Mental Health Training

Jon Simons

Jon SimonsNassim Nicholas Taleb “Skin in the Game” says,

“If you want to be a Life coach go speak to a life coach – other than that, Why would you? They’re skilled at being a Life coach – that’s what they know.”

A few years ago, I was driven to breaking point – I’d had failed relationships at home and no matter how hard I worked I just didn’t seem to be able to move my career forward.

I had, for years identified myself as my job role – I’d say, “Hi I’m Jon the store manager.” So, failing in the role meant failing in life.

I had family, but as a divorced 40+ year old who didn’t see his “busy” children I failed at that too.

I reached a point where the pain exceeded my tolerance level.

I was lucky, I found help.

As a workaholic I found comfort in volunteering at Samaritans – before long I was on the training team, I was a duty leader, I was working alongside the branch Director in delivering support to 1,000’s of dancers at Cream Fields. All this while picking up duties on the phone. Using my leadership skills in a charitable environment was nicely building my altruistic defense mechanism, yes that really is a thing.

Samaritans is great and it undoubtedly saved my life. It wasn’t enough. I wanted to do more, I wanted to be more.

Now I have an BSc Hons degree in counselling and Psychotherapy – I have a private practice and I work full time as a Well Being leader in a national retail business. I’m ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) trained and I work as an Mental Health First Aid instructor.

Why am I telling you this? Well I refer to my first point, you want someone who knows your people who know what it’s like in the corporate world today then that’s where I live and breathe. I empathise with the day to day pressure.

 

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