Welcome to Proper Mental episode 69 with Gavin Thorpe and Ben Akers from Talk Club!
Talk Club is a talking and listening club for men that is also described as a behaviour-changing movement.
It all started after one of the Founders, Ben Akers, lost his childhood best friend to suicide in 2014. Struggling to process his grief, Ben set out to make ‘Steve’, a documentary about male mental health.
Talk Club came from the process of making the film and everything that Ben learned along the way about men’s mental health.
For this episode I chat to Ben and fellow co-founder Gavin about making the documentary and how it led to the formation of Talk Club.
Talk Club sessions are based around the question ‘How are you, out of 10?’ and then explaining why. Gav and Ben chat about the importance of this leading question and how what they do works.
We also chat about men’s mental health in general and the terrible suicide statistics that come with it and we chat about keeping mentally fit, finding the words to talk and learning how to listen and support other men.
Talk Club have a big fundraising project coming up next month called Miles for Miles and if that is something you’d like to get involved in then all the details are on Home – Talk Club (wetalkclub.com) and you can get all the latest news via social media @talkclubuk
You can watch Ben’s incredible documentary ‘Steve’ here STEVE DOCUMENTARY
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Thanks for listening!
Enjoy!