Reducing Stress – Cultivating Resilience

Mindfulness in the Workplace in Your business?

With ‘Mindfulness at Work in Cornwall (MWC)’ Spirit of Growth offers an affordable new approach to stress management for small to medium sized businesses, whether you are a sole trader or a company.

A growing number of businesses are now recognizing the benefits of mindfulness including big companies like TfL (scroll down and find an amazing case study), Google,    GlaxoSmithKline, the Home Office, the Cabinet Office, KPMG and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. There is a growing body of evidence and each month about 30-40 peer reviewed articles are published, looking into the positive impact of mindfulness at the workplace. Lots of research has been undertaken in the USA since Jon Kabat-Zinn developed the Mindfulnes Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme at the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre in 1991. Currently the UK is catching up quickly. The main consensus is, that mindfulness can help to

• Manage stress well
• Improve resilience
• Improve psychological health and wellbeing
• Increase emotional intelligence and ability to relate more skilfully
• Sharpen cognitive performance in focus, concentration and memory
• Aid creative, flexible problem solving and rational decision making
• Strengthen the immune system, improve sleep patterns and speed up healing

 Introduction to Mindfulness*:

1. An assessment meeting, where we discuss your business and how mindfulness can support your business (or yourself if you are a sole trader) specifically.
2. 4 sessions of teaching and practicing mindfulness at the workplace. Usually a session will last 75 - 90 minutes (can be adjusted to your needs) and ideally they will be stretched over a period of 4 – 8 weeks. I will teach simple, but powerful tools, which can be applied immediately. The course of sessions will involve some home practice for about 10 minutes a day
3. An evaluation session where we’ll look at the outcome.

My fees: £575

*Upgrades:

1:1 sessions to support individuals, who carry special responsibilities and need extra support: £60 for 60 minutes  

Follow up group sessions: £70 for (60 min), £105 (90 min)

Follow up with a 4 – 8 week program:  £575 for 6 sessions (90 min)

There are many more options. The best way forward is to contact me. In a first conversation we can talk about your hopes and goals and I can tailor the programme to fit your specific needs. 07900324079

Travel expenses may apply.

Recommended reading:

Chapman M (2011). “Mindfulness in the workplace: what is all the fuss about?”

De Vibe et al (2012).Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Improving Health, Quality of Life and Social Functioning in Adults.

Kabat-Zinn, Jon (1991). Full Catastrophe Living: How to cope with Stress, Pain and Illness Using Mindfuness Meditation. Piatkus, London

Keng et al (2011). Effects of mindfulness on psychological health: A review of empirical studies, Clinical Psychology Review, Vol 31, 6, p1041-1056

Ostatin et al (2012). Stepping out of History: Mindfulness improves insight problem-solving, Consciousness and Cognition, Vol 21, Issue 2, June 2012, p1031-1036

Salzberg, Sharon (2014): Real Happiness at Work. Meditations for Accomplishment, Achievenment and Peace. Workman; New York

Siegel, Dan (2010): Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation. Bantam Books; New York.

Thich Nhat Hanh (1991): Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life. Bantam Books; New York.

Woods W. Meditating at Work: A New Approach to Managing Overload. This book references some good US corporate examples.

Williams M., Penman D (2011). Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world. Piatkus, London.

Transport for London Case Study: Alison Dunn, head of treatment services

Alison Dunn says: “Bringing mindfulness into the workplace back in 2004 was a bit of a leap of faith. We wanted to introduce an intervention that would provide an additional dimension to the support we were already offering employees. Counselling is a great solution for a whole range of people and problems, but we felt that we needed to provide something more active and direct for employees experiencing symptoms of stress. This six-week programme – which incorporates cognitive behavioural therapy and other techniques as well as mindfulness – aims to guide people in mastering their symptoms, help them understand the stress cycle and how to interrupt it, and enable them to develop a healthier approach to life. The metaphor we use and the name for the programme is ‘Riding the Wave’. We say that stress management is like learning to surf. You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf them effectively. The biggest challenge was dealing with the myths and preconceptions. We just have to keep talking to people and explaining, and let the results speak for themselves. We don’t use the word meditation that much either, we talk much more about relaxation.

“The thing I’m most surprised about is how big a part of our work it’s become. It’s popular with employees – partly because it isn’t therapy – and our counsellors enjoy running the workshops too. There is no ‘type’ of person best suited to mindfulness. It can help anyone with symptoms of stress. I believe that people are motivated because what we are teaching them is relevant and makes sense in their daily lives, both professionally and personally. It’s a very practical programme. We also offer monthly follow-up sessions and people can come back to us at any time if they get into difficulty in the future.”

Since 2009, around 600 Transport for London (TfL) employees have been through the programme and qualitative evaluation shows that, immediately afterwards, nearly all employees said that they made changes to their lives as a result.

Among employees who have attended the course, the number of days off for stress, anxiety and depression fell by 71% over the following three years, while absences for all conditions dropped by 50%. There are also qualitative improvements, with 80% of participants reporting improvements in their relationships, 79% improvements in their ability to relax, 64% improvements in sleep patterns and 53% improvements in happiness at work.

One of the most attractive things about mindfulness at TfL, from an OH point of view, is that colleagues kept improving on key measures a long time after the point of intervention.

“On average, not only is there a significant improvement in the first year, but there are further slight improvements in years two and three, sustained much beyond intervention,” says Dunn.

For more information visit the Human Resilience website.