Health Inequalities – A Community of Practice Event May 2023 

On 18th May, Amy Hobson (CEO) facilitated a Health Inequalities community of practice event with the Academic Health Sciences Network at Oxford University. The event centred around how to increase health equity, community engagement and co-production in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. The following is her account of the day...  Being a consultant, I get to … Continue reading Health Inequalities – A Community of Practice Event May 2023  →

The Impact We Have on Others 

A Blog About Compassion and Authenticity We had a team day recently at The Wellbeing Collective – we each ran a session and had a meaningful and productive day together. At one point during the day, we got into a discussion about authenticity – how we show it; our attitude towards others; positive and negative … Continue reading The Impact We Have on Others  →

World Book Day 2023 Book Recommendations

To celebrate World Book Day 2023, we have picked out 9 of our favourite books. We briefly tell you why we recommend each one below.   Time to Think by Nancy Kline  This book provokes thought about what it means to really listen and how this affects those around you. It gives a practical framework for … Continue reading World Book Day 2023 Book Recommendations →

Differences in Use of Language

Less comfortable dialogues are essential to understanding and being respectful of one another I have been reflecting on some work I did with a large and newly formed team. Some conversations arose about difference, belonging, equality and other similar topics. On a couple of occasions during the session, there were some participants who disagreed over … Continue reading Differences in Use of Language →

Consumerism and Christmas: Do they go hand in hand? 

The sense of consumerism associated with Christmas gets me down every year whenever I let myself think about it for long enough. This year, the feelings I had towards both receiving and buying bags’ worth of presents were negative enough for my family and I to agree to not do stockings for each other anymore.   I … Continue reading Consumerism and Christmas: Do they go hand in hand?  →

The Term “Gender-Neutral” May Not Be as Positive as you Think

A colleague mentioned this idea to me recently and it caused me to really think. I thought I’d share it with you. By calling some lines of clothing “gender-neutral”, we are implying that clothing isn’t normally these things. This might seem pretty obvious at first but read it again and think about it a bit … Continue reading The Term “Gender-Neutral” May Not Be as Positive as you Think →

My Evaluation of Queerbaiting

Harry Styles, Kit Connor and Yungblud are three prime examples of celebs who have been accused of queerbaiting.  Queerbaiting is the implication that you identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community (when in reality you don’t) in order to increase profit and sales.  In trying to understand why these people specifically are being put in … Continue reading My Evaluation of Queerbaiting →

Respect: It’s not our place to pass judgement

"I’m a single mum. I’ll always be a single mum because I’m responsible for my sons, whether I’m living with Joe or not...There’s an assumption that if you’re with someone, like I am with Joe, you’re no longer a lone parent...I’ve done posts before [on social media] about how proud I am of being a … Continue reading Respect: It’s not our place to pass judgement →

The Importance of My Job Reflecting Myself

I wrote the first half of this blog a couple of months ago. It sat in my drafts for a little while and then, when I went back to it, my opinion had changed. I have added to it and it is now an arc of the developing relationship between my work and myself.  After … Continue reading The Importance of My Job Reflecting Myself →

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 

My standout thoughts during and after reading The Underground Railroad were around the treatment of humans (and all organisms). I almost assumed that Cora would get used to her poor-quality of life – that she would perhaps surrender to it – but you can’t turn people into robots or take the human part out of them. No matter how much you abuse someone, they still feel the pain, and they feel it deeply. Even if you expect to be assaulted, your body can’t prepare itself in the same way that you brain can, and even your brain can’t prepare itself fully. This book doesn’t romanticise a thing but it draws you in and reminds you of the cruelty and horror of that time just when you were getting too snuggly with the characters.