we can help to tackle that stigma.

More can be done in the workplace to help people going through the menopause and create a more comfortable environment for them. This can even be little things such as having dialogue with them and taking on board their needs.

Key moments

“I remember being aware of these changes and thinking to myself, well, I don't know. Do I speak to somebody about that? Am I just, almost getting into my head about it too much? What will people say? I felt quite embarrassed by it.”

“We're also in a culture which, to some extent, is great, where there's a lot of information out there, and that's a good thing, so we can find out a lot more things. But equally, the amount of information you can get can also be quite conflicting sometimes.”

“It shouldn't be something whereby a person is made to feel there's something wrong with them or that, they're somehow, being made to feel that they're being a burden or embarrassed.”

About the guest

Mandy Gutsell is the founder of Know Limits Ltd and has been helping individuals and organisations since 1991. There are four main services to the business - Coaching, Therapy, Supervision and Training/Consultancy. The key thread running through the four services is the underlying focus on mental health. At Know Limits they believe in encouraging NO limits and placing no limitations on the mind however they are firm believers in boundaries and KNOWing your own limits, hence their philosophy: Know your Limits, whilst having No Limits.

Mandy delivers a range of courses with the Training Service. This includes Mental Health First Aid England courses for staff in workplaces to qualify as Mental Health First Aiders. Mandy's expertise is in care, education, health, emergency frontline services, HR and Health and Safety leads. She supports the people who support others to try and reduce the risk of burnout.

Connect with Mandy: https://www.knowlimitscoach.com/

About the Host

John Fogarty has a training background dating back to 2005, with achievements including a teaching qualification and assessor standard. He has previously worked with two first aid charities, delivering sessions in workplace and educational environments.

John has consistently received excellent feedback for his delivery and customer service, as evident in numerous reviews. He ensures learners enjoy and achieve their goals and works with customers to select the right courses and resolves any issues promptly.

Find out more at https://jpffirstaid.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the JPF First Aid podcast, we're revisiting the world of children's mental health and the creative ways we can support it.

Jessica Radford is someone who’s doing just that, she's the author and creator of the Animal Advisor series, a collection of children's books that help young readers deal with life’s challenges in a gentle, thoughtful way.

Jessica was in a job where she was unhappy. After handing in her notice, she was out of work for several months but after seeing a squirrel struggling in her garden it opened up a whole new career. Jessica began her Animal Advisor series and journey as an author, and hasn’t looked back since.

Key Takeaways

Jessica explains how her books not only help to promote good mental health in children, but also those slightly older or those buying the books for children.

You can have money and be in a comfortable position, but the most valuable thing is your mental wellbeing and how you are feeling.

As well as writing the books, Jessica also does a lot of work to help a number of different charities, which she discusses in this podcast.

Key moments

“I felt that I had no right to feel unhappy because I was so lucky to have what I had and I thought that I had it all but in truth, I wasn’t living a very fulfilling life.”

“I feel as if I’ve got so much to say now and I’ve tried to cover as many issues as I can with my books. I’ve written nine stories in the series so far and I have loads more ideas.”

“It’s getting people thinking more about mental health and I know there’s a lot more awareness these days but there is still a lot of stigma around it, and I wanted to help normalise talking about mental health.”

About the guest

Jessica always had a love of books and reading from a very early age. She attempted to write a few stories when she was a child and after losing touch with writing for a while, sat down at her laptop a few years ago and her first story, ‘The Squirrel Who Couldn’t Balance’ just ‘happened’. Since then, the stories just seemed to have flowed and Jessica’s love of writing has returned with a vengeance.

Jessica loves spending time with her family, walking, visiting the theatre, and has a great love of music and dance. Of course, she loves to read too and personally, enjoys reading a wide variety of books, particularly historical fiction (especially anything about the Tudors or World War 2 era), crime and thriller novels plus, as a child, she was always drawn to animal stories.

https://www.jessicaradford.co.uk/

About the Host

John Fogarty has a training background dating back to 2005, with achievements including a teaching qualification and assessor standard. He has previously worked with two first aid charities, delivering sessions in the workplace and educational environments.

John has consistently received excellent feedback for his delivery and customer service, as evident in numerous reviews. He ensures learners enjoy and achieve their goals, works with customers to select the right courses and resolves any issues promptly.

Find out more at https://jpffirstaid.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.