Mental Health Awareness Week 2026: Leading with empathy

Reflections from one of our directors, Kiana Douglin.

Mental health has never been an abstract concept for me.

I have lived with it. I have watched people I love navigate it...the silent battles, the moments that do not make it into conversation, the weight carried quietly by people who look, from the outside, absolutely fine. I know what it feels like to keep going when keeping going is genuinely hard. And I know what it means to be surrounded by people who see you, really see you, when you need it most.

That experience does not sit in the past. It shapes how I lead. It shapes what we have built at Plenty of Stuff Studio, and it shapes who we choose to be as a team, and in every relationship we have with our clients, our collaborators, our partners, and the communities we work alongside.

Empathy is not soft...it is a leadership decision

There is a version of business that keeps people at arm's length. That measures contribution purely in output. That separates the professional from the personal as if that division is even possible, or sensible, or humane.

That is not how we operate.

At Plenty of Stuff Studio, Tim Holt and I made a decision, deliberately, that humanity sits above everything else we do. Above the deliverables. Above the deadlines. Above the job titles in the email signatures. The people in this studio, the clients we serve, the partners we work with: they are not roles. They are human beings. And we lead accordingly.

Empathy, for us, is not a value we wrote on a wall and forgot about. It is the reason we pause a meeting when someone is not okay. It is the reason we ask the question beyond the question. It is the reason we have built relationships with clients who trust us not just with their briefs, but with their pressure, their uncertainty, and their ambition, because they know we are not just here to execute. We are here to actually care.

That is not weakness. That is the strongest thing a leader can choose.

Why mental health will always have a place in what we do

We have been running campaigns in support of mental health awareness for years now. And every year, someone, somewhere, asks some version of the question: why does a marketing agency do this?

Because we are a marketing agency made of people. And people carry things.

Over the past year, I have had the privilege of sitting in conversation with individuals who have trusted us, and our audience, with their most honest experiences.

Stuart Morrison spoke openly about reaching breaking point, and what it took to find his way back to colour and life and himself.

Gareth Turner unpacked what male mental health looks like in the context of business; the pressures, the masks, the cost of pretending.

And then there was the conversation I had with Louisa "Wizzi" Magnussen, Founder of Minds Anonymous. That one was different. It was raw. We sat down together and asked a question that does not get asked enough: what does it mean to carry the weight of an invisible illness to work with you every day? We talked about psychological safety, about what business leaders can actually do to care for the people around them, and then we both got honest about our own experiences...the personal stuff, the real stuff. The kind of conversation that does not always happen in workplaces, because of fear, or perception, or stigma. But the kind that, if it did happen more often, would genuinely change things. You can watch that conversation here.

Those conversations did not just go out into the world as content. They came back to me, personally. They affirmed what I already knew: that behind every professional is a full, complicated, often struggling human life. And that when we create space for that truth, something important happens. People feel less alone.

That is what good work can do. And that is why we keep doing it.

This year's Mental Health Awareness theme is Action...we are taking it seriously

Mental Health Awareness Week 2026 is themed around action. Not awareness for awareness's sake, but doing something. Moving. Responding. Changing what needs to change.

For us, action looks like this: continuing to put real voices and real stories in front of our audience. Partnering with organisations like the Stress Management Society who are doing vital, grounded work every single day. Showing up, consistently, not just in May, not just this week, for the conversation around mental health in workplaces, in leadership, in life.

And it looks like this piece. A director standing up and saying: I have been through it. People I love have been through it. It matters to me. Not as a campaign brief, but as a human being.

What we are asking of you this week

Go back and watch the interviews. Stuart's story. Gareth's story. My conversation with Wizzi. Not for us, but for yourself. Because something in those conversations might reach you in a way you did not expect.

Check in on someone this week. Not a message to say you did it. An actual check-in. The kind where you mean it.

And if you are struggling, quietly, invisibly, with a smile on, please know that getting support is not a sign that you cannot handle things. It is a sign that you are taking yourself seriously. That is one of the most professional, most courageous things you can do.

We see you. We are here. And we are not going anywhere.

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Written by Kiana Douglin

Written on Monday, 11 May 2026

Kiana Douglin

Director, Plenty of Stuff Studio

Kiana draws on years of marketing experience, playing a key role in helping businesses grow and launching startups with effective marketing strategies and operations. Her background combines marketing expertise with skills in sales and events. Outside of work, she finds inspiration in nature-hiking in the mountains, chasing waterfalls, and traveling the world-while her love for poetry and music fuels her creative spirit.

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