MIND AND BODY
A NEW KIND OF CLUBBING
Living Well Life Clubs are now opening up their services to everyone…
While nights out with friends are undoubtedly fun, sometimes, in the frenetic social bubble, it can be hard to find a bit of head space to work out exactly what you want from life and where you want to be. Living Well Life Clubs can
provide the answer – offering clubbing in a whole new sense of the word. Living Well is a London-
based, not-for-profit organisation, which offers a host of health services to people in the community. It has been running and
developing its innovative services for ten years and, up until now, many of them were exclusively for young people and people living with HIV. However, this autumn, due to its services’ success and popularity, Living Well is opening them up to anyone trying to move forward with their life.
David, aged 37, is one of the assistants at Living Well’s Life Clubs. All the facilitators at the two-hour- long clubs, are trained life coaches and have gone though the Life Club experience themselves, so they know how they work from both sides. “In terms of connecting
with people, what’s available on the gay scene can sometimes feel very transient,” David says. “Bars are good fun but often there’s this chaotic sense to them, and social contact on a deeper level can be difficult to find. For many, they work, but for others, it can create a sense of being lost: a tiny cog in a huge and constantly rotating wheel. That’s where Living Well Life Clubs are so useful – they offer a deeper, more meaningful connection with others like you – a space to really think about your life and where you want it to be.”
In the past, Living Well
Life Clubs have helped people create exercise routines, establish relationships, build support networks – even begin new lives abroad. What could joining a Living Well Life Club do for you? Anthony, 42, signed up for a set of six Living Well Life Clubs earlier this year. He’d just been made redundant and felt directionless. “It can be nerve-racking,
coming forward and discussing your hopes and fears with a group of 15-20 strangers,” Anthony says. “But the facilitators are trained to encourage rather than force people to open up and a lot of the work is done in pairs, so I felt confident about sharing my story. What had seemed like a major challenge – finding a new job – was broken down into small, manageable steps and at each club I’d talk about what steps I’d taken that week. Hearing how other people were
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moving forward was inspiring – I’d had one-to-one life coaching before but found the group dynamic more effective because other people encouraged me. It would have been embarrassing to be the only one in the group just sitting on my arse, navel- gazing, rather than trying to reach my goals and that fact spurred me on.”
For Anthony, the six-
week course was a success and made him realise that, in the workplace, he still had a lot to offer. Within a few weeks he was back in work! And, as well as helping make practical changes in your life, Life Clubs can help you make emotional change as well. David says: “The main
reason I find assisting at Living Well Life Clubs so rewarding is seeing the transformation from a shy person who walks through the door at the start of the first session, looking very introverted, to an individual
who’s confident; their voice should be heard. Living Well Life Clubs really do change people – inside and out. And I think key to this is that, as facilitators, we stress that what is said in a Living Well Life Club is confidential. It’s a closed, safe space.”
So could a Living Well Life Club be for you? The cost is from £15 per session (spaces continue to be offered free to anyone living with HIV), which could be the cheapest night out in London. Living Well Life Clubs are run every week across London the next one starting in central London is on 1 November, 2011, in Soho, 6.30-8pm.
If you want to try a different kind of clubbing, contact Living Well now on 020 3137 3373. Or take the first step by logging on to
www.livingwellcic. com – and change your life forever.
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