A NOTE FROM SHERVANA
As someone who has been on both sides of the mental health coin (patient vs practitioner) I know firsthand the importance of having the mental fortitude and nervous system capacity to handle high levels of stress and how not having that can create mental and physical health complications AND affect a company’s margins
This is why my work as a Wellness Consultant centers around helping employers understand the direct relationship between personal life and work life and the impact of (unresolved) trauma on the productivity, creativity and adaptability of their employees and put strategies in place to address that to ensure peak performance and the continuous growth and success of their companies, especially during times of change and uncertainty
The Value of Workplace Wellness
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the local workforce has been subjected to increased levels of stress leading to anxiety, depression and other stress-related problems such as work-induced burnout which have negatively impacted the mental and physical health of the employee.
In many instances this increase in employee stress levels has led to reduced employee performance, reduced employee morale and reduced focus at work, all of which have reduced productivity and slowed down company growth even in seemingly successful companies.
Personal stress also contributes to employee stress. And the inability to cultivate work-life balance, mental fortitude or emotional agility to navigate these issues compounds the problem. Thus, employees are also experiencing heightened and more distressing emotions more frequently and this has resulted in what is known as a Quiet Quit for many.
When the body is under this high level of stress, the nervous system gets locked in a state of panic and the individual’s social engagement faculties shut down leading to reduced sociability and increased interpersonal problems.
As a result, employee rapport and team dynamics are impacted and there is a strain on customer relations which is critical to the success of service-based companies.
Research has documented that chronic stress has a detrimental impact on the human mind and body and can create health issues that reduce the overall psychological functioning and productivity of employees leading to economic loss within the organization.
This is why companies across the globe have started to prioritize stress management by engaging in deliberate strategies to control the level of stress, particularly chronic stress in employee wellness initiatives.
Companies that have invested in wellness programs that support mental and emotional wellness through management have reported increases in work performance, productivity and sociablility of employees as well as positive economic growth.
Companies that have not put such initiatives into action have experienced severe economic loss due to reduced productivity and higher rates of stress-related absenteeism and presenteeism.
The elevated prevalence of stress and the high associated personal and organizational costs of stress indicates a need for workplace health and safety risk management action.
Trauma & Workplace Wellness
Trauma affects individuals, teams, organizations and society. Human development work needs to be trauma-informed because trauma is at the base of all human experience and shapes how we interact in the world. If we don’t develop a culture of trauma-informed leadership within our companies, we run the risk of normalizing adverse trauma symptoms and creating non-sustainable systems.
Most of the problems we see in organizations right now stem from a lack of trauma education and trauma-informed leadership. The result is that people experience micro-rejections at work because they feel like they cannot bring their personal lives and emotional self-expression to the workplace and they feel marginalized and dehumanized, all of which are perpetuations of trauma that diminish the flow, creativity and innovation needed for organizational success
Trauma fragments our capacity to host and respond to reality in daily life across all spheres of life. Trauma imprints are created in our attachment process within family systems and these create compensation strategies and unconscious processes that we reenact daily as adults within the organizational system. And this is true for leaders and their teams.
Trauma healing does the opposite and makes life richer, fuller, more creative, innovative and responsive and gives scope to create workspaces that are healthy and sustainable and where people feel like they find meaning and purpose and want to be everyday
Our work at Espoir is to help corporate leaders become trauma literate, ie understand the gravity of what people have lived through and how it’s showing up everyday in their mindset, behavior, creativity, productivity and generativity and hold it in a way that fosters deeper and more transformational human development without dehumanizing and further traumatizing them
We specialize in helping corporate leaders to restructure their practices and policies so they can offer trauma-responsive spaces for their employees and support the mental and emotional wellbeing of their team in order to mitigate burnout and quiet quitting
We help you create systems and spaces where people feel safe to bring the full spectrum of their humanity and in turn contribute their full potential to the success of the organizations you lead by helping you address the fractures in the dynamics of your organization that have been created by trauma and solve problems from a place of power, attunement and embodiment vs fear and panic that things will fall apart
Contrary to popular belief, stress lives in the body, specifically the nervous system, not in the mind. So in order to effectively address the impact of stress, a body-mind approach that works directly with the nervous system must be implemented.
Our proprietary ESPOIR Framework combines cognitive psychology with embodiment practices (breath work, somatic therapy and energy alignment) to create a unique psycho-somatic approach that will support your employees in adopting holistic strategies to build emotional and mental resilience and workplace wellbeing, while also improving productivity.
Unlike cognitive approaches which only address one’s mindset, the ESPOIR approach uses holistic mind-body practices that work with the nervous system to disengage the stress response and restore the body’s balance and promotes holistic wellness by healing the mind and body from trauma and chronic stress, as well as reducing anxiety and depression symptoms.
Our Corporate Packages
There has never been a more pressing time to prioritize the mental well-being of your team members. That’s why the value of workplace wellness initiatives has increased exponentially in the last few years.
At ESPOIR, our Workplace Wellness Services will help your employees take control of their mental health by teaching them effective strategies, techniques, and coping mechanisms to manage their stress and general mental wellbeing.
When an employee feels emotionally fulfilled in work and has mental resilience, they are at the height of productivity which means that the company benefits significantly.
Here are some of the benefits you can expect to experience from implementing this initiative:
- Higher employee productivity and better work performance
- Reduced absenteeism and presenteeism rates
- Improvements in employee morale and loyalty
- Improvements in employee rapport and customer support
- Improved staff wellness and increased emotional intelligence and resilience
- Higher retention rates due to increased job satisfaction
- Increased creativity and innovation for employees in leadership positions
Our Corporate Packages include:
01 Corporate Workshops, Trainings & Retreats
02 Executive Coaching & Employee Assistance Programs
03 L&D Consultancy for Trauma-Informed Leadership & Organizational Transformation
Book a call to discuss a bespoke experience that meets your company’s unique needs.