If you're feeling lonely, struggling to meet people or just want someone to talk to, one woman has brought a heartwarming initiative from Britain to Brussels, offering strangers the chance to chat once a fortnight at bars around the city.
Belén Luna Sanz, 32, is from Bolivia but lives in Brussels, and first heard about 'Empty Chairs' on TikTok in January. She liked the initiative and wanted to bring people together and start a conversation, so she contacted its founder, Dean Perryman, to set it up in the Belgian capital.
Perryman, 29, from Essex near London, lost his best friend Rob to suicide in November 2025. When he died, Perryman said on social media that he "would have to come to terms with the fact there would always be an empty chair where Rob would have been".
Crippled with grief and guilt, he wasn't sure what to do, but he said the two things he was good at were drinking beer and talking to strangers.
So, he started reserving tables at pubs in Essex and London every day in December, donning a bright orange jumper and leaving a seat free for anyone to come and have a chat. The idea was to "create a space that Rob might have found comfort in".
Rob and Dean (Left), Dean with a group of strangers at one of his 'Empty Chair' evenings in the UK (Right). Credit: @emptychairsuk / Instagram
Perryman has stressed on social media that 'Empty Chairs' isn't about "fixing people" or offering crisis support, but about tackling loneliness through simple human connection. "It's about not sitting on your own if you don't want to," he wrote in one post.
He has since amassed almost 90,000 followers on Instagram, and the grassroots movement has gone global, with groups sprouting as far as Canada, Australia, Norway, Switzerland and the United States, filling hundreds of empty chairs across the world.
From one stranger to another
In January, Luna Sanz brought the initiative to Belgium. Although she hasn't lost anyone to suicide, she told The Brussels Times that she knows "a lot of people who have experienced mental health issues".
She believes that the initiative is needed in a city like Brussels where people come and go and struggle to connect on a human level, with most conversations revolving around careers.
"When I first arrived in Brussels five years ago, it was not very easy to make friends who were not professional acquaintances," she said.
"I think it is very professionally heavy, and even friendship relationships tend to be from work or from a work event [...] There are not enough spaces where you can just connect as a person without the first question being, 'So where do you work?'"
The Bolivian national contacted Perryman after seeing his videos online, and organised a time and a place for the first evening in January, which he advertised on his website, and she posted on her LinkedIn.
"I went to Café Belga. Nobody joined from my social media; the people who joined were from the bar. I printed a little sign, and people who were bold enough, or lonely enough or brave enough joined me," she said.
She has organised six or seven 'Empty Chairs' since. Every other Monday, she can be found dressed in orange at bars around Brussels, such as Café Belga on Place Flagey in Ixelles, and Café Winok in Schaerbeek. Each time, she posts where she's going on LinkedIn.
Belén Luna Sanz with a stranger during one of her 'Empty Chair' evenings at Café Belga in Brussels.
One man, who was also a migrant, came on several occasions, but most people have been new each time. "It's heartwarming when people come in curious, and after asking the question, they stay. Or people who ask me what I was doing and then come the next time."
She believes this curiosity for human connection has brought a sense of closeness. "Once they approach, it's like the gap has been closed and we just really talk about everything in life. It's not that people come to me and they start talking about loneliness and how they're feeling quite vulnerable," she said.
" It's really a conversation about how things are going, like the things that sometimes we struggle with, things that we love. I think that that's what strikes me: it takes really not that much for people to then open up."
There have also been times when no one has approached her. She says it's slightly awkward when this happens, but being vulnerable is part and parcel of what she's doing. "It's part of putting yourself out there, and part of making this type of community."
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Luna Sanz says she will continue to organise fortnightly 'Empty Chairs' and create a space for people to connect. In her view, people in the EU bubble in particular are scared of being vulnerable, opening up, and admitting they are struggling.
"I do it because I want people to know that there will always be someone sitting in a café with an empty chair for them," she wrote on LinkedIn.
If you are contemplating suicide and need to talk, help is available. You can contact Un pass dans l'impasse via 081/777.150 and www.un-pass.be. Support is provided exclusively in French.
For Dutch-language prevention services, please contact the Suicide Helpline on 1813, www.zelfmoord1813.be, or the regular mental health services. English speakers in need of help can call the 02 648 40 14 helpline or go to www.chsbelgium.org.
