Self Care in the Workplace

These are the wonderful people I work with at Indigo Thinking, Simon Obrien, Nikki Wright, and Andrea Sutton… we came together following our training at SCPTI, we are a collective; a team. There’s no boss, no hierarchy and we leave our egos at the door.

Indigo Thinking was born from a phone call to a friend. Realizing I wanted to share the experience of growing a successful counselling practice with others I reached out for help. Turned out they did too! What makes us work? We prioritize respect, trust, and collaboration. We celebrate each other’s successes, share skills generously, and create a safe space for open communication. This fosters joy and fulfilment, we still get the work done… who knew?

I also believe our success is born out of our lived experience of what not to do, of how not to treat people.

I haven’t always worked in such a positive space, far from it and my mental health suffered as a result. In fact, over the last 30 years of my career, I’ve faced bullying, sexual harassment, been micromanaged and side-lined, manipulated, undermined, and harshly criticized. With huge workloads, impossible targets, and relentless pressure in toxic, unsupportive blame cultures I spiralled into burnout, breakdown, and eventually PTSD as a result. But apparently, I was to blame because I was simply too sensitive to cope!?

Sadly I don’t believe these are unusual circumstances to be in. Sound familiar? If so I’m sorry you have had to experience this type of culture. But have you ever asked yourself what you need from your work environment?

Sometimes we don’t know what we’re missing or what’s attainable because we’ve never experienced anything different, so our environment becomes our ‘normal’ or ‘expected’. Just because we can’t name it, doesn’t mean we don’t know that there is something fundamentally wrong with our day-to-day experiences and before we know it, our situation can become intolerable.

I now have a genuine sense of joy in my work that comes from these few things:

• • • Knowing I will be heard and others will feel heard by me
    • Celebrating other people’s success as much as my own
    • Promoting each individual skill set and being open and generous in sharing those skills to experience growth in others
    • Knowing we believe in, trust, and respect each other.

My story highlights why self-care matters. Even in supportive environments, we need personal strategies to protect ourselves from negativity and nourish our well-being.

Here are some tips that I’ve learned, I hope they help:

Mental health in the workplace. I hear this statement a lot now and on the one hand, I’m pleased to see this topic being highlighted, and that organizations are being encouraged to take the mental health of their employees seriously.
The cynical side of me however is concerned that many organizations will hide behind a series of forms and tick boxes in an effort to quantify their commitment, and the ‘why’ will be missed.

I feel I’m justified in that concern, having been on the receiving end and seeing no acknowledgment from the powers that be that the culture of the organization was at the route cause of a large majority of employees’ struggles, but that I simply wasn’t suited to my role, because of my own inability to manage the work effectively.

That said, many people are wholeheartedly committed to understanding, healing and protecting people’s mental health both in and out of the workplace. I am one of those people and I’m extremely proud that my colleagues at Indigo Thinking are too.