Whilst things seem to be feeling more positive for many people right now, there is evidence of a growing wave of mental health problems that have come as a consequence of the pandemic and life in lockdown. This supports our experience gained from running confidential employee counselling and wellness sessions with organisations across the country, where we also notice large numbers of employees experiencing extreme levels of work-related stress, rising numbers who are very anxious about the future and many who are worried about returning to the workplace.

There are two important mental health events on the horizon which present an opportunity for organisations to support the mental health and wellbeing of employees:

• Stress Awareness Month: April 2021
• Mental Health Awareness Week: 10-16 May 2021

Here are our five top sessions that dovetail with these important events to keep your employees healthy, productive, focused and creative over the coming months:

• ‘Managing Change’: this 60 minute session looks at the inevitability of change in our professional and personal lives and explores how change can cause uncertainty and stress, how this is a normal reaction and how we can rise to the challenges of change, not only to manage, but to flourish

• ‘From Anxious to Calm’: with anxiety disorders becoming ever more prevalent this 60 minute session provides employees with an in-depth understanding of anxiety, the most common triggers and tips and techniques for managing the mental and physical symptoms, including how to calm the mind and take good care of the nervous system.

• ‘Reducing Stress and Enhancing Resilience’: this interactive 60 minute workshop provides practical tips and techniques for enhancing resilience to both short and long-term stress. Looking at the biochemistry of the stress response system, it introduces the concept of the ‘stress container’ to aid understanding of how to manage pressured situations more effectively.

• ‘How to Improve your Mental Health’: drawing on evidence-based strategies and techniques, this 60 minute solutions focused session provides employees with practical steps, tips and advice to enhance all aspects of their mental health.

• ‘Facing Anxiety and Flourishing’: this 4 week course, one hour a week, utilises a blend of practices from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, resilience training, stress reduction, self-compassion, mindfulness, and emotional intelligence to give participants a distinctive set of tools to help them respond to anxiety skilfully and with confidence. The course can be run either in-house or people can join as part of an open course.

By way of introduction, Wellbeing Partners is the mental and physical wellbeing specialist, providing whole-person health programmes to organisations across the UK and around the world. We are a leading provider of stress management and full-service employee mental health services ( https://wellbeing.partners ) and have a full suite of integrated wellbeing solutions that focus on awareness, prevention and remedy. Our sessions are all live, interactive and on the online platform of your choice (currently) or in a bespoke pre-recorded Video Podcast format.

If you’d like to hear more about any of our sessions and master classes for any mental health and wellbeing initiatives or events you might be thinking of or planning for, please get in touch at [email protected] or call Nick Winfield on 07773 767248