Tag: loneliness

5 May 2026
employee counselling • employee mental health • loneliness • loneliness awareness week • mental health • mental health at work •

Loneliness Awareness Week 2026 — Giving Loneliness a Voice

Practical, clinically grounded sessions that help your employees build real connections, strengthen relationships and find their way out of isolation.

Loneliness at work is more common than most organisations realise — and more damaging than many are willing to name. It affects concentration, motivation and the ability to collaborate. Left unaddressed, it quietly erodes the engagement and trust that teams depend on.

This year’s Loneliness Awareness Week, with its theme of Giving Loneliness a Voice, is both a prompt and an opportunity. Not simply to acknowledge that loneliness exists in our workplaces, but to do something meaningful about it — equipping employees with the understanding, the skills and the genuine human connection that makes a lasting difference.

61% of UK adults who have experienced loneliness say they have never spoken to anyone about it — most often because of the stigma they fear it carries. That silence has a cost — to individuals, to teams and to organisations. These sessions are designed to break it.

Sessions and workshops

All sessions are delivered live, online or in person, and can be booked individually or together. Each session accommodates up to 100 participants

Community, Connection and Belonging – 60  minutes

Humans have evolved to connect — and we are far more likely to thrive when we feel a genuine sense of belonging. Yet for many employees, that sense of community has eroded quietly, without anyone quite naming it. This interactive session looks honestly at the growing impact of loneliness and isolation on our mental health, and gives participants the practical tools to do something about it — rebuilding connections, finding new communities and managing the emotional weight that disconnection brings.

Session content includes

  • The importance of community for mental health
  • How to find community and build a sense of belonging
  • Rebuilding and bolstering existing connections
  • Making new connections and joining community projects
  • Emotional support for loneliness and lack of connection
  • Strategies to reduce ruminative thinking
  • Confidence and self-esteem boosting techniques

Talking Mental Health – 90 minutes

Most of us will, at some point, find ourselves working alongside someone who is struggling — and many of us will struggle ourselves. Yet mental health remains a subject that most people feel underprepared to talk about, whether with a colleague who needs support or in relation to their own wellbeing. This 90-minute session gives employees the knowledge, confidence and practical skills to engage with mental health in a meaningful way — covering both how to recognise and support a colleague who may be struggling, and how to actively understand and look after your own mental health.

Session content includes

  • The mental health continuum and the recovery model
  • Risk factors for mental health issues
  • Signs and symptoms to look out for in colleagues
  • How to initiate and navigate a supportive conversation — what to say and what not to say
  • How to signpost colleagues towards professional support
  • How to check in with your own mental health
  • The role of connection, sleep, exercise and nutrition in mental wellbeing
  • Practical self-care techniques to improve and maintain your mental health

Delivered by a qualified workplace mental health clinician

Kindness and Self-Compassion – 60 minutes

Kindness is widely underestimated — dismissed as something soft, when in fact it is one of the most robust psychological tools available to us. Loneliness is rarely experienced in silence; it arrives with an inner critic that isolates us further, making it harder to reach out or believe that connection is possible. This session helps participants understand and manage that voice, developing the self-compassion, resilience and emotional intelligence that make genuine connection — with others and with themselves — a real possibility.

Session content includes

  • Why we undermine kindness, compassion and self-esteem — and how to stop
  • Recognising difficult emotions and training ourselves to respond more kindly
  • Managing the inner critic
  • Self-compassion versus self-esteem
  • Developing resilience and emotional intelligence
  • Exploring common humanity — the understanding that we are not alone
  • Extending kindness and compassion to others
  • Practical kindness techniques for daily life

Counselling

For some employees, loneliness runs deeper than a workshop can reach — and that is where one-to-one support makes the most difference. Wellbeing Partners’ clinical specialists are available to work confidentially with individuals managing loneliness and its effects on their mental health and wellbeing. All of our practitioners are fully qualified professionals with at least ten years of post-qualification experience, bringing genuine clinical depth and human warmth to every session.

If you would like more information on any of these sessions, or would like to talk through what might work best for your organisation, we would be very glad to hear from you.

If you would like more information please complete the form below

4 October 2024
anxiety • autumn • employee mental health • employee wellbeing • loneliness • mental health • mental health at work • mental health awareness • self-care • sleep • winter • winter blues • winter wellbeing •

Bite-Sized Winter Wellbeing Workshops

We are excited to launch our new range of Seasonal Bite-Sized Lunch & Learns – a series of five x 30 minute winter wellbeing workshops for your employees to learn key tips and techniques for boosting their wellbeing throughout autumn and winter.  The sessions are delivered by our team of fully qualified and experienced professionals.

These shorter sessions offer a timely and accessible way of reminding your staff about vital self-care actions for staying well and productive over the colder, darker months.

Bite-Sized Lunch & Learns – 30 minutes each, live online for your employees

Combatting Loneliness in Winter: Loneliness and isolation are common experiences felt by a growing number of people, particularly over the autumn and winter months. Loneliness is a risk factor for anxiety, depression and low self-esteem.. This session looks at how loneliness can develop, and practical steps to bolster connection and a sense of belonging. Topics include: 

  • Intentional connection – how to boost engagement with friends, family and community
  • The importance of warmth and exercise
  • Conscious social media usage
  • Self-care for supporting mental wellbeing

Movement for Mental Health: Humans evolved to be active every day, but the colder months see most working people moving and exercising less, impacting mood and mental wellbeing and overall health. This session explores strategies for how employees can incorporate movement into break times, and find time for enjoyable, regular exercise throughout winter, bolstering both mental and physical wellbeing. Topics include:

  • The link between movement and  mental health
  • Stepping up outdoors activity in daily life
  • Gentle movement and stretching for stress relief
  • Mindful movement, flow state and resilience

Nutrition Basics for Winter: As we move into the autumn and winter there’s a shift what we desire and require in terms of food and nutrition. This session helps your employees to gain knowledge and skills for planning and preparing for eating well over the winter months for enjoyment, warmth, immune system, physical health and mental wellbeing. Topics include: 

  • When to consider supplementation
  • Immune-enhancing foods
  • Balancing your plate

Get Your Sleep Sorted: Good mental health is underpinned by heathy sleep, and in the winter months our sleep drive and sleeping patterns can change.  This short masterclass teaches the basics of becoming a “good sleeper” using psychology-based techniques – a highly successful method designed to combat insomnia, to cultivate the foundations of rest needed for good mental health wellbeing. Topics include:

  • Steps to become a good sleeper
  • From poor sleeper to good sleeper – the process
  • The psychological connection between bed and sleep 

Avoiding Anxiety in Winter:  Fewer daylight hours, a seemingly monochrome environment, the damp, the cold and the relentlessness of the winter months are often associated with depression, however the winter environment can be a trigger for anxiety too.  In this session, we explore a variety of anxiety reduction techniques, giving employees a toolkit to feel more calm and content during winter. Topics include: 

  • Boost your serotonin and dopamine 
  • Reframing anxiety – not an enemy to be defeated
  • The Mindful Pause – anxiety reduction in the moment
  • Grounding, and settling the mind

If you would like more information on these Lunch & Learns, please complete the form below:

8 May 2024
loneliness • loneliness awareness week • mens health • mental health •

Loneliness Awareness Week and Men’s Health Week

This June sees the confluence of two awareness weeks that seem unrelated at first glance but are actually closely intwined.  Both Loneliness Awareness Week and Men’s Health Week run from 10th – 16th June and both deserve our attention, personally and professionally.

One of the enduring legacies of the pandemic is an enduring sense of loneliness and disconnection across large swathes of society.  The pandemic triggered a mass movement to home-based working and, for many employees, an isolated existence.  Hybrid working has cemented this lifestyle for many and has made it difficult to rebuild social and professional bonds. This is having a worrying impact on employee mental health.

People who experience extended feelings of loneliness, personal or professional, often suffer increased levels of stress, anxiety and depression as well as being more prone to suicide. Loneliness detrimentally effects cardiovascular health, undermines healthy sleep and increases chances of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s.  On an organisational level too, isolation has seen a downturn in productivity and an increase in worker burnout.

This is obviously concerning for all, but especially for men who are often resistant to asking for help, leaving both physical and mental health issues to fester.  This is worrying enough without the added health pressures brought on through feelings of loneliness.

As Lou Campbell, Wellbeing Partners Programme Director and Counselling Psychotherapist, notes

“Male health, both mental and physical, is still a subject that is avoided by many.  Illnesses that could be stopped in their tracks and dealt with whilst still manageable are more likely to become serious, as men choose to ignore or “tough out” their symptoms. The increased issue of emotional isolation is only adding to the reticence to talk as find it difficult to admit to feeling vulnerable.”

And this is something that we can no longer just ignore.  Men commonly die earlier, become ill at a younger age and experience more chronic illnesses than women[i].  Health issues develop into life threatening cases when they could have been managed earlier, as demonstrated in the statistic that in the UK men are more likely than women to experience and die from heart disease and illness,[ii] in part because they ignore symptoms.

The attitudes of ignoring or “toughing out” also impacts male mental health. 40% of men have never spoken to someone about their mental health challenges[iii] and ¾ of suicides in the UK are male[iv].  These problems are only being exacerbated by the experience of loneliness and rather than talk about this or seek professional help, many men rely on unhelpful coping mechanisms like alcohol and recreational drug usage, further damaging their health.

This June is the perfect opportunity to support workplace mental health as we continue to navigate issues of loneliness and disconnection, but to especially offer our male members of staff an environment where these issues can be discussed in a non-judgemental and supportive way.  It is time to stop seeing loneliness as a passing phase and to treat it with the respect it deserves.  As individuals and organisations, we will all benefit.

Suggested workplace initiatives to increase awareness and provide tips and advice for your employees:

Men’s Health: a 60-minute live and interactive workshop to increase awareness of the types of health and wellbeing issues that commonly affect men, and how to tackle them effectively.

Men’s Mental Health: a 60-minute workshop that normalises discussion of male mental health, the challenges men can face and practical and supportive solutions for responding to these difficulties.

Improving Connection and Belonging – In this 60-minute session themes of loneliness and disconnection are explained in the context of their impact on physical and mental health, offering a wide range of practical ways to improve connection.

Taming the Inner Critic: This 60-minute interactive workshop focuses on helping develop resilience in the face of life’s challenges, showing how this essential quality can be cultivated through supportive techniques.

Mindfulness for Men: In this session, mindfulness is explored through the lens of the physical and mental health challenges men experience, offering an accessible way into practicing mindfulness to help manage these issues.

Employee Counselling: in your workplace or online, specialist mental health professionals provide confidential one to one support for your employees around any mental health or wellbeing topics they want to discuss with a highly experienced workplace counsellor.

Getting Started

[i] bmj.com

[ii] bhf.org.uk

[iii] priorygroup.com

[iv] ons.gov.uk

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