Facing the Storm: Navigating Life’s Toughest Moments

About the event

What do we do when life changes irrevocably? How do we endure — and even grow — after loss?

In this panel discussion, Benjamin May (The New Normal charity) joins neuroscientist Professor Mary-Frances O’Connor and clinical psychologist Dr Ray Owen to explore grief and resilience in the face of serious illness, bereavement, and our own mortality. Drawing on brain science, Mary-Frances explains how the mind and body process grief. Ray shares what his work in palliative care and behavioural science has taught him about resilience, and how practices such as mindfulness and self-compassion can help us meet suffering with greater steadiness.

Together, they consider how we can acknowledge pain without being overwhelmed by it, and how we might find, in Ray’s words, ‘a quieter place in the middle of it all’. Expect grounded insights, practical tools, and an honest conversation about how people adapt, endure, and rediscover meaning in life’s inevitable storms.

Image credit: Jotun Gear