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STAGE

All the World’s a STAGE Learning System

The Ultimate Guide to Mental Health and Wellbeing

An innovative, sophisticated programme of therapeutic education.
For anyone wanting to improve their mental health and wellbeing or support others in doing so.

What’s Shakespeare got to do with mental health?

One of Shakespeare’s many insights is captured by his famous statement that all the world’s a stage and we are but players on it. The importance of this is the recognition that so much in life depends on how people interact – how we relate to one another as we ‘act out’ our lives, and that includes our mental health and wellbeing.

But there’s another reason for using the stage idea. It conveniently spells out five main elements of mental health and wellbeing:

Stress | Trauma | Anxiety and depression | Grief | Emotional challenges

  • Stress Modern life tends to be highly pressurised, and so stress and its negative impact on mental health is never far away.
  • Trauma In recent years we have become increasingly aware of the role of trauma – whether in childhood or beyond – in shaping mental wellbeing
  • Anxiety and depression How we handle nervous tension can make a huge difference to how we live our lives, how we relate to one another and how we feel about ourselves.
  • Grief Wrestling with the major challenges of coming to terms with one or more significant losses is a major factor in influencing our mental health and wellbeing.
  • Emotional challenges To a large extent, ‘mental’ health is actually emotional health, and so much depends on how we deal with the emotional challenges we face.

What is therapeutic education?

All the world’s a STAGE is not a programme of therapy. It is a programme of learning that should have therapeutic benefits by helping participants to develop a fuller and deeper understanding of the key issues that affect mental health and wellbeing. This improved understanding can not only help people feel better equipped to deal with mental health challenges, but also more confident in doing so.

What is a learning system?

A learning system is more than a conventional course. It is a structured, step-by-step programme of tearing that offers a clear leaning pathway. All the world’s a STAGE has 50 steps for participants to follow. The step-by-step approach prevents people feeling lost and overwhelmed by the different aspects of the learning.

Who is the presenter?

The programme has been developed and is presented by Professor Neil Thompson. Neil is an independent writer and educator and a visiting professor at the Open University. He has extensive experience in the mental health field as a social worker, educator, consultant, expert witness and author. His books include Mental Health and Wellbeing: Alternatives to the Medical Model (Routledge, 2019). The Managing Stress Practice Manual (Avenue Media Solutions, 2019), The Loss and Grief Practice Manual (Avenue Media Solutions, 2022) and The Handbook of Traumatic Loss (co-edited with R. G. Stevenson and G. R. Cox, Routledge, 2017). He has won awards for his teaching and training and now focuses on producing online learning resources, and has developed over 80 courses.

What’s involved?

The programme involves almost 2½ hours of video materials, including guided mindfulness sessions, plus a wide range of additional resources, all within a structured step-by-step system that is easy to follow. The video materials can be viewed in conventional HD format on computers, tablets and phones. But, for the best results, we recommend using a virtual reality headset to get the powerful immersive learning experience that only VR can produce.

Who can benefit from All the World’s a STAGE?

Individuals can benefit directly, whether they have concerns about their own mental health and wellbeing or simply want to know more about how to stay healthy.

Employers can benefit by helping to reduce sickness absence and other problems associated with mental health difficulties. Investing in the programme gives a clear positive message that the company is taking staff health and wellbeing seriously. This can make a real difference in terms of staff turnover, engagement and productivity – making it win-win all round.

Having VR headsets available in the workplace not only provides important mental health support, but also serves as an important symbol of a genuine commitment to employee wellness. For added flexibility, the system is also available on laptops, tablets, phones, touch screens and desktop computers.

But, the benefits are not just limited to employers and employees. We are aware that, in today’s high-pressure world, many students face mental health challenges around workload stress, anxiety and depression around exams and assignments and the emotional challenges of living away from home for the first time, and so on.

Specialist providers of mental health services can also benefit from what All the World’s a STAGE has to offer – whether voluntary bodies, private companies or NHS facilities. VR headsets could be made available in offices, clinics, hospitals, GP surgeries and community resource centres.

Interested in piloting All the World’s a STAGE?

We are looking to partner with a wide range of organisations to use our resources as the basis of a multi- agency approach to help staff build resilience by developing a fuller and deeper understanding of their own mental health and wellbeing needs.

As partners, we can provide you with posters to display on notice boards, a pop-up banner and an introductory video for your website and social media. We can also guide you on how to get the best results from using this innovative set of resources.

We would be pleased to hear from you if this might be of interest to you.

Watch the video to hear Neil talk about the system.