January 2017
Life coaching is a practical way of helping an individual to achieve the changes they want or need in their life. It involves meaningful conversations to help an individual to get from where they are now to where they want to be. It is a confidential, exploratory process which helps an individual get faster and more effective results than working alone.
Individuals may start down this path due to a sense of dissatisfaction; others come for a specific purpose such as making career choices or a change of job, improving work-life balance, building self confidence, increasing health and vitality, improving relationships, or getting more of what they want from their time.
A coach will help an individual to explore and define what they are unhappy with in their life (if relevant), what they want from their life, identify the obstacles, and find ways to overcome them. This will involve defining goals, identifying the practical steps needed to achieve them, using new techniques/tools, and developing additional skills.
By exploring priorities and focusing on what is important this should, in turn, forge the connections to an individual’s sense of self and re-establish confidence and self-esteem.
As a result of the process, the individual should be able to take control, move forward and achieve the changes - and the lifestyle - they desire, thus impacting on their wellbeing and effectiveness in all areas of their life and work.
Our team of experts are able to support corporate organisations and their employees to achieve greater clarity, impact and visibility
Counselling and psychotherapy are often considered to be interchangeable communication therapies that overlap in a number of ways. The key difference between the two courses of treatment lies in the recommended time required to see benefits. Counselling usually refers to a brief treatment that centres around behaviour patterns (for instance in relation to addiction). Psychotherapy focuses on working with clients for a longer term, draws from insight into emotional problems and difficulties, and looks at the foundation of the problem.
Our team consists of clinical and health psychologists, CBT therapists, occupational therapists and counsellors (supported and complemented by several experienced psychiatry colleagues). All of the team have extensive experience of delivering psychological/therapeutic services within the context of corporate organisations.
Our services in this area seek to raise awareness about the importance of health, happiness and wellbeing in the workplace, and to support employers by providing a range of services and workplace health initiatives, together with fast and practical interventions should an employee be experiencing work-related difficulties or ill health.
Our team work with a wide range of problems and concerns, either personal and/or workplace related including:
Anxiety
Addictions
Bereavement and Loss
Communication problems
Depression
Eating problems
Generalised Anxiety Disorder
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Panic Attacks
Relationship problems
Social Anxiety
Stress-Related problems
Traumatic life events
March 2017
A good wellbeing programme must enable simple and effective access for all users.
The starting point is often well signposted and publicised offerings in the form of an intranet based wellbeing page. Here, employees can access information, helplines, tools, techniques, webinars, podcasts, and other resources at the click of a link. They are also able to register for and book appointments, and places on courses and events (web-based or otherwise) where on offer.
Our experienced team of web designers and developers can design and build bespoke wellbeing pages for our clients, and provide support in respect of other IT based wellbeing offerings.
January 2017
Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we are doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what is going on around us. It is a mental state, used as a therapeutic technique, achieved by focusing awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.
Although it has its roots in Buddhism, secular mindfulness has stripped out much of the spiritual and focused on the scientific. Mindfulness is now being used in a variety of contexts including healthcare, schools, government, the services, the prison system and workplaces.
Mindfulness can support health and wellbeing in the corporate sector and has taken its place across the globe as an effective way of helping organisations to function better. It has been adopted by many organisations including the likes of Goldman Sachs, Barclays and JP Morgan.
With rapid advances in technology potentially enabling us to work 24/7, many employers and employees find themselves struggling to cope and there is a tendency to constantly multitask, the effect of which is actually to lower productivity and job satisfaction, and to increase stress. Seldom can one switch off completely, taking a toll on both our health and wellbeing in the workplace and in our personal/family life.
Through continued mindfulness practice, individuals can learn increased focus, awareness, and to pay full attention. In turn they can become calmer, clearer, happier and more creative. Scientific studies prove that our brains in fact ‘rewire’ themselves towards a more mindful
Mental health is, despite a growing movement to address its importance in the workplace, unfortunately still considered by many to be one of life's taboos.
Mind's latest estimate is that mental ill health costs UK businesses around £26bn a year in lost productivity, and the OECD estimates that our failure to cope adequately with mental health issues costs the UK some 4.5 per cent of its GDP.
The number of days taken off work with mental health problems has increased 25 per cent year on year and stress, depression and anxiety together rank as the largest reason for absence in the workplace. Official statistics suggest that 127 million hours of work were lost in 2015 due to mental health-related absence – the equivalent of around 75,000 individuals losing the entire year.
However, by emphasising the commercial impact of ignoring mental health and the ethical importance of employee care, advocates are now beginning to tackle old taboos. They are encouraging openness and establishing much-needed support systems to ensure that employees are not only given the best chance to remain mentally healthy but, conversely, to equip those on the front line to deal sensitively and appropriately with individuals when they have become unwell.
A number of organisations have begun to take important steps in this direction, but much more needs to be done. Organisations that do not yet have policies in place, or are concerned that what they do have falls short of what is necessary, need to take steps to address this. A key part
