For World Mental Health Day, we created a few good reasons to step away from our screens, connect with colleagues and make space for wellbeing across our core offices.
Published: 21 October 2026
Author: Max Finney
There are plenty of ways to encourage people to take a proper break during the working day, and bringing therapy dogs into the office is an effective one.
To mark World Mental Health Day, colleagues across our core offices took part in therapy dog sessions, shared lunches and desk massages. The activities were deliberately simple: a chance to pause, have a conversation, spend time together and do something that brings smiles to faces. Unsurprisingly, the therapy dogs attracted plenty of attention, but each activity created space for connection away from the usual meetings and to-do lists.
More than a moment in the calendar
World Mental Health Day gives all of us a useful prompt to check in with ourselves and each other. But looking after mental health cannot be limited to one day, one campaign or one very popular visit from a four-legged colleague.
At Shoosmiths, wellbeing is part of our wider approach to creating a workplace where people feel supported, understood and able to be themselves. That means continuing to make conversations about mental health normal, helping colleagues find support when they need it and recognising that wellbeing looks different for different people.
The events across our offices were a visible and light-hearted way to mark the occasion. But the more important message sits behind them. Taking a break matters, checking in matters and creating a culture where people can speak openly matters throughout the year.
A new chapter for Thrive
We also used World Mental Health Day to announce the new co-chairs of Thrive, our wellbeing and inclusion employee network. Thrive brings together colleagues from across the firm to raise awareness, share experiences and help people navigate the support available to them.
Each of our new co-chairs shared their own story, including the mental health experiences that have shaped them, what wellbeing means to them and why they wanted to help lead the network. Their accounts were personal and different, which is exactly the point. There is no single experience of mental health and no single version of what support should look like.
By speaking openly, our co-chairs are helping to make it easier for others to do the same. They will help shape Thrive’s next chapter, building connection across our offices and ensuring that wellbeing, accessibility and neurodivergence remain part of everyday conversations at the firm.
Keeping the conversation going
World Mental Health Day may have provided the excuse for dogs, lunch and a little time away from our desks, but the commitment continues after the last massage chair has been packed away.
That can start with small actions: checking in with a colleague, taking a proper break, joining Thrive, sharing an experience or finding out what support is available. None of those actions needs to wait for a date in the diary.
The aim is to keep building a culture where people can ask for support, be honest about how they are doing and have the opportunity not just to get by, but to thrive.