History & Development
Community Wellbeing Centres
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History & Development
History & Development
Community Wellbeing Centres were conceptualised by Sholi Loewenthal and in collaboration with Dr Joseph H. Berke. As a framework, they evolved and synthesised from two distinct areas of practice: community cohesion and mental health.
On the one hand, they stem from a recognition that modern communities, particularly the modern urban community, has become increasingly dislocated and fragmented. Sholi initially began investigating this in 2004 by developing digital tools to help communities cohere at a local level, as well as at supra local levels of regional, national and even global. But it became increasingly clear to him that - regardless of digital tools - a fundamental ingredient for society to cohere are the physical spaces at the local community level that enable people to forge a real sense of community through relationships, friendships and partnerships developed in face to face interaction and activity.
On the other hand, Community Wellbeing Centres stem directly from the approach to mental health pioneered by Dr Joseph H. Berke and his colleagues, such as R.D. Laing and others. From an early age, and particularly following 9/11 in 2001, Sholi had a deep interest in the psychology of the individual and society; constructs and institutions that fragment, and those that help individuals and societies cohere and thrive. Close friends and acquaintances receiving NHS mental health support - as well as years serving as a Samaritans volunteer - gave Sholi a personal insight into shortcomings of current mental health delivery when compared with the illuminating approach pioneered by Joseph Berke. Increasingly, Sholi saw the approach to mental health advocated by Dr Berke as crucial to a functioning and healthy society and, in 2016, Sholi asked Dr Berke to be his mentor to help guide his lifework. Sholi worked closely with Joe until Joe sadly passed away in 2021.
Dr Joseph H. Berke with Sholi Loewenthal, 2018
During that time, in 2018, Joe asked Sholi to accompany him to the Compassionate Mental Health conference organised by Brigid Bowen, which brought together mental health stakeholders, from policy makers to mental health professionals and those currently going through crisis, for several days of workshops and discussions. The Compassionate Mental Health conference demonstrated how the therapeutic influence could be defused within a social setting, and Sholi immediately began developing with Brigid ways to expand this methodology into replicable community frameworks. After a series of iterative conceptualisations, Sholi married the vision of community mental health with the frameworks he'd been developing for creative and civic community hubs, and into the framework for Community Wellbeing Centres. Dr Joseph Berke adopted the framework and joined Sholi in co-authoring the 2018 discussion paper "Wellbeing Centres" and organised a workgroup at his home bringing together local experts and practitioners, as well as consulting with his broader global network via email. Joe wanted the Community Wellbeing Centres to be called "Akedia" or "Akedia Centres", with the meaning "a place of peace and simplicity".
Thus, Community Wellbeing Centres, or Akedia Centres, fuse two arenas: community and psychotherapy.
Locating primary mental health support within the context of warm community and highly inspiring, energising and productive settings redefines mental health support when compared to the current dominant approaches that separate (alienate) those in MH crisis from community.
Moreover, the mental health provision delivered within Community Wellbeing Centres will also be based on the person, issue and context approaches to mental health pioneered by Dr Joseph Berke and his peers. On a practical level, Dr Joseph Berke's approach encourages less reliance on medication. Instead, it promotes understanding mental health crisis as a feature of latent potential inhibited by distressing internal and external factors. To that end, the approach focuses on overcoming the distress through understanding its causes and acquiring the necessary skills to overcome their inhibiting capacity, thereby resulting in the person unlocking their inherent potential. (Learn more about Dr Berke's approach to psychotherapy here)
Dr Berke described his approach variably as Phenomenological Psychotherapy, Intensive Psychotherapy, Existentialist Psychoanalysis and Person, Issue and Context focused Psychotherapy. Today, these approaches have inspired many across the field to seek more holistic and empowering approaches to psychotherapy, with numerous experiments around the world, such as Satoria, Arbours, Trieste and many others.
The Community Wellbeing Centre framework aims to formulate these approaches as the standard of mental health delivery, and where this delivery is contextualised within the vibrancy of the heart of the community.
Our goal, at Sense Future, is to establish Community Wellbeing Centres not just as a one off, but as a replicable framework to be rolled out across the UK and beyond.
An artistic impression of an urban community Wellbeing Centre
Wellbeing Centres - 21 November 2018.pdfPage updated
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