Our Wellbeing Data Trials analyst – who she is and what she does…

Hello, I’m Helen and I joined the Happy City team in mid December. My job is to analyse
the trials of some very clever techie tools designed to show how wellbeing is influenced by decision making.

My role revolves around data collection for wellbeing, which sounds a bit dry, but is actually what we all do all the time. If we’re interested in being healthy, happy, and prosperous, we pay attention to the things we think will help us get there. Everything from how we feel and what we do to the ways we connect with the world around us – it’s all data which our brains filter through to arrive at decisions.

The trials Happy City have planned will collect wellbeing data in different ways to make the exercise interesting, easy and useful to people. My hope is then to better understand how wellbeing data can be translated into meaningful language that works as well for individuals, as it does for organisations and policy makers. If we get it right, our work will make it much easier for people in different departments of big organisations (like local authorities) to work together more effectively with increased wellbeing as a shared goal.

My working background is in mental health, so I’m looking forward to learning lots more from the partnerships we’re building with other organisations making headway in wellbeing research and technology. Overall, the prospect of contributing to a robust system that gives people confidence in wellbeing as a measure of success is a very exciting one to me.

Before I arrived at Happy City I provided short-term psychological therapy, and ran data-coordination for NHS clinical trials. My undergraduate degree was psychology, and I have post-graduate qualifications in psychotherapeutic counselling and counselling psychology. I am currently doing some training in ‘writing for wellbeing’, which fits really well with my new job here.

Other things I love are: creative writing- mainly scriptwriting (not much to show for it yet!), running (outside), dancing (generally to music), baking (all things that are bad…but so good), beaches (the ones in Wales are the best) and rugby (when Wales are doing well).

I’m very happy to be part of the Happy City family and already feel like part of the furniture. Everyone has made me feel incredibly welcome and the co-working space has given me the opportunity to meet lots of interesting people doing lots of interesting stuff. I love it that I work in a ‘Happiness Hub’ where there are lovely bright pink things around the place and tiny tropical fish to look at. Thank you Innovate UK for funding the project!