Protect the Mind - funded support sessions for activists
Sessions funded by Protect the Wild and absolutely confidential.
In December 2024, we announced a new initiative that we called ‘Protect the Mind’.
We wrote that
“Protect the Wild has always been incredibly proud to help support monitor and sab groups with equipment and to give these courageous and dedicated frontline animal activists a platform to promote their work. But for some time it’s felt to us like that’s only half the story: what could we be doing to help support the individuals themselves?
And that
A few months back Rob (Pownall, our CEO) was at a vegan conference where a seminar on mental health was held. It was hosted by Dr. Ishani Rao, an NHS GP and urgent care doctor specialising in climate change, plant-based lifestyle medicine and mental health. Ishani achieved her medical degree and BSc in Women’s Health from King’s College London and is currently taking a Masters in global health policy with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Ishani says that her passions are animal rights, activists’ mental health, and protecting the environment.
Rob wrote to Ishani Rao outlining an idea we’d had which would mean Protect the Wild offering activists mental health support, and asking her if she’d like to be involved. We were extremely grateful that she immediately saw the potential, understood exactly what we hoped to do, and jumped straight in!
Within a few weeks Dr Rao had recorded four fifteen-minute videos which are permanently available on the Protect the Wild website with a list of resources. But of course even then we planned to do more…
Individual support sessions - paid for by Protect the Wild
It’s now March, and - thankfully - another hunting ‘season’ is drawing to a close. This ‘season’ has been an incredibly tough one for monitors and sabs. Hunts are feeling the pressures of constant surveillance and an incoming Labour government promising to end so-called ‘trail hunting’. They are lashing out, increasingly violent, and seem hellbent on killing as many animals as possible before they are finally banned for good.
We know that activists have suffered. We also know that finding support can be difficult, and sessions can be expensive. We want to help with both those potential obstacles. And while help with your mental health support may not seem an immediate concern right now, we all know how negative experiences can build and weigh us down over time.
Whether it is this week, next month, or even later this summer - when you need help you can now book two hours of sessions with Dr Ishani per month (that could be 4 x 30 min sessions or 2 x 1 hour sessions) over a period of six months - which will be fully funded by Protect the Wild.
These sessions are designed to provide a confidential safe space to discuss what you’re going through, explore ways to support your mental health, and, if necessary, be referred to other mental health professionals who understand activism-related stress and trauma.
While we can’t possibly wrap our arms around everyone who has been affected by the things they’ve seen in the last few months, we will do our best to help as many activists as we can. That’s a promise.
To schedule a 30-minute or 60-minute call, email mental.health.with.ishani@gmail.com or fill out the contact form on the Protect the Mind page on our website and that will go straight to Dr Ishani.
If you have any questions or comments please email us at contact@protectthewild.org.uk (Please note that Protect the Wild is not a counselling service and we are not qualified to answer queries about mental health issues ourselves.)