The feelings of helplessness when you realise your child is struggling with their mental health are like no other. The worry can be all-consuming, especially if you’re not quite sure when and where to get professional support, and can impact the whole family.

LionHeart host Melissa Gough Rundle is joined by Carmel Mullan-Hartley and Colette Hartley from our youth counselling partner, Open Door.

We talk about:

• Some of the common themes and issues experienced by the young people we support
• The lingering effects of the Covid pandemic on our young people’s mental health
• The role of the family (from parents to siblings) while their young person is having therapy
• What to expect from youth counselling
• The holistic support we can give parents throughout

Useful links:

Find out more about LionHeart’s youth counselling service

Watch this series of short explainer videos on common children’s mental health issues, filmed with Open Door

Sign up to get the LionHeart newsletter

“My body was telling me something was wrong – I just wasn’t listening to it.”

Sudden, serious health events that happen seemingly out of the blue can change everything, mentally and physically. Our host Jo Grant is joined by LionHeart ambassador Amol Bhatnagar MRICS as we talk health problems that change your life – something around 1 in 10 of the cases we support each year have in common – and how you can learn to accept and embrace that not everyone is given a second chance.

We talk about:

• Amol’s chest pain that he thought might be down to rich Christmas and New Year food – but led to him being whisked to hospital for surgery
• The tell-tale warning signs he’d overlooked, including the stress he’d been under working for his own limited company
• Recovering, emotionally and physically
• Life changes Amol has made, and his advice for others in a similar situation

Useful links:

Watch this recorded Men’s Health Month panel discussion, in which Amol and other LionHeart ambassadors talk about men’s health and wellbeing, from the physical to the mental

How LionHeart can support through ill-health

Sign up to get the LionHeart newsletter

What are some of the biggest barriers to better inclusion at work?

In this episode, LionHeart host Jo Grant is joined by Vanessa Curtis, senior director at CBRE, RICS Governing Council member, and founder and chair of AbilityRE, a non-profit organisation that promotes awareness of disability and neurodiversity within the property industry.

Vanessa’s journey began with her personal experiences of trying to get diagnoses and support for her own neurodivergent children – which would actually later lead to the ‘lightbulb moment’ that caused her to explore her own diagnosis of ADHD as an adult.

We talk about:

• Some of the challenges faced by neurodivergent people in the workplace…
• … and the strengths and differences they may bring to your teams
• Attitudes and experiences around neurodivergence in surveying
• What’s behind a rise in the numbers of adult females with ADHD and autism
• Things that can be put in place to help (spoiler: it doesn’t have to mean expensive or complicated!)

Useful links:

Check out LionHeart’s Neurodiversity page for some useful resources and to find out more about how we can help

Watch this recorded panel discussion, Embracing Neurodiversity in the Workplace, in which some of the LionHeart ambassador team talk about their diagnoses of ADHD and autism, and the effect on their surveying careers

Sign up to get the LionHeart newsletter

3.1 A Growth Mindset (& how to get one)

What’s a growth mindset: how do you get one – and why would you want one anyway?!

LionHeart host Melissa Gough Rundle is joined by one of the LionHeart trainers and certified coach Rob Edwards to talk about the difference between fixed and growth mindsets and how we can train our minds like a muscle to embrace new skills and opportunities and make us more confident.

We talk about:

· How growth can be about small wins and improvements

· Why what has been a previous failure can be a source of future strength

· How having a set opinion of your natural abilities and talents can hold you back

· Why consistency trumps having massive goals – and the power of the word ‘yet’

Useful links:

Find out more about LionHeart career support, including how to take a coaching approach

to your development

Find a range of our recorded webinars to support your wellbeing, personal and career

development here

Sign up to get the LionHeart newsletter

Every year, millions of UK employees experience bereavement – astonishingly, around a quarter of the workforce. Yet almost 60% of those felt unsupported at work following their loss. Despite bereavement being something we all experience, it seems workplaces and colleagues are not always well-equipped to offer support and are often not sure what to do or say (or what not to do or say).

In this second of two episodes to mark Grief Awareness Week, LionHeart host Jo Grant is joined by ambassador and surveyor Claire Martin and LionHeart communications manager Hayley Draper, who share their experiences of working while dealing with terminal illness and loss.

We talk about:

· Bereavement policies at work

· The importance of flexibility and kindness

· What helped – and what didn’t

· The zigzag nature of the impact of loss

Useful links

How LionHeart can support following bereavement

Watch our recorded webinar, Understanding Bereavement in the Workplace

Sign up to get the LionHeart newsletter

Every single one of us will lose a loved one at some point in our lives, but the impact of grief is something we still don’t talk about very much – which can leave someone who’s been bereaved feeling very isolated in their feelings.

In this first of two episodes to mark Grief Awareness Week, LionHeart host Jo Grant is joined by ambassador and surveyor Claire Martin and LionHeart communications manager Hayley Draper, who share their experiences of loss and the grieving process.

We talk about:

· Claire’s experience as a young widow and mum to a three-year-old

· What anticipatory grief is like

· How losing your parents – even as an adult – can leave you feeling adrift

· Some of the surprising things about grief

· Supporting children through loss

Useful links

How LionHeart can support following bereavement

Watch our recorded webinar, Understanding Bereavement in the Workplace

Sign up to get the LionHeart newsletter

LionHeart Talks… Gearing up for your APC

Undertaking your APC and, in particular, getting ready for final assessment can be one of the most stressful, daunting periods of a surveyor’s career, with the need to juggle work, study, revision and home life. So how can you help yourself gear up for that all-important journey?

In this episode, our host Melissa Gough-Rundle is joined by ambassador Roy Albert, who became chartered in 2020 despite some hurdles, and is now an APC assessor and mentor as well as an ambassador for LionHeart.

We talk about:

• Roy’s own journey from tiny Caribbean island to UK surveying career, and from apprentice to MRICS
• Approaching APC and recognising your learning style
• The things that are more important than your technical knowledge
• The importance of balance and good support
• Mocks, mocks, mocks – and why it’s better to be uncomfortable in a mock than the real thing!
• How LionHeart and the APC ambassadors can help candidates

Useful links:

Read Roy’s blog, If I can do it so can you: an APC journey, on the LionHeart website

Find out more about LionHeart’s APC Support

Sign up to get the LionHeart newsletter

5 LionHeart Talks… How talking beats the stigma

[Trigger warning: this episode contains references to suicide and suicide prevention]

The fear of admitting you’re feeling vulnerable can magnify problems no end. Worst case scenario, bottling things up can even make you ill.

In this episode to mark Time to Talk Day, LionHeart host Melissa Gough-Rundle is joined by our long-time ambassador Steve Lees to talk about how opening up and having conversations can be life-changing – and that if we were all a bit more honest about the challenges we face (even in the workplace) we’d all probably be happier and healthier.

We talk about:

• Steve’s own past experience of work ‘consuming’ him – to the point he was stressed and anxious
• The ‘sliding doors’ moment of being told he had cancer
• How that diagnosis turned out to be one of the things that saved his mental health
• Changing attitudes to mental health in surveying
• How stories in the public eye can help people open up

Useful links:

Read Steve’s blogs, ‘Cancer wasn’t meant to happen to us’ and Starting the conversation around suicide

Sign up to get the LionHeart newsletter

Watch our recorded Time to Talk Day panel discussion, The Positives of Conversation, here

Find out more about LionHeart’s mental health support