All of my workshops are now available as webinars and I can work with Zoom or MS Teams.
To express an interest and open a discussion about what I can do for you, please complete my online enquiry/booking form.
Mental health and suicide prevention
Mental Health Awareness: 3.5 hours
This is a half day workshop suitable for all types of teams and groups. The session unfolds and challenges the stigma surrounding mental ill health, and provides an account of lived experience with mental health problems. Participants learn about the symptoms, myths and experiences associated with a number of mental health conditions. While a medical model of mental health is offered as the basis for the workshop, other models are touched on.
Suicide Prevention Foundations 3.5 hours
This half-day course helps participants to understand healthy language to use in relation to suicide and its prevention. We review some of the theory and risk factors that underpin the suicide statistics that we’ll look at together.
The course moves beyond suicide awareness to support participants to have open, honest and empathic conversations with suicidal people. We will work with a simple model of suicide prevention that draws on evidence-based tools. In addition, we will overview services and sources of support available to people who are suicidal.
“It was such a great training! Thank you so much for holding the space so kindly and inclusively. I loved your facilitation and the content was very useful.”
Participant
ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training): 2 days
I am an ASIST Master Trainer and have been teaching ASIST for around 15 years. ASIST is an evidence-based and internationally acclaimed two-day interactive workshop in suicide first aid. ASIST teaches participants to recognise when someone may have thoughts of suicide and work with them to create a plan that will support their immediate safety. ASIST is developed and owned by LivingWorks Education, for whom I am a licensed trainer.
SafeTALK (Suicide Alertness For Everyone) 4 hours
SafeTALK is a half-day suicide alertness training that prepares anyone (15 years or older), regardless of prior experience or training, to become a suicide-alert helper. Most people with thoughts of suicide don’t truly want to die, but are struggling with the pain in their lives. Through their words and actions, they invite help to stay alive. SafeTALK-trained helpers can recognise these invitations and take action by connecting them with life-saving intervention resources, such as caregivers trained in ASIST. SafeTALK is developed and owned by LivingWorks Education.
Wellness and embodiment
Being Well at Work: 3.5 hours
This half day course is a practical, creative and engaging workplace mental wellbeing workshop with an embodied approach.
This course is values-based and provides practical, immediately applicable tools that support your team or organisation to become more wellbeing-oriented and positive about mental health in the workplace. Embodiment is a growing field of practice that can really support wellbeing at work, and the approach in this course will help participants learn how to regulate their stress responses, to become less stressed, more resilient and more effective. As well as supporting individual wellbeing, this course will provide organisation- or team-wide strategies and tools to promote wellbeing at a broader level.
Chris ran a very helpful wellbeing session at an Amaze staff awayday. She shared practical tools with the team on centring, peer support for wellbeing and self-care assessment. These demonstrated to the team some simple yet effective ways in which we can look after ourselves and each other while dealing with life and work pressures. Chris’ warm style, inner calm and understanding of the sector we work in, and challenges we’re facing, helped staff feel at ease and able to fully participate and learn together.
Sally Polanski, Deputy CEO| Amaze
Introduction to Embodiment: 3.5 hours
This is a half-day workshop for anyone wanting to learn simple, practical and body-based techniques to support wellness. The course teaches and practices techniques for centring under pressure, and works with a four-element model to help participants explore their own embodiment patterns. The workshop is creative, engaging, fun and can support personal change and growth at a deep level.
Exploring Wellbeing, Self-Care and Resilience: 3.5 hours
This workshop invites participants to explore their personal understandings of resilience, particularly in the context of the pandemic, and offers resources to support your resilience, mental health and wellbeing. I provide simple, practical tools and practices that support participants to manage their stress responses.
The course also explores participants’ relationship with self-care and helps them to identify actions to improve their own self-care and resilience.
“I want to reiterate how wonderful you were Chris! What an incredibly kind spirit you have that enabled the workshop to feel like a place of healing whilst also developing really useful skills”
Team Leader, Gendered Intelligence
“Chris was a fantastic facilitator. They were great at time keeping, providing ample breaks to sustain our attention and established great ground rules. Chris’ approach to the session helped me to feel not only comfortable but created a safe space where I could be open about how I felt – and they responded in a sensitive, caring and authentic manner. The training provided a range of resources, techniques and most importantly practical suggestions about how to improve resilience and wellbeing. I’m really glad I was able to attend and would definitely recommend this training.”
Participant, LGBT Foundation
Equalities
LGBTQ Inclusion: 3.5 hours
This half day workshop is designed for teams of all kinds and will help participants to explore the range of intersecting LGBTQ identities and consider the impact of homo-/bi-/transphobia on individuals. The Equality Act 2010 will be overviewed, in particular as it relates to diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. Participants will learn how to challenge discrimination and create an LGBTQ-affirmative working and service environment. LGBTQ inclusion resources and signposting.
“Thank you so much for the training you organised and delivered today. We’ve had excellent feedback from staff who all agreed that it was very insightful and encouraged reflection. We couldn’t have been happier with how it turned out! Most staff even said that your workshop was the highlight of the day!”
Participant
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: 2 x 3 hours
Equality and diversity are central to services supporting clients from marginalised groups. This half day training will provide an opportunity to explore our own relationships to equality and diversity as well as the legislation underpinning anti-discriminatory practice. Using a client centred-approach, the session will explore equality and diversity in the context of supporting clients with complex needs. This training goes beyond legislation, to explore issues of equality and diversity, and how frontline workers can deliver inclusive services.
“By far one of the most thought provoking, interesting and well delivered courses I’ve been on. The images used really made me think on this topic in a way I haven’t before. Typically this sort of thing is normally just read a policy but I think it’s so important to have a discussion like this. The trainer was fantastic. Very engaging and kind, she made the learning fun and engaging and brought new material and ideas. Really good stuff.”
Participant
Facilitation and Support Skills
Facilitation Skills: 3.5 hours
This half-day course helps participants understand how to create a safe and inclusive environment which takes into account people’s intersectional identities. The content includes group dynamics and the different stages of how groups form and develop and offers tools to support effective facilitation of groups, meetings or activities.
I work with a strengths-based approach that helps participants understand their own facilitation skills and become more confident in managing group dynamics or conflict within a group.
Facilitating Online Groups: 3.5 hours
This workshop shares the same learning outcomes as the Facilitation Skills course above; in addition, there is a focus throughout on how to apply these skills in an online setting. The webinar introduces specific online tools and strategies to increase access and inclusion for online group participants. This course is useful for trainers and facilitators alike.
“Chris Brown is still the best trainer I have trained under or alongside! I always learn something new and useful. Chris brings any training alive with her energy and enthusiasm.”
Participant
Zoom Familiarisation for Trainers and Facilitators: 90 min
This short course is valuable for trainers and facilitators who are relatively new to online training and want to learn how to get the most out of Zoom. I introduce features such as whiteboards, annotation, polls, screen-sharing and breakout rooms, and introduce a couple of external tools that are very helpful for online training. I run this as a 1:1 session so I can tailor it to meet your needs.
“Thank you for the training session. I felt welcomed and safe enough to ask the questions I needed to learn about using Zoom. I also enjoyed the interactivity of the session. The skill with which you delivered the session made me feel connected, included and valued. I will be testing out the tips you showed me and improve my presentation – your feedback was insightful.”
Member of QTIPOC Narratives after a 1:1 session
Telephone and Online Support Skills: 3 hours
This course is valuable for teams providing support to clients on the phone (or, indeed, by video call). Teams learn and practice skills for providing assertive and compassionate support on the phone, including active listening skills. The session increases understanding of why some callers may be in distress, including some mental health needs. We discuss ordinary human responses including sympathy, empathy (the most helpful response) and identification/projection. I offer some teaching around responding to callers who are angry, upset or in crisis, and boundaries for effective and assertive support on the phone.
“It was really outstanding. Chris made all the participants feel really welcome and included, she managed the flow of conversation really well, and the content was very useful and relevant to our volunteers’ work.”
HomeStart team member
Fees for all courses: Please contact me to discuss costs hello@chrisbrown.uk.com
Bespoke course design
I can adapt courses to suit the needs of your team or organisation and have a strong track record for developing bespoke workshops. Half-day modules can also be combined with each other to form whole training days. Please email me for further details about any of the courses above, or to arrange a free 30-minute consultation to discuss your needs: