All Things Mental Health

Eunice and Daniel explore what family means to them in relation to their own lived experience as a Black student. They explore family expectations, female roles and masculinity, and how family has interfaced with their experience as students. Tune in to hear more about mental health stigma at home, generational trauma, traditional gendered expectations, along with the pivotal role family can have...

Life as a Black student explores the lived experience of eight Black students studying and living in the U.K. Our aim is to move away from the stereotypical understanding of a 'homogeneous' experience, and instead we're being led by the lived experience of students in a more meaningful and authentic way.  This podcast series explores the Black student experience of mental health in...

This week, neurodivergent Coventry University student Elizabeth Mullenger discusses inclusion, adaptation and misconception with Anne-Laure Le Cunff, a PhD candidate from the ADHD research lab at King’s College London. Elizabeth’s interest in neurodivergence stems from her own experience of attending university whilst living with borderline personality disorder; navigating barriers and exploring n...

In this week’s episode, the host is Tanatswa Chikaura. Tanatswa is a mental health advocate and master’s in Neuroscience student from the University of Cambridge. In Zimbabwe, her home country, Tanatswa leads a mental health organisation that seeks to promote good mental health for children, adolescents, and youths called Ndinewe Foundation; and her research interests lie primarily in cognitive ne...

In this episode, we dive into the mental health challenges faced by post-graduate and mature students in a university setting. Titus Joseph, a masters student studying Public Health at the University of Nottingham, speaks with Dr. Patricia (Trish) Jackman, Associate Professor of Sport and Exercise Psychology at the University of Lincoln, about her research. Titus is a mature student and has experi...

(CW: death, mentions of self-harm and suicide)  To kick off series 2 with SMaRteN this week’s episode, Elia Chitwa, a recent graduate from the University of Cambridge and current student union sabbatical officer, is joined by Dr Dionne Taylor, an Associate Professor at Birmingham City University. They talk about Dionne’s SMaRteN-funded research which is centred on the creation of student-led wellb...

We are thrilled to welcome back our students & SMaRteN from our collab series ‘Keeping Students in Mind: Understanding Student Mental Health Research’ for a special reunion episode! This one-off focuses on post-uni life to celebrate the coming together of mental health researchers from across the U.K for the SMaRteN conference last week.   Hearing from new and familiar graduates, we discuss ho...

In this episode, Fatema Mustansir Dawoodbhoy, a final year medical student at Imperial College London, chats to Dr Georgia Walker Churchman, a lecturer in Humanities at the University of East Anglia with a background in English Literature, about her SMaRteN-funded project titled ‘Helping Students to Connect, Create, and Collaborate in their Own Wellbeing’. Georgia led this project on student menta...

On this week’s episode Niamh Burns, a final year psychology student at the University of Leeds, speaks with Natasa Lackovic about her SMaRteN-funded research project, ‘ Things and the mind: students’ graphic memoir of material things that mediate their mental health experiences ’.    Natasa is a Director of the Centre of Higher Education Research and Evaluation (CHERE) at the Department of Educati...

In this week’s episode, Eric Berger, a final year undergraduate student at The University of Edinburgh, is joined by Rachel Spacey, a Research Fellow based in the Lincoln Higher Education Research Institute at the University of Lincoln. They discuss her SMaRteN-funded project, “Who cares? Identifying, understanding and supporting the work-life balance of students with caring responsibilities”. Bot...

In this week’s episode, Jenna Luxon, a Social and Political Sciences graduate from the University of York, is joined by postdoctoral researcher Dr Emma Broglia from the University of Sheffield. The two discuss Emma’s research into mental health interventions in higher education, focusing on the thoughts and experiences of those students with long-term mental health conditions.  The episode starts...

For University Mental Health Day 2022, we’re thrilled to present Episode 1 of ‘Keeping Students in Mind: Understanding Student Mental Health Research’, a collaborative podcast brought to you by All Things Mental Health (a mental health podcasting organisation), King’s College London (KCL), and SMaRteN (KCL’s student mental health research network). Episode 1 is in conversation with Aneeska Sohal -...

(CW: sexual violence briefly mentioned in this episode) It was great to chat with the CEO of Fumble, Lucy Whitehouse, for the last episode of this series. Fumble is a sex education charity. They set out to make sure that young people have the skills and knowledge to successfully manage their sexual health. Aneeska and Lucy chat more about the interlink between sexual health and mental health. Tune...

This week Addam Merali-Younger chats to us about the lack of representation in the student mental health sector, and how this creates a barrier.  Addam is training to be a counsellor and he also works in the wider student mental health sector with an interest in diversification. Addam explains how “you look at the whole sector and everything is based on research by quite a non-diverse audience, de...

Great to have Dr Anna Colton with us this week. Anna is a clinical psychologist and she chatted to us about the importance of being honest about distress from a young age, helping young minds build a tolerance to deal with it. Anna discusses how the education system needs to change to help young people formulate a language to understand and label their distress. While this requires significant ins...

Delighted to be joined by Dr Manuel Madriaga this week. Manny is a Senior Lecturer in Education Studies at Sheffield Hallam University. His research interests are on the process of social exclusion and inclusion related to ‘race’, ethnicity, and disability. Aneeska and Manny discuss the need for multicultural, inclusive spaces on campuses amidst the white majority higher education space in the UK....

This week it was a pleasure to have Michael Priestley with us. Michael is a PhD student based at Durham University and his research explores how higher education policies impact student wellbeing, with a particular focus on assessments and exams. Tune in to hear Michael discuss the importance of a cultural change around how we value and talk about assessments, issues around self-worth and examinat...

Delighted to have John de Pury, the Assistant Director of Policy at Universities UK, join us this week. Aneeska and John explore how our mental health and wellbeing underpins our success in relation to learning. John talks about how we all have and own this experience, and why we must pay sustained attention to it. Tune in to also hear about why a collective approach to student mental health can b...

This week Aneeska chats with Misha Clarke, a mindfulness and yoga teacher based in Oxford. Misha discusses the benefits of mindfulness for children, drawing off her experience of teaching students aged from 7-11. We are delighted to announce that Misha is offering a free meditation and yoga session for our listeners! Listen to the episode for all the info! Thanks for listening!

To kick off Series 2, we are excited to have Natasha Devon with us. Natasha is a writer and activist. She is currently doing a Saturday Night LBC show. She tours schools, colleges & universities around the world, delivering talks as well as conducting research on mental health. In this episode, Aneeska chats to Natasha about the importance of navigating mental health from a young age.  Thanks...

For the last episode of this series, we have Tom Gulliver with us discussing the mental health benefits of music. Tom chats to us about all the music outlets he's been involved with at the University of York, including Band Soc, open mic nights at different colleges, as well as helping with tech at the Norman Rea Gallery through events such as A Multilingual Experience. Tom tracks his own jou...

(CW: eating disorders) This week we chat to Issy Tee and Lydia Jones about the work they are doing for BEAT, the UK's eating disorder charity. Issy, a young ambassador for BEAT, discusses the different ways the charity support those with eating disorders, as well as how they look out for those who are supporting others with eating disorders too. Lydia, the former vice president of the BEAT So...

Tune in to hear from Becky Metcalfe this week who chats to us about how dance has been a consistent and great outlet for her since she was little, really helping her ground her mental health. We discuss her evolution as a dancer, and Aneeska shares her experience as a dancer too. The pair share anecdotes, discuss the challenges of performing, as well as how to take in criticism. They chat through...

This week we chat to Sonya Sandhu about the mental health benefits of playing football. Sonya discusses how university sports teams are breaking the taboo surrounding mental health and sports by appointing welfare officers, with teams starting to take mental health just as seriously as physical health. She tracks her own mental health journey with us, discussing the well-being benefits of being a...

Aneeska chats to her Multilingual Experience executive committee, Chris Oldnall and Laura Burke. The initiative raises awareness about global issues through evenings of live performances from musicians, poets and speakers. The team discuss how their initiative has evolved over the years, raising money for charities such as Think Equal, Human Rights Watch and Student Minds. Chris and Laura talk to...