What makes Life Cafe different?
Our Mission: Promote healthy minds and connected lives through community-based skills training.
Health services are so stretched that there are simply not enough paid professionals to deal with the tsunami of mental health and loneliness in the community.
Unfortunately, professionals are like ambulances at the bottom of a cliff. While this is important, putting a fence of 'Community Connectors' at the top of the cliff makes more sense.
Life Cafe trains 'Community Connectors' - skilled friends, who listen without judgment and help move the conversation beyond small talk, to soul talk. Read the article about our The Beyond Loneliness Project and the Government funded community pilot (see article below).
Beyond Loneliness Project – Adapted newspaper article by Emma Heidenreich 2024
It’s easy to be busy and distracted in our modern world, losing sight of the more important things. Clinical psychologist, author and coordinator of the popular Life Cafe and the Community Connector Course, Dr Paul Whetham, will introduce his Dash of Life taster session in Victor Harbor this year.
This free event will see Dr Whetham guide a conversation from small talk to soul talk by focusing on ‘The BIG 5’ life issues - identity, isolation, death, freedom and meaning.
Dr Whetham said the workshop also helps participants outline practical ways to find your 'Why' and boost your wisdom and wellbeing. “After completing the workshop, participants may choose to go on and do the government funded Community Connector Course,” Dr Whetham said. This enables the participant to become a Community Connector and make an impact in Victor Harbor, through the course.
Dr Whetham’s main goal through the Community Connector Course is to tackle the growing impact that loneliness is having on communities across the region. “1 in 3 people are lonely, and loneliness takes up to 15 years off your life; it’s the equivalent of being a smoker or alcoholic.” Dr Whetham said “The Beyond Loneliness Project flips the script on loneliness. It's a modern-day pathfinder to the unlived life that helps us reconnect to ourselves, others and the world".
Dr Whetham said through the Community Connector Course, he helps participants to combat loneliness through reducing feelings of isolation and disconnection among community members, build a greater understanding of themselves and others, provide community support and reduce stigma around loneliness and mental health. Dr Paul Whetham has dedicated his career to the study of loneliness and the unlived life - bringing depth psychology and neuroscience beyond the clinic and into the community.