Five advice gems from NABS to support mental wellness
Career Leaders
NABS reviews its shared insights from the past 12 months on mental wellness management.
We’re nearing the end of yet another rollercoaster year. Our industry faced some serious pressures both in and out of work, from global volatility to mergers and job losses.
NABS has been in your corner throughout, providing advice and support to you in Career Leaders and through our industry services, with thousands of adlanders calling our Advice Line and attending our workshops.
Here’s our pick of the insights we shared with you this year to help you manage your own mental wellness, as well as that of your teams, to help you all keep moving forward.
Support parents to take paternity leave
One of NABS’ working parents, senior support advisor Marisa Posadinu, shared her experience of returning to work after having a baby, emphasising how helpful it was when her partner was able to take paternity leave.
She encouraged the industry to normalise paternity leave take-up and, where possible, for companies to make paternity leave more affordable and accessible. The result? A more equitable industry, where all parents can thrive.
Meet your teams where they’re at to discuss mental health
Talking about mental health is critical, and how we discuss it can make all the difference.
Lorraine Jennings-Creed, director of wellbeing services and culture change at NABS, provided practical tips on how to do this.
Be open and share your experiences to show your team that they can do this too. We’ve made significant strides in our industry in discussing mental wellness. Let’s now build on that great work by hearing as many leaders as possible discuss what they’ve been through and how they support themselves.
The NABS Podcast is a great place to hear industry leaders have inspirational conversations about their mental wellness challenges.
Take stock and check in with yourself and your teams at the half-year point
Katrina Urban, head of learning and development at NABS, shared some great tools for emotional check-ins. It’s brilliant advice that you can easily apply to your own end-of-year review, not just the half-year point.
Give yourself some time and space to ask yourself simple questions, including ‘how am I really?’, ‘what have I achieved in the last six months?’ and ‘what support could I benefit from?’ We so rarely gift ourselves this reflective time, yet doing so can transform our mental wellness.
Mentoring: a two-way street to growth and wellness
Mentoring is one of the best ways to grow, reflect, and connect – for both the mentee and the mentor. Uzma Afridi, principal business psychologist, NABS, explained that mentoring is also a brilliant and uplifting way to deal with the pressures and worries of work.
Don’t undersell the power of mentoring – it’s about human connection and can lift the spirits as well as give tangible career benefits. NABS held a fantastic speed mentoring session in October of this year and has more planned for the future, as we’ve seen firsthand how people can flourish through mentoring.
How to get through redundancy
Unfortunately, redundancy affected people across adland this year – in fact, it’s been one of the top reasons for people contacting NABS throughout 2025.
This ‘Ask NABS Anything’ episode of The Media Leader podcast, with NABS’ head of support Annabel McCaffrey, is a must-listen for anyone wanting to support themselves (or their teams) through redundancy.
Tackling topics from networking to mental wellness after losing a job, this episode is full of practical help.
Louise Scodie is senior PR and communications manager at NABS.