Through creativity and movement,
Designs in Mind & The Soma Space, helped one of our Members achieve major life goals We are proud to present and celebrate the wonderfully successful movement for mental health set up, right here in our town centre in Oswestry: The Soma Space. Soma Space and Designs in Mind are both local organisations supporting those facing mental health challenges. While Designs in Mind works through the lens of art and design, Soma Space uses movement to help local people improve their wellbeing. We all believe that creativity and movement can provide opportunities for us to improve our mental health and here in Oswestry there are many avenues open to us, including Soma Space & their innovative model.
I’m not usually a fan of ‘gyms’, however I had a fabulous experience with Soma Space. I am encouraged to invent and follow my own movement and lifting journey. I am becoming stronger and fitter. Big thanks to Kevin & Jo for the ongoing support and guidance, as I set myself new bitesize goals through my sessions. Other Designs in Mind Members are part of Soma Space too.
Chatting to them, it is clear that their experiences of Soma Space have been a real pleasure. As one Member said, “It’s given me something to look forward to and get up for. It’s done me a lot of good”.
The founders, Jo Hazell-Watkins and Kevin Braddock, shared their story.
“We first met in 2018 when Jo invited Kevin to do a talk at Designs In Mind about a book called Torchlight he had written and self-published, which was about his experience of suffering depression and recovering. Jo later became interested in strength training and trained as a personal trainer while Kevin went on to train as a psychotherapist.
When Kevin was stationed in Oswestry during the 2020 lockdowns, we talked a lot more about how we had both used exercise to help us with our mental health – Jo with strength training and wild swimming, and Kevin with running and Tai Chi and we were thinking about a collaboration. In January 2023 Kevin relocated back to Oswestry and we began our initial ‘movement for mental health’ workshops, and later that year moved into the Cambrian Room of the Memorial Hall, to found The Soma Space. We ran a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to buy equipment and to refurbish the space. We aimed at £7,000 and eventually landed at around £8,000 with the help of friends, family and the community. We also set the project up as a Community Interest Company.
“Our basic idea was that exercise can be a massive benefit to people who are struggling with mental illness, specifically depression, anxiety and PTSD – this was our personal experience but is also backed by science and academic research. We all know that we should be doing exercise and the NHS recommends 150 minutes of movement per week, but often the question is how to exercise, where and who with. We designed The Soma Space around the idea of movement for mental health – exercising for the benefit of mood, embodiment and self-development – and we aimed to make the sessions as inclusive and welcoming as possible”.
“We have recently entered a partnership with British Weight Lifting, the national body representing the sport, who are funding us to run programmes to help more people discover the benefits of strength training. We operate different strands of work at the space – 1-1 sessions, group classes, and group programmes, and we also aim to work in a really innovative 1-2-1 way, with a client receiving 1-1 personal training and psychotherapy over a 10-week period. Both personal training and psychotherapy can be very powerful, but together we believe they can make an even more significant difference to someone’s life”.
We welcome all sorts of people into the Space and people come for different reasons – to work on their physical health, their mental health, or both, or to be part of a community. We always feel honoured when someone wants to be a member of thespace and we aim to make anyone feel welcome regardless of their ability, fitness level, experience or background. We want The Soma Space to be a place where people can feel themselves while they are enjoying movement.
“We also want The Soma Space to be a social place where people feel able to come and hang out and meet others and we have run a number of social get-togethers and evening events, including speaker events on relevant subjects including men’s mental health and one on the value of dancing with Emma Warren, author of the acclaimed and brilliant book, Dance Your Way Home. We will be running more of these, including one on the menopause and mental health, in 2024”.
“The combination of exercise, social contact, psychoeducation and psychotherapy is new and innovative and The Soma Space is, as far as we know, the only facility of this kind operating in the UK. It has taken a lot of hard work, late nights, early mornings, generosity and support to get us to where we are but we also feel like we are still beginning and bringing this idea into reality. We are thrilled with how it’s going and the fact that we are attracting attention from bodies such as British Weight Lifting and newspapers such as The Observer suggest we are doing something right, but it is really down to our members and the people who come and form the community in our sessions that make The Soma Space what it is”.
Our Member, Alfie shared his journey with me: “Both Designs in Mind and Soma Space, are the reason I am studying to become a Mental Health Nurse. I’ve been attending Designs in Mind since 2019. I’ve been involved in the studio as a Member, a volunteer for events and part of the Good Egg team and Gardening Club.
Back in early 2022, my fitness journey started. First, by finding a leaflet of Jo’s Personal Training session at Zest Gym. I actually spotted the leaflet in the Designs in Mind studio, it really caught my eye. I was reluctant at first, however a friend encouraged to me to go. I eventually took the plunge to train with Jo. Due to my mental health, I was really self-conscious, I wouldn’t even let Jo look at me as I was training. Thanks to Jo’s patience and understanding, slowly, I got more comfortable with feeling uncomfortable.
An LGBTQ+ group built up at Zest and my confidence grew. I became a member a The Soma Space, I’d go to one-to-one sessions with Jo and Kevin. I saw my strength in both physical and mental terms soar! I had associated being out of breath as being panicked, so I would avoid cardio, but due to the journey with Soma, I have flipped that feeling around to building myself up to a newfound mindset. I now know, my heart rate is increasing for my strength and health. I’ve been able to recognise a couple of big milestones and breakthroughs. One that stands out is, at Soma, members of the public were coming in on an open day. I found myself doing lifts while all these strangers’ eyes were on me! Jo & Kevin pointed out this massive achievement to me. I felt absolutely amazing and so proud of myself, it made me feel powerful and accomplished. I’ve also lost over 6 stone, in this strength training journey.
The extra bonus and the icing on the cake is that British Weight Lifting & Soma Space, have helped me fund my fitness training, so I am now a fitness facilitator at The Soma Space.
I’d like to thanks Designs in Mind, British Weight Lifting & The Soma Space, Jo & Kevin for helping me achieve my life goals”.
A massive thank you to Alfie for sharing such a heartwarming success story with us. We are so proud of our little market town, it is a powerhouse of creativity and movement. Oswestry is showing the world how everybody could get the tools to improve their mental health.
Find our more about The Soma Space at
https://www.thesoma.space
https://www.instagram.com/thesoma.space/
https://britishweightlifting.org/article/british-weight-lifting-and-the-soma-space Blog written & researched by Willow, Social Media Coordinator.