Now open in the Bluecoat Building, Calm Coffee is a coffee shop with a difference.

“The whole premise is to welcome people into a safe space, and through therapeutic support, conversation, holistic therapy, breath work and meditation, to improve people’s mental and physical health. emotional” says founder Craig Brown.

Calm Coffee was established in 2021 in Blacon as an offshoot of Craig’s other business Rage Fitness, which now operates internationally including a wellbeing centre in Gambia. “I decided to set up Rage Fitness Wellbeing Group and Calm Coffee based on my own personal experiences. I was homeless, a drug addict, I had severe mental health problems, I was 5 stone overweight. I didn’t access any primary or secondary services: I got myself out of the shit” he says. “It took a lot of hard work, I used physical activity as an enabler and I did a lot of soul searching and work on my own mental strength. I’ve been doing this for the past 6 years. I wake up every day at 5am, go and train, listen to affirmations, and the best thing that has been an anchor for me is supporting those around us. I stay straight and level because people need our support. I can’t go off the rails because they need my help.

“Calm Coffee exists because I did a male suicide campaign in 21. I cycled 1000s of kilometres to raise awareness and in the process of doing that, a lot of people came to the gym in crisis. They didn’t have anywhere safe to go and sit, so I decided to rip out a section of the gym and I set up Calm Coffee. People can come in, feel relaxed and supported and get put onto one of our referral pathways of wellbeing programmes. “

The extension of Calm’s services to the city centre offers somewhere ” you can get a coffee, cake (supplied by Kookaburra) or a brew in a space that is quite relaxing and not as overwhelming as some spaces. ” says Craig. Calm offers yoga classes, breathwork, a sensory room, games group, craft group as well as sessions to reduce isolation in the older people community. “We have the only open sensory space in Chester in a coffee shop environment.”

Calm work in partnership with many local agencies : “Public Heath England/Wales, the NHS, we are talking to Cheshire West and Chester council about referral pathways into services. People can access our services by clicking the link in our bio, or contacting us directly. A good 90% of people come in for a brew, get speaking to Nick, Jane or Lauren about all of the things that we do and build up a trusting relationship. Self referral is the biggest driver, because its a coffee shop ultimately. Every one of my team has come through one of my referral pathways and I have built up a relationship with them.” All have had the opportunity to join the Rage Fitness Wellbeing academy consisting of mentoring/coaching and mental health framework designed by a psychotherapist . “Once they’ve finished the training they can help people where they once were.

Craig says there are many reasons for the current mental health crisis.

“As human beings we have become more comfortable, we have lost the fighting aspect to survive, so you’re not fighting , everything is given to you. We have become a little bit lazy. Secondly if you look at how humans exist at the minute, everything is a competition. No one is promoting how shit they feel on social media unless they’re in it for likes. It gives people an emotional investment, we are all thriving for the wrong type of attention, and we don’t get it , that makes it even worse. Thirdly its social economics the amount of people that are struggling. I come from a very poor background, hence the drug addiction and being involved in crime culture in Liverpool. If you are living in poverty , your mind is in a poverty environment and a lot of the work I do rewires how the brain thinks. Access to services combined with people not moving as much as they should, so people aren’t attaining to be better.”

“We want this to be as busy as any coffee shop but with a real positive social outcome. My objective is to help as many people as possible. I want people to come here and feel safe and supported. I know that from helping people every day, the need is greater than ever. Whether that be financial , mental health issues, accessing services, we want to do more good ultimately.”

Calm Coffee are open Mon- Sat 9-2