We’re excited to announce our next Conversations that Challenge event. This time around we will be diving into the topic of professional empathy and the duty of hope. The Conversation will be led by Nell Hardy and we can’t wait!

Who is Nell?

Nell is an actor, writer, theatre-maker and facilitator with lived experience of homelessness and mental health hospitalisation. Her solo show NoMad, based on her experiences, has just premiered at the Arcola Outside, and she is now embarking on an outreach project aimed at empowering people within social and mental health systems and supporting service providers.

The Conversation

Anyone who is part of New System Alliance, or agrees with the idea that you should be able to maintain choice and control through a tough time, we imagine, will recoil from the phrase ‘professional distance’, and roll their eyes when they hear a colleague justifying making decisions on behalf of perfectly able-minded people with their ‘duty of care’.

But, do you feel your training has equipped you to be emotionally available to people going through tough times without being dangerously vulnerable? And, how do you give someone the respect they deserve by listening to what they want in life, without betraying trust if ultimately you don’t have the resources to work alongside them to get there?

If you are interested in talking about how to balance empathy and self-care in the workplace, and how to empower people to keep hopeful and motivated through countless setbacks, please do join us. Nell will give you an introduction to her techniques developed with experts in theatre facilitation and mental health care, you will have a chance to inform her practice, and together, we will all go back to work revitalised and full of new things to try.

So, join us, listen, challenge and contribute and let’s see where it goes.