Mind over matter

We explore the power of thought and how therapy is for life, not just for a crisis.

In the BBC series Change Your Mind, Change Your Life, celebrity husband and wife hosts Matt and Emma Willis match people navigating mental health journeys with therapists to explore ways to overcome their anxieties.

No scenario is the same, but all show how you think can make a difference - and that therapies once learnt can be a tool for everyday resilience.

The couple discuss their own experiences. Matt, member of boy band Busted, reunites with the psychotherapist who worked with him to understand the emotions behind his battle with addiction. Emma, who hosts The Voice, shares her own health anxieties. Weeks before the programme was aired this summer, she’d discovered a hole in her heart which needed surgery.

“It really knocked me. I didn’t feel like myself and didn’t know how to cope”

Emma used Talking Therapies, cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness to find clarity, strength and a path to healing that helps her in everyday life. In the programme Emma says, 

"I didn’t think I needed it, now I see it as something that should be available and encouraged for everyone. There is talking on a surface level but there’s so much more going on inside.”

Moving mountains

Talking Therapies team manager Rachel Munn is a trained psychotherapist. She has helped people cope with mental health issues but she needed help herself when she had a heart attack at 32 weeks pregnant with her second daughter, due to a rare genetic condition. After a long physical recovery she worried about her health, admitting she was in a bad place.

“I became obsessed with my health and was constantly watchful for signs something was wrong with my heart again. I don’t think I was present enough for my girls.”

Rachel soon realised she needed to follow her own advice. She would keep a ‘thought diary’ of fears and wrote down reasons not to worry next to them. “Therapy and mindfulness helped too - I’d identify negative thoughts but then try to refocus my attention elsewhere, reducing the battle I had with these thoughts.”

“I benefited most by focusing on solutions - thinking about what I could do, rather than what I couldn’t. I started off with tiny steps to challenge myself – sitting up in a chair for a short time, walking upstairs and then eventually walking to the lamp post outside my house.”

Short walks gradually became longer rambles, often with a supportive group of friends and daughters Evelyn, now nine, and Ettie, five. After checking with her doctors that they felt it was safe, Rachel was determined she was no longer going to live in fear and re-discovered her love of hillwalking.

“I had built myself up steadily but even now I have the fleeting thought of “What if something happens?”, especially when I’m out on my own.  From day one I focused on reframing that fear into gratitude.  I am just so grateful to be able to be so active again because there was a time when I thought it would never be possible.

“Hiking has been a huge part of my recovery - as my confidence has grown, so have the hills I’ve climbed. I know now how much is within my power to change how I feel.”

Rachel shares the joys of hiking on Instagram @hearty_hiker

On track to give back

Therapy helped Rachel get her life back on track and she’s now fundraising for Mersey Cares NHS Charity to give back to the services who supported her mental health. She completed the sponsored Three Peaks Challenge in 2024 and will take on the charity’s Snowdon at Night climb in August.