Everyone we speak to, especially therapists themselves, say this is how it should be done
The Lazarus Practice, a world class and expert mental health service, is now welcoming new Clients. My own story, the truth? I suffered a burnout and hit rock bottom - and I’m not alone. Research suggests that 50% of employees experience ongoing moderate to high work related stress, with and additional 30% reporting ongoing extreme stress. Ultimately this leads to 7-10% of employees experiencing a cruel and life-changing burnout. In 2018, I joined Goldman Sachs with high hopes. I’d spent my career solving complex problems and driving change at some of the world’s most well known companies. But soon, the Firm's toxic culture took a toll. I was working 80+ hour weeks, under immense pressure, subject to dysfunctional leadership and without the support necessary to keep me safe. Eventually, this led to both a catastrophic burnout and severe and life-threatening depression. As I recovered I was required to navigate both private and public mental health care systems, in doing so I quickly realised that something was badly wrong with them. Despite nearly all of them promising 'personalised', 'recovery oriented' and 'quality' care, in reality the opposite of these promises was most often in practice with the widespread use of 'cookie cutter' approaches that badly failed those so desperately seeking support, this often causing much angst and fatigue amongst the practitioners supporting these pathways most of whom lacked the freedoms needed to be able to better serve. Those entering 'pathways' most often, with a few exceptions, left them with little to no benefit gained, and some were harmed, many more lost hope. At this point the scientist in me took over and I turned to meta science and media research, this including analysis of many thousands of mental health trials and studies. The results were very deeply unsettling confirming that the approaches most often used to treat people (medication, psychotherapy) failed to make any significant difference to most people and made the mental health of a not insignificant number worse. From a psychotherapy perspective, for a lot of different reasons I wont go into here, the data suggested that just 7-10% of people starting a programme actually managed to change their lives for the better, most dropped out and generally quite quickly, never to return. This wasn't OK for me and it's why I founded The Lazarus Practice, a place where people can access lifechanging support and where we keep every promises we make. We think about mental health in a holistic, genuinely personalised way. We are backed by robust science and we are staffed by experts. We’re not here to provide another superficial fix or take advantage of those in need. We’re here to be a beacon of hope, and to start to bring meaningful change to a broken system. If you’re ready to talk about how mental health can be handled differently - and help transform your own life or that of a loved one - come talk to us.