Tag: sleep

11 February 2025
employee mental health • mental health • mental health at work • resilience • sleep • stress • stress audit • stress management • stress reduction •

Coping With Stress: a bite-sized four-part course for employees

Stress in the workplace is on the rise, with increasing numbers of workers reporting that they’re struggling to handle the stress and pressure of the workplace. This rise in workplace stress can be fuelled by increasing job demands, reduced staffing, long hours, and pressure to be always available, in addition to societal uncertainty and rising mental health issues that can reduce our resilience to stress.

If left unchecked, stress levels that exceed our capacity to cope can impact mental and physical health, increase the risk of burnout, and fuel a drop off in engagement and productivity.

Our new Coping With Stress course is a series of 4 x 30 minute bite-sized sessions – provide your employees with key evidence-based tips and techniques for coping better with stress and increasing their resilience and robustness, improving effectiveness and productivity and reducing illness and sick leave.

The sessions are delivered by our team of fully qualified and experienced workplace mental health professionals (registered by the BACP and with a minimum of 10 years post-qualification experience in workplace counselling) These shorter 30 minute sessions offer an accessible way of empowering staff to manage their own stress levels and develop the skills needed to build sustainable resilience.

Session 1: How to assess your current stress and resilience levels

We all have a certain capability to absorb the stresses of life, but problems arise when the demands and stressors placed upon us exceed our resources for coping.  In this session participants are helped to understand where their pressures arise in their personal and professional lives, what coping strategies are in place and how we might begin to build greater resilience.

The session looks at:

  • The Resilience Jar – Understanding our stress levels
  • What is our stress signature?
  • Coping strategies and their efficacy

Session 2: Coping with Stress – Mindset

How we think our way through stressful situations and experiences often inadvertently sustains and exacerbates the experience of stress.  How we feel about stressful situations is the trigger point of the stress response. Simple but effective changes in mindset can help us make better decisions in the face of stress, cultivating greater equilibrium:

The session looks at:

  • Recognising when our thoughts are the trigger for our stress
  • Gaining perspective
  • Developing the skill of being present in the moment

Session 3: Coping with Stress – Actions

There are a variety of behavioural changes that we can weave into our life than can help us manage and reduce stress, and dramatically improve our resilience.  Exploring the role of physical activity, knowing when and how to take breaks and having the confidence to talk about your stresses and mental health are all covered in this session.

The session looks at:

  • Exercise and stress reduction
  • The importance of breaks
  • Setting and communicating boundaries
  • Connection with others

Session 4: Improving Sleep for Greater Resilience

Stress can impact our sleep, and sleep deprivation increases our susceptibility to stress! This session focuses on practical psychology-based techniques which are proven to improve sleep and maintain good sleep over the long term. We use principles from the model of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-i).

The session looks at:

  • The psychological connection between bed and sleep
  • How to create automatic behaviours that facilitate good sleep
  • The circadian rhythm and consistent wake up time

The Coping With Stress course offers employees a practical, evidence-based approach to managing stress and enhancing resilience. Through four accessible 30-minute sessions, participants will gain essential skills to not only cope with workplace stress but also foster long-term mental wellbeing. By providing tools to assess stress, shift mindsets, introduce positive actions, and improve sleep, this course empowers employees to take control of their health and productivity. If you’re interested in supporting your team in building a healthier, more resilient work environment, please get in touch for further details by completing the form below:

4 October 2024
anxiety • autumn • employee mental health • employee wellbeing • loneliness • mental health • mental health at work • mental health awareness • self-care • sleep • winter • winter blues • winter wellbeing •

Bite-Sized Lunch & Learns for Autumn and Winter

We are excited to launch our new range of Seasonal Bite-Sized Lunch & Learns – a series of five x 30 minute winter wellbeing workshops for your employees to learn key tips and techniques for boosting their wellbeing throughout autumn and winter.  The sessions are delivered by our team of fully qualified and experienced professionals.

These shorter sessions offer a timely and accessible way of reminding your staff about vital self-care actions for staying well and productive over the colder, darker months.

Bite-Sized Lunch & Learns – 30 minutes each, live online for your employees

Combatting Loneliness in Winter: Loneliness and isolation are common experiences felt by a growing number of people, particularly over the autumn and winter months. Loneliness is a risk factor for anxiety, depression and low self-esteem.. This session looks at how loneliness can develop, and practical steps to bolster connection and a sense of belonging. Topics include: 

  • Intentional connection – how to boost engagement with friends, family and community
  • The importance of warmth and exercise
  • Conscious social media usage
  • Self-care for supporting mental wellbeing

Movement for Mental Health: Humans evolved to be active every day, but the colder months see most working people moving and exercising less, impacting mood and mental wellbeing and overall health. This session explores strategies for how employees can incorporate movement into break times, and find time for enjoyable, regular exercise throughout winter, bolstering both mental and physical wellbeing. Topics include:

  • The link between movement and  mental health
  • Stepping up outdoors activity in daily life
  • Gentle movement and stretching for stress relief
  • Mindful movement, flow state and resilience

Nutrition Basics for Winter: As we move into the autumn and winter there’s a shift what we desire and require in terms of food and nutrition. This session helps your employees to gain knowledge and skills for planning and preparing for eating well over the winter months for enjoyment, warmth, immune system, physical health and mental wellbeing. Topics include: 

  • When to consider supplementation
  • Immune-enhancing foods
  • Balancing your plate

Get Your Sleep Sorted: Good mental health is underpinned by heathy sleep, and in the winter months our sleep drive and sleeping patterns can change.  This short masterclass teaches the basics of becoming a “good sleeper” using psychology-based techniques – a highly successful method designed to combat insomnia, to cultivate the foundations of rest needed for good mental health wellbeing. Topics include:

  • Steps to become a good sleeper
  • From poor sleeper to good sleeper – the process
  • The psychological connection between bed and sleep 

Avoiding Anxiety in Winter:  Fewer daylight hours, a seemingly monochrome environment, the damp, the cold and the relentlessness of the winter months are often associated with depression, however the winter environment can be a trigger for anxiety too.  In this session, we explore a variety of anxiety reduction techniques, giving employees a toolkit to feel more calm and content during winter. Topics include: 

  • Boost your serotonin and dopamine 
  • Reframing anxiety – not an enemy to be defeated
  • The Mindful Pause – anxiety reduction in the moment
  • Grounding, and settling the mind

If you would like more information on these Lunch & Learns, please complete the form below:

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community • connection • connection and belonging • employee counselling • Employee engagement • employee mental health • mental health • mental health awareness week •

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