Welcome to Inclusion Bites, your sanctuary for bold conversations that spark change. I'm Joanne Lockwood, your guide on this journey of exploration into the heart of inclusion, belonging, and societal transformation. Ever wondered what it truly takes to create a world where everyone not only belongs but thrives, you're not alone. Join me as we uncover the unseen, challenge the status quo, and share stories that resonate deep within. Ready to dive in? Whether you're sipping your morning coffee or winding down after a long day, let's connect, reflect, and inspire action together. Don't forget, you can be part of the conversation too. Reach out to jo.lockwood@seachangehappen.co.uk to share your insights or to join me on the show. So adjust your earbuds and settle in.

It's time to ignite the spark of inclusion with Inclusion Bites. Today is episode 140 with the title, getting back up. And I have the absolute honor and privilege to welcome Alex Williams. Alex is a passionate speaker and mental health practitioner, and is dedicated to helping people rise after life's toughest knocks. When asked Alex to describe his superpower, he says it is creating empowering environments that inspire, transform with self discovery and resilience. Hello, Alex. Welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me on today.

My pleasure. I can't remember if we've ever actually met in person, but we've certainly seen each other online a lot through the Professional Speaking Association and other mutual friends.

Yeah. I I think last time I saw you was at breakfast at the last not last PSA conference the year before. But I did my usual thing where I feel awkward, and then I say hello and then disappears, hide in the background.

Yeah. Well, we've met then. Yeah.

Yes. That's

it. Well, I've been really keen to to find out more about your story because I as I say, I do follow you on LinkedIn and see some of the post you're doing. Yeah. So, Alex, getting back up, where did that come from?

Well, I've been working in the mental health space for 20 years now. And along with my own personal story, kind of found that people don't really know the key ingredients to recovering from the setbacks that knock us down in life. Now, obviously, trying to explain what I do as a job day to day, you tell anyone what mental health practitioners do. It's kinda hard, but, essentially, it came to that thing of, well, really, I'm helping people to recover from those setbacks they face. But it really became a massive passion of mine to really kind kind of get to those core ingredients so I can so when I'm working with people, rather than saying, oh, you should try this modality, you should try this thing, or try that, Kinda really focus on the the basics so we can get a real solid foundation so people can then have something to work from, and then they can kind of navigate to a a path that's right for them to help them work towards and achieve whatever they want to in life.

When you use the phrase mental health, it it conjures up stigma or failure or all these words of negativity. But we all have mental health. It just has different attributes depending on it's and it's not linear either, is it?

No. No. It's I mean, it's it's on a spectrum, really. It's, you know, there's a we all have mental health, and although there's some maybe issues that present come with referring to everything under the mental health or emotional health umbrella, it's important that we realize that we're all susceptible to struggling at times. I don't really like the term mental health, I'm gonna be honest, because I think that makes people think in isolation that it's just something wrong with their brains, for example, when actually we're all one be being, aren't we? We we have physical our physical body, our emotions, our mind. It's all connected. So I kind of I use the word mental health because that's what everyone knows, but I think I try encourage people to think as a as a whole, you know, and with with the communities around us in fact because that's essentially probably the biggest impact on our mental health usually.