Cafes in london bringing people together to talk about health

Hot coffee, flaky pastries, and...talk therapy?

That’s the idea behind the new “Frazzled Cafés” coming soon in UK. The brainchild of comedian and mental health advocate Ruby Wax, the “cafe” will actually take the form of a fortnightly gathering in existing restaurants at Marks & Spencer stores across the UK.

People can come together and share their personal troubles and mental stories in a compassionate, tolerant setting are the basic idea behind it.

The best part? There’s food.

Over the next few months Wax teamed up with the mega popular British retailer to launch the talk-back sessions in eleven of their stores and more number of stores are reportedly to join in as year progresses. Every two weeks, trained volunteers will arrive to host the Frazzled Café project for a group of drop-in participants and the restaurants will be closed for the day.

Pairing food with tolerant environment can be a fun idea, though it’s a crucially important one. According to the Mental Health Taskforce, mental health costs in the UK reached approximately £105 billion last year to the NHS and the number of antidepressant prescriptions in England has doubled in past 10 years with french patisserie london.

“There is a pressing need for both identifying ways to help people cope with overwhelming stress and reducing the stigma that is attached to discussing mental health.” M&S aptly commented in their press release announcing the new cafes.

Wax added her own thoughts. “We live in a time where to have a life crammed to the hilt is considered a success story. But with all this pressure, so many of us have nowhere to go to meet and talk about it.”

“Frazzled Cafe is about people coming together to share their stories, calmly sitting together, stating their case and feeling validated as a result.”