Ruby Wax launches mental health cafes in M&S stores

Comedian Ruby Wax has convinced Marks & Spencer to open Frazzled Cafes in 11 of its stores to encourage members of the public to chat about their feelings.

M&S Cafés will host fortnightly talking sessions where people who are feeling ‘frazzled’ can meet to share their personal feelings. Taking place in the cafés after hours, the confidential sessions will be led by trained volunteers over the next few months.

Frazzled Cafes: A place where it’s ok to not be ok’

Pilots for the Frazzled Cafes were successfully trialed at M&S offices and stores last year, prior to the retailer's decision to roll it out across the UK.

In the UK, four million antidepressants are prescribed annually, according to The Health and Social Care Information Centre and studies suggest that one of the best ways to beat stress is to share feelings.

Ruby Wax says her Frazzled Cafe meetings are not just for the one-in-four British people who experience a mental illness at some point in their lives, but for the ‘four-in-four’ who are feeling frazzled and overwhelmed by the stresses of modern life.

While the cafe meetings are not described as therapy, they do give people the chance to talk openly with others who understand how they are feeling, offering ‘a place where it's ok, to not be ok’.

'Complete mummification in nothingness'

Ruby Wax is not afraid to be frank about her own periods of depression. Describing her feelings in a blog for The Huffington Post, a few days before Christmas in 2014, she writes: "This new me can’t read, isn’t funny, can’t really speak, get up or take a walk.

"You can’t think your way out of this disease. It has you, you don’t have it. "It’s exactly what it says on the bottle, it’s poison, terrifying and a complete mummification in nothingness."

To increase her understanding of the brain, the comedian obtained a Master’s degree in Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy from Oxford University in 2013. She used this knowledge to write the books 'Sane New World: Taming the Mind' and 'A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled'.

Her book tours and spin-off one-woman theatre shows inspired her to create Frazzled Café, after audience members and readers told her of their own wish for a safe, non-judgemental space to talk. Her latest show 'Ruby Wax: Frazzled' is scheduled at London's Leicester Square Theatre from 30 May-24 June 2017.

'A life crammed is considered a success'

Ruby Wax said: “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. Feeling heard, to me, has always been half the cure."

The mental health campaigner, who was awarded an OBE for her services to mental health in the Honorary British Awards to Foreign Nationals in 2015, said: “It’s special to get a company like M&S on-board. I’m grateful for the set-up support they’ve given us and access to their café network is a huge boost.”

Sacha Berendji, retail director at Marks & Spencer, said: “Ruby’s Frazzled Cafe is a simple, pressure-free way of tackling what can be a taboo subject – feeling stressed.

“We hope that by providing free and calm venues after the café has closed, we can help any members of the community who simply need to talk about things and what’s happening in their lives.”

Three Frazzled Cafés will be launched in London stores as well as stores in Brighton, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Cambridge, Nottingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Canterbury and Norwich. More cafes are planned in other UK locations this year.

To register to attend a Frazzled Café visit www.frazzledcafe.org.