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After 20+ years in the creative industries, working in and running businesses of all shapes, sizes and colour, I know a thing or two about creativity, about creative burnout and about how the creative industries landscape has changed. There were times when, on reflection, I really needed help but times were different. There was a tonne of stigma around asking for help, and little to no help available. When I decided to train as a therapist, I vowed I would offer the support I never had and knew was needed in this exciting, creative but often chaotic industry.

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Opening up conversation around mental health and well being, and the growing acceptance of asking for help, is so encouraging but our industry still has a way to go doesn't it?

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As the child of creative and chaotic parents: a jazz musician tortured soul Dad and an opera singing, champion Latin American dance champion, violent paranoid schizophrenic Mother, I learned some hard and valuable lessons about creativity, the creative mind and about creative expression and what happens when there's no space for it.

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As a business leader, I know only too well how difficult it is to stay creative about the direction of the business when you're busy juggling clients, campaigns and the balance sheet, as well as managing your managers who spend most of their time, firefighting and supporting their people. I also know the dangers of thinking you have to go it alone.

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It can be tempting to believe "That's just how it is these days." and to crack on regardless, head down, ploughing through. But, it doesn't have to be that way. These are just stories we tell ourselves.