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Inspire
January 2026
Welcome to Inspire!
Every two months, Inspire will bring you closer to MFT, with deep dives into our services, behind-the-scenes interviews, practical mental health advice and support, and in-depth features from fundraising, volunteering and co-production.
This relaunch isn’t just a new look or a new name — it’s an invitation to learn and be inspired by the people, stories and successes that make MFT what it is. We’re so excited to share this journey with you and hope you enjoy our first edition!
Connie, Communications Lead, Mary Frances Trust
An introduction into Mary Frances Trust...
Let’s start with who we are… Mary Frances Trust (MFT) is a mental health and wellbeing charity founded in 1994 by Mary (left) and Frances (right), who wanted to create a community-based resource to help local people using mental health services achieve their own goals and aspirations.
Today, MFT delivers eight free services for Surrey residents aged 16+, all provided in the community or online, with some services integrated alongside the NHS.
We support people experiencing a wide range of mental and emotional health challenges, from stress and anxiety to diagnosed mental health conditions.
Co-production has always been at the heart of our work. We believe services and organisations are strongest when shaped by and delivered with people who have lived experience of mental health.
Services Deep Dives
GPimhs in numbers
These stats represent overall GPimhs appointments in Mid-Surrey for 2025.
“Julie is so very kind and understanding. They gave me time and patience. They also gave me an amazing toolbox which I can put stuff in and take stuff out, as and when needed. They gave me guidance and suggestions which I try to use to prevent me becoming overwhelmed.”
Banstead GPimhs Client
Meet Will - GPimhs Lived Experience Practitioner
Will joined MFT in May 2025 to provide peer support and practical assistance to help people regain control of their lives. He is a Lived Experience Practitioner for our GPimhs service in Epsom & Ewell.
He explains what his role is about and shares what he loves most about his job!
Happy 5th birthday to SUN!
Our Service User Network (SUN) turned 5 this month! Offering peer support groups to anyone experiencing complex emotions that may be associated with personality disorder, it is facilitated by lived experience practitioners from MFT and clinicians from Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SABP).
To mark the occasion, we’ve interviewed Sindhu Vazhappulli, SUN Service Manager at SABP, to share what SUN is all about and why she’s so proud of everything the service has achieved over the past five years.
“We are so privileged to be working as a partnership service because it really compliments the medical and social models of care. Working alongside MFT helps us reinforce the community aspect of our service, empowers our members to be and feel part of a community, rather than be viewed as a ‘patient’ who is under the care of a service.“
Sindhu Vazhappuli, SUN Service Manager, SABP
Mental Health Awareness
Finding Words for the Invisible: My journey with Dissociation
For much of her life, Delia carried an invisible struggle she couldn’t explain — memory gaps, disconnection, and a sense that her mind didn’t work the way it seemed to for everyone else. In an honest and moving blog, MFT client and SUN member Delia shares what it felt like to finally learn that these experiences had a name: dissociation. She also reflects on how SUN helped her feel heard and supported, and why being believed can be life-changing.
Mental Health Act 2025 - What's New?
A new Mental Health Act was published at the end of 2025. While it won’t affect most people directly, it introduces important changes—particularly around how decisions are made when someone lacks capacity and is detained under the Act.
Kat, our Mental Health Safeguarding and Clinical Supervision Lead, has highlighted the key changes you should be aware of.
Mental Health Tip:
Practising Self-Compassion
This month’s mental health tip is from Win, our Recovery & Connect Lived Experience Practitioner:
“When struggling with your mental health, it can be difficult to be kind to yourself. To believe that you, as a person, are worthy of kindness, compassion and understanding. It can be uncomfortably easy to talk down to yourself, become unnecessarily critical and almost void of empathy.
When I struggle with these feelings, I remind myself to address them with the same empathy, kindness and time that I would give to those I love and appreciate:
If someone you cared about came to you at a time of need, would you judge them? Diminish their concerns?
Act as if they are causing you inconvenience? I hope not!
When another person speaks harshly on themselves, I like to ask that if we were in each other’s shoes, would you have said to me, what you would’ve said to yourself?”
