In January 2017, I had a mental breakdown.
I was a solicitor working full-time, and for most of my life I’d lived with anxiety, panic attacks and PTSD. That year, it caught up with me. I couldn’t leave the house some days. I couldn’t sleep. I felt like I wasn’t worthy of being a solicitor anymore.
I took time off. And then I made a scarier decision – I left my job altogether, with no plan, just to focus on getting better.
What happened next changed everything. I became a consultant solicitor – flexible, self-employed, in control of my own life for the first time. And slowly, my work stopped being part of the problem and started being part of the solution.
In 2018, Thrive Law launched – the first UK law firm founded with wellbeing at its core. Today we’re headquartered in Leeds with teams across London and the Southwest, and every part of how we work – from wellbeing days to no billable-hour targets – is built from lived experience, not a policy document.
Since then, I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD. I’ve campaigned in Parliament for parity between mental and physical health at work. I chaired This Is Me Yorkshire, helping people talk openly about mental health, neurodiversity and disability at work.
The policy work has grown alongside it. I consult regularly with The Law Society as a member of various committees. I supported ACAS’s guidance on reasonable adjustments for mental health. and Thrive Law is now used as an ACAS case study for what neuroinclusive, mentally healthy workplaces can look like in practice, not just on paper.
I still have bad days. I’m still in therapy. I call it maintenance, not repair. But I’ve built a life, and a firm, where that’s allowed to be true – and I want to help other workplaces get there too.
