The Soul Of Effective Wellbeing Training With Seamus Corry

Wellbeing is more talked about than ever before in the wake of pandemics, hybrid working, different work expectations across generations and people trying to find a routine that works for them.

With this shift, there ‘s a vital need for wellbeing programmes that address underlying issues and create preventative measures against mental health crises. But what does effective mental health training look like? What is performative and what is genuine? What can we take from history and apply it ethically for the sake of better mental health?

These questions are given clarity in this illuminating interview with wellbeing specialist Seamus Corry.

Thanks for being here with me Seamus. Let’s start by going into your background and how you got to where you are now. 

I’m a wellbeing consultant, trainer, facilitator, podcaster, vessel, and co-author. I’ve had a range of experiences and opportunities over the years which have led me to the work that I do now. A unique experience was being chosen for the Roman Catholic priesthood at a young age, approximately after I was born. I was conditioned into that role.

I entered seminary in 1986 and spent seven years under the Catholic system, where I experienced an abusive and coercive regime. I was ordained in 1994 and spent 15 months in ministry in the Republic of Ireland. 

One morning, I woke up and I had lost my belief in what I was doing. I had lost my direction and my focus. I found myself lost, alone, and isolated, and for the first time in my lif,  experienced really strong suicidal ideation and wished to take my own life.

One thing led to another. I got some help and got some support, and eventually ended up deciding to leave the priesthood, as it wasn’t my role in life. I became an immigrant, homeless, and moved to the UK in 1996, and again experienced strong feelings of loneliness, pain, isolation, and anxiety and wished for that to stop by contemplating suicide. 

Life continued, and through my own experiences, and through the support and the impact that therapy and counselling had on me, I wanted to give something back. In 2012, I established The Potential You Project. Essentially, it was a project to support people who found themselves in similar positions to myself by providing signposts, guidance, advice, and wellbeing support.

Over the past several years, I’ve developed a whole series of strategic, strategy-based programmes for organisations and clients to support their own wellbeing and organisational wellbeing, and to embed wellbeing into the structure of clients’ lives and also into the structure of organisational life.

This has been even more important since COVID, which continues to have a significant impact on communities, societies, and organisations across the length and breadth of this country. I remain passionate that having a good wellbeing structure and a wellbeing strategy, supported by good, positive mental health programmes, can do a lot to alleviate the stress and anxiety that clients and organisations feel in our world today.

That’s a lot of great information to unpack. I want to go a bit deeper into your perspective on mental health. 

With the workshops you do, are we talking mental health first aid, or more structured workshops based on organisational need?

I offer certified programmes, both in terms of mental health supervision and mental health awareness. They’re certified and ratified nationally, and I hold certification in those. I support organisations to develop, employ, recruit, and train staff members to become mental health practitioners in their own right, and also to increase levels of awareness of mental health across organisations.

That said, while those programmes will suit some organisations, I’m also keen to work closely with organisations to develop positive mental health programmes that may not include certification. These may be specifically designed, developed, and deployed to look at particular areas within an organisational workplace that are causing issues at the moment, whether that’s stress, anxiety, teamwork, or communication.

By designing, developing, and delivering programmes around these areas, which broadly fit within the positive mental health arena, organisations can significantly improve productivity and performance as a result.

What do you think about the distinction between training and learning and development from a mental health perspective?

Training is very much the first step in the journey. Organisations may ask me to develop staff to become mental health practitioners, so I’ll deliver a formal two-day training package. But I also clearly indicate as part of that training that this is only the beginning of the process.

The learning and development element forms part of ongoing continuous professional development. That includes reading, studying, researching, reflecting, and gathering learning as people go through practising what they’ve learned through the training process.

Training is the first element, but learning, for me, is continuous. There can be no training without learning, and no learning without training. The two go very much hand in hand.

What does good mental health training design and implementation look like from your point of view?

I can only speak from my own point of view and from my experience as a trainer, facilitator, and mentor over the past 25 years.

I think we’ve all experienced training courses that have been death by PowerPoint, where your brain falls asleep under the sheer weight of slides, and where a facilitator hasn’t engaged with the audience, hasn’t listened, and has simply delivered the session clinically and left. That, for me, has very little impact or lasting effect.

When I design a programme, I have the organisation firmly in mind. The organisation is integral to the design and delivery. I sit with them and ask: what are your learning objectives? What do you want from this session? It’s their session, not mine, and I design and deliver based on their objectives.

One of the biggest impacts for me is having a really personal approach to training. You can’t really have a training session without putting yourself fully into it. While I won’t reveal everything about my life, sharing some of my personal stories, particularly around mental health, when it was poor, when it wasn’t great, and the support I received, has a real positive impact.

People still come up to me years later and say they remember those stories or that session. That, for me, is the most important thing: a personal approach, organisational involvement, and people leaving with something to reflect on, remember, and use in their own lives.

Have you seen genuine behavioural change as a result of your workshops?

Absolutely. I’ll speak about one organisation in particular that had issues around communication and bringing teams together. I spoke with the leadership team to identify what they wanted as an outcome, which was to break down barriers, remove silos, and build a more comprehensive communication structure where people could work together. 

I brought the entire organisation together, ran an initial exercise, and facilitated open discussion around communication barriers. Through support, listening, guidance, and a clear action plan, they were able to walk away with something tangible.

That organisation later reported significant positive developments like improved communication, stronger teamwork, and a greater sense of being one organisation rather than individual departments. That, for me, was phenomenal.

What are your thoughts on wellbeing washing?

Wellbeing washing has a negative and counterproductive impact. Some organisations want badges or recognition, but the heart and soul of wellbeing isn’t there.

I will only work with organisations that are truly committed to embedding wellbeing, and that starts with conversations with senior leadership. If I sense that an organisation is simply chasing recognition without genuine investment, I’ll walk away.

For organisations that are genuinely committed, the changes are visible and instrumental. People are happier, perform better, stay longer, sickness absence drops, and engagement increases. Where wellbeing washing exists, the opposite happens: higher absence, lower productivity, higher turnover, and difficulty attracting talent. The evidence speaks for itself, and it’s my role to help discern which is which.

What is your perspective on digital learning and AI in mental health?

You can’t replace face-to-face learning. There’s something special that happens in a room with people. Digital learning has its place, but for mental health and wellbeing, face-to-face engagement is essential.

You can have all the digital media in the world, but it will never replace a heartfelt, one-to-one conversation where you can see people, read their expressions, and truly connect.

If you could speak to any philosopher about mental health, who would it be and why?

Miguel de Unamuno, a Spanish philosopher. He believed humanity’s greatest difficulty is finding one’s vocation. He believed humanity is at its best when struggling, because struggle reveals who we truly are.

Through struggle, we learn our strengths, weaknesses, and who truly supports us. Resilience, wellbeing, and positive mental health help us cope with that struggle and live more fully.

What does the future hold for you?

I’ll be publishing my autobiography titled Gospel in 2026 with Phenom Publishing. It’s my story to show what I experienced and how I got through it, and the supports that helped me.

If people take something from those pages and apply it to their own lives, then the book will be a success. I’m passionate about wellbeing and positive mental health, and I’ll continue sharing that message wherever I’m welcomed.