Hey from Samara!

Hi Sanctus Community!

I am so excited to be joining the team as the latest Partner Manager. I’ll be joining the Partner Team, to help look after our 70+ partners (and growing!). My role will be to work on building open and honest relationships with our partners and make sure they have the best Sanctus experience possible 🙂

I first heard about Sanctus after attending one of the ‘Sanctus Stories’ events over a year ago.

At the time, I was struck by how different the space felt- a bit daunting, but mostly exciting and new. Having followed what the Sanctus team are up to since then and seen all the great things they were doing, I was intrigued when a role opened up and wondered what it might be like to join the team.

Fast forward a couple of months, and lots of conversations with the Sanctus team later, and here we are…

I want to be honest and start by saying that sharing about my own experience with mental health here feels a bit scary. I am going to try to resist the urge to make this a smoothed-over account of my experience, and instead try to share honestly.. so we’ll see how it goes!

I first became aware of my own mental health after graduating from university. I started an admin job in HR, which I found to be both unfulfilling and demotivating.

I spent my days feeling uninspired, wondering what the point of the 8 hours I spent daily in the office was actually for (beyond the obvious of needing money to survive). At first, I chalked it up to ‘adjusting’ to work-life post-university, but I was feeling low and anxious more often than the days I felt good or even ‘okay’.

A huge factor in preventing me from reaching out for some kind of support was that I did not feel like I had ‘good enough’ reason to see a therapist. I was embarrassed by what my friends and family would think if they knew I was seeing a therapist. My rationale was that only people who have been through something ‘serious’ deserve to see a therapist.

When I eventually found my way to therapy, I found the process to be invaluable, fascinating and above all validating.

There is still so much perceived shame around seeking support for your mental health and I am passionate about spreading the message that anyone can see a therapist or a coach — and everyone should engage with their mental health on some level.

My experience with therapy pushed me to switch careers from HR to work for a charity offering one-to-one emotional support for victims of crime. I have spent the past two years working to give victims of crime a free, confidential space to process what happened to them, in particular for victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse.

I have also taken the first step in training to become a psychotherapist myself which I am one year into.

Both of these experiences have been fascinating and challenging — and I have learned a lot.

Which brings me back to my reason for joining Sanctus…

I was drawn to Sanctus because they’re working towards changing how we all think about mental health and removing the stigma in asking for support so that at some point in the future people will not think twice about coaching or therapy.

I can’t wait to get started!