Cry Club

Cry Club is a temporary therapeutic community.
We have created a platform which has given the public a safe space to engage in therapeutic actives that they wouldn’t normally have access to. It is a structured therapy session we developed in conjunction with Mind, the mental health charity.

The workshop involves induced crying therapy; we sit in a relaxed environment and attempt to cry. Secondary to this, we open a discussion to the group where we encourage participants to discuss how they are feeling. Next, we use false laughter which inevitably erupts into real laughter. Through this, the participants can release any built up emotions in a sharing environment, and this can avoid uninvited outbursts.

Born in New Cross 2016, Cry Club was formed as a design experiment by designers David Jones, Henry Clements, Lizzy Alabaster, Lucy Webster and Tegan Mills.
Though described as a therapeutic experience, we never claim to be therapists. It can be difficult and expensive for many of us to visit mental health specialists but what other solutions are there? As we all have mental health, we take part in the sessions as participants to guide the sessions and aim to help people realise the importance of addressing the state of mind.

Cry Club has been hosted at Goldsmiths University, Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre, The Tate Britain, and is soon visiting Hastings.