Global Entrepreneurship Week | Supporting mental health through baking therapy

The theme of this year’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, which runs from 17-23 November, is ‘Together We Build’, so we’re highlighting how USW has supported new business owners to become a success.

USW recent graduate, Julie-Anne Baker, is the founder of Bake Well Therapy, which offers counselling and therapeutic baking groups as a form of mental health support accessible to children, young people and neurodivergent individuals.

With a lifelong passion for mental health and disability advocacy, Julie-Anne created her business after drawing on her own mental health recovery as an autistic person and young carer.

Having these experiences helped her to identify a gap in mental health services and shape her counselling approach rooted in empathy, accessibility and inclusivity.

While studying BA (Hons) Counselling and Therapeutic Practice, Julie-Anne was encouraged by her lecturers and inspired by past students to start researching a private practice model to map out her business idea before contacting the USW Enterprise team.

She said: “I received a lot of fantastic help from the Enterprise team. Early on, I had one-to-one mentoring, which I would highly recommend to anyone thinking of starting a business. I then took part in an introductory freelancing course which gave me a helpful overview along with my first opportunity to pitch an idea, apply for a grant and start networking.”

Julie-Anne has since joined the Startup Stiwdio in Newport and continues to receive support as a USW graduate.

For business startup or freelance support contact [email protected]