Civil servants had ‘crystal healing for beginners’ classes to beat work stress

Civil servants were offered a ‘crystal healing for beginners’ session to ease their work stresses, it has emerged.

Classes available earlier this month included a two-day wellbeing programme called ‘It’s all about me’, which focused on ‘being kind to yourself’.

Another event was entitled ‘Reshaping negative thoughts and language into positive affirmations’, according to the Guido Fawkes website.

An afternoon session called ‘Time to Unmind’ aimed to provide staff with ‘tools, training and exercises to support your mental wellbeing’.

Civil servants were offered a ‘crystal healing for beginners’ session to ease their work stresses, it has been revealed [File photo] 

An hour-long counseling session was held for colleagues from ethnic minorities.

The ‘Beginners Guide to Crystal Healing and Deep Relaxation’ was an interactive class about the alternative therapy that claims crystals and semi-precious stones have curative properties, but has no scientific basis. Katy Perry and Victoria Beckham are two examples of celebrities who have become crystal healers. 

A minister told the Guido Fawkes website: ‘This is hocus pocus b******s which you’d expect in LA, not in Whitehall.’

A spokesman for the Cabinet Office, which distributed the list of activities, said: ‘Like most large organisations, the civil service runs events aimed at improving the wellbeing of staff.

‘We are putting in place additional due diligence to ensure our internal offer to staff is appropriate and value for money. The session in question incurred no cost to the taxpayer.’

The ‘Beginners Guide to Crystal Healing and Deep Relaxation’ was an interactive class about the alternative therapy that claims crystals and semi-precious stones have curative properties, but has no scientific basis

Yesterday, it was discovered that an anti-racism instructor had been hired to provide lessons for civil servants. This was despite him making anti-Semitic comments in the past.

Mizanur Rahman was in charge of a Cabinet Office 2019 session entitled “An Inclusive Britain”. But in social media posts from 2014 he had compared Israel to ‘white supremacy’.

In 2019 the Home Office was criticised for spending nearly £3,000 on sending civil servants to a recreation of TV game show the Crystal Maze.