New mental health training for beauty therapists to help support clients
Tom Chapman, founder of The Lions Barber Collective and creator of award-winning mental health training BarberTalk, has developed Hair & Beauty Talk – a new adaption of his four-pillar mental health training to give beauty and hair professionals the tools needed to support clients facing mental health struggles during the coronavirus pandemic.
The training will enable beauty therapists to recognise the signs that a client may be struggling with their mental health and explain the key questions to ask to give those in need the permission and opportunity to talk in a safe environment.
The training will also provide the skills needed to listen with empathy and without judgement, and offer beauty professionals the information to help customers in need find the correct help.
The Hair & Beauty Talk training is a four hour training session available online and in-person when Covid-19 lockdown restrictions allow, and it will be available on request. Chapman aims to gain funding to ensure the training is available at no cost to help the industry prepare for the influx of clients offloading their concerns and worries as salons and spas look to reopen from April 12 in England.
The training is not to diagnose, advise or prescribe to those suffering but to offer a safe, non-judgemental environment that is accessible to all.
“In this industry, we have long-standing relationships with people and are there for all the highs and lows of those in our chairs. We’re there for the first dates, the engagements, the weddings, christenings, new jobs, etc, but we are also there for the redundancies, divorces, funerals and break-ups,” said Chapman.
“Whether we like it or not, we have these conversations, [and] I want to prepare the industry for these situations – they can be a matter of life and death.”
Chapman is also working on an upcoming Mental Health PT session which will expand the key steps to mental wellbeing and help provide knowledge of what we can do to keep ourselves mentally fit.
For more information on Hair & Beauty Talk email [email protected]