When ticking the box becomes the whole strategy I’ve sat in enough boardrooms and HR meetings now to know the moment when a company decides it’s “doing something” about mental health. Someone books a two-day Mental Health First Aid course for a handful of staff, a certificate goes on the wall, and the box gets […]
There’s a lot of conversation in organisations right now about mental health. Policies are being written. Training is being booked.
What a Mentally Healthy Workplace Actually Looks Like Read More »
I speak to a lot of business owners and managers who see mental health training as something they probably should do at some point.
Mental Health at Work: What the Law Actually Requires of You Read More »
Parliament has debated making mental health first aid a legal requirement in UK workplaces twice now. It hasn’t passed yet.
The idea behind mental health first aiders is genuinely good. Having trained, visible people in an organisation that colleagues can turn
Mental Health First Aiders: Great Idea, Bad Execution Read More »
A lot of organisations right now are under pressure to show they’re doing something about mental health. And so they do things.
The Gap Between Mental Health Compliance and Culture Read More »
This comes up almost every time I talk to an organisation about mental health training.They’ve done it before. Sent their people on a course.
Why Off the Shelf Mental Health Training Doesn’t Work Read More »
I’ll say this plainly. A lot of mental health first aid training does not work. Not because the training itself is bad on the day. People leave the room feeling motivated.
Knowing you should check in with someone is the easy part. Knowing what to actually say is where most people freeze.
Most managers don’t avoid mental health conversations because they don’t care. They avoid them because they don’t know what to say, or they’re worried about saying the wrong thing and making it worse.
How to Talk About Mental Health at Work: A Manager’s Guide Read More »
Training & Development
Tagline: Grounded, real and genuinely hard to forget.
LinkedIn:
Ian is an experienced therapist whose work spans trauma, addiction, anxiety and recovery. His approach is shaped as much by lived experience as by professional training and that combination makes him exceptionally relatable to the people he works with.
People who’ve worked with Ian consistently say the same thing — he gets it in a way that goes beyond what most trainers can offer. He doesn’t just understand the subject. He understands people.
Within Piece of Mind Training, Ian also plays a key role in business and strategic development, bringing a practical, grounded perspective to how the organisation grows and evolves.
Training & Development
Tagline: He’s seen mental health crisis at its most acute. And he knows what actually helps.
LinkedIn:
David’s background is probably unlike anyone else you’ll meet in a mental health training room.
Twenty-three years on the frontline of emergency services first as a police officer, now as an HCPC-registered practising paramedic. He hasn’t studied stress, trauma and burnout from a distance. He’s carried them, in uniform, responding to people at the absolute worst moments of their lives. He understands the culture that makes asking for help feel like the hardest thing in the world because he’s lived inside that culture.
That frontline experience sits alongside his clinical practice as a qualified hypnotherapist and accredited EFT practitioner. David works with real people navigating real challenges every single week. What he brings to Piece of Mind Training isn’t theoretical. It’s current, grounded and built entirely from the inside out.
As part of the team, David delivers training, practises as a therapist and plays a key role in the development and direction of the organisation making sure that everything Piece of Mind produces is professionally rigorous and genuinely human.
David is responsible for development and ensures that Piece of Mind Training programmes are grounded in real-world application. Not what the textbook says should happen. What actually works when it matters.
Growth & Partnerships
Tagline: She’s written the book. Literally.
Iona has spent more than twenty years working at the intersection of human potential and real-world impact — across psychology, coaching, education, broadcasting, the charitable sector and social policy, in both the UK and the USA.
She is a Master Positive Psychology Coach and twice bestselling author who has supported hundreds of people through coaching qualifications and worked alongside some of the most respected names in positive psychology and personal development. As a keynote speaker and leadership advisor, she helps organisations rethink what success and human flourishing actually look like.
But what drives Iona’s commitment to mental health work goes deeper than her professional background. She lost her brother to suicide. That experience — and everything it taught her about the gap between what people are going through and the support available to them — shapes everything she brings to Piece of Mind Training.
At Piece of Mind, Iona leads our partnerships, builds community impact and drives our growth across Scotland and beyond. She brings commercial insight, deep human understanding and a personal reason for being here that no CV can fully capture.
Head of Training
Tagline: The person who makes sure the learning delivers every time.
LinkedIn:
Ann has spent her career helping people make sense of the things that are weighing on them and finding a way forward when everything feels tough.
Her background is genuinely rare. A qualified teacher, certified hypnotherapist, coach and First Aid for Mental Health practitioner, Ann brings together an understanding of how people learn with a deep, practical knowledge of how people struggle. She still works directly with adults and young people every week supporting those experiencing anxiety, low confidence, emotional distress and the kind of quiet difficulties that don’t always have a name but make everyday life feel impossibly hard.
As a trainer, Ann knows that the best mental health training doesn’t just inform people, it changes how they see themselves and the people around them. She brings that belief into every session she delivers, whether she’s working with a room full of HR professionals or a team who’ve never talked about mental health at work before.
As a therapist, trainer, teacher and mum of three, Ann understands that most people are dealing with far more than anyone around them realises. That understanding is the foundation of everything she does.
At Piece of Mind Training, Ann leads on training quality and consistency, making sure that what we promise is what every learner experiences, every time.
Founder
Tagline: The man who built this because he needed it himself.
Qualifications include:
Andy is a practising therapist, clinical hypnotherapist and the founder of Piece of Mind Training. He’s spent over a decade working with clients across anxiety, trauma, panic disorder and complex mental health presentations not as a theorist, but as someone who has experienced many of these challenges himself.
His personal journey through mental health struggles, panic disorder and years of pretending everything was fine is the reason Piece of Mind Training exists. He built what he wished had existed when he needed it most.
As a trainer, Andy is known for his directness, his warmth and his ability to make people feel genuinely seen. He doesn’t stand behind a slide deck and talk at people. He brings the subject into the room.
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