Mental health in the workplace is a significant issue that’s not improving. Statistics reveal that one in two employees are grappling with stress, anxiety, and depression. This reality underscores the importance of leaders actively promoting mental health at work. Here are some practical tips to help create a supportive and mentally healthy work environment for your team.
They Don’t Care
As both a manager and employee, I’ve said and heard those words countless times, often peppered with expletives, within well-established organizations. Leaders are charged with ensuring workers align with the mission and bottom line, but the human energy driving that mission is often overlooked—and your team notices.
When the focus is solely on productivity and speed, with little regard for the people making it happen, employees inevitably feel unsupported and conclude, “They don’t care about us.” Think about being in a relationship where you no longer felt cared for. How did that work out?
The reality is people have long been unhappy, stressed, overworked, and disconnected from their work. According to the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health, more workdays are lost due to stress and emotional health issues than many chronic conditions like diabetes, asthma, and arthritis. Add the current uncertainty around layoffs, economic instability, and the struggle to balance demands at work with personal priorities, and it’s clear why employees are increasingly reevaluating not just their well-being but their great purpose and fit within organizations. This period of reflection and new demands has prompted many to reassess their personal needs and aspirations, leading to a collective wake-up call about their priorities.
Why Should Leaders Care About the Value Shift of Employees?
Ignoring employee well-being directly impacts the company’s bottom line. While the economic focus might have shifted from turnover to managing with less human capital (with looming layoffs), the cost of neglecting our teams’ emotional and actualized needs remains significant. Research suggests that happy employees can be up to 20% more productive than unhappy ones, with even higher increases in productivity for sales roles.
The threat isn’t just in losing employees but also the cost of those who remain and are emotionally checked out. Invisible costs to the company include absenteeism—missing work due to emotional or physical health issues—and presenteeism—employees who are physically present but mentally and emotionally absent. These “invisible” costs slowly erode productivity and engagement.
We often talk about these half-life worker bees as “stealing time,” but it’s more than that. It’s a sign that your team may be overwhelmed, underutilized, exhausted, and needing attention. As a workshop facilitator, I’m always amazed at the level of unrecognized stress and the lack of emotional resources to bridge the gaps within organizations. Instead of questioning how much more they can do, consider their message: they need more support. Addressing these concerns can turn a disengaged workforce into a motivated and productive team.
How Can Leaders Respond to The Crisis of Mental Health at Work?
Work on cultivating a culture of caring that includes normalizing the conversation of mental health, assessing the needs of your employees, and implementing onsite and ongoing support is key.
There is a false sense of comfort in tasking wellness to only Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to address workplace mental health concerns or health insurance because the reality is, it isn’t enough. Most EAP’s only cover approx six sessions, and finding a mental health provider with availability that takes your insurance is like performing a magic trick, especially for minority populations. So, while those ideas are good, they shouldn’t be the only strategy to support your team. Crisis calls for more intentionality and creativity.
3 Simple Ways Leaders Can Promote Mental Health
Value and Encourage Employee Input (aka Listen to your people)
I was once in a meeting being welcomed by executive leadership, and everything was going well. They sounded glad to have me on board and painted an open-door policy. Then I accidently asked, “So if I have an issue, can I come to you directly?” To which the lights dimmed, her eyes glared, a wisp of cool air entered the room, and a professional no fell out of her mouth.
I understand that there is a hierarchy to how we do things. However, if leadership is drawing a line between genuinely knowing what is happening in the lower ranks and positing themselves to respond, it is already creating an atmosphere for chaos. I walked out of that meeting thinking they don’t give a shit what happens, and they lived up to that with poor dissemination of information, limited support, and ineffective leadership. Guess who left that job?
As a leader, you need a strong voice and boundaries, but also need to know when to listen. Employees who provide direct service are the lifeline of your organization. Making decisions without them, and they can’t see themselves in your larger vision, can easily contribute to a crisis.
Active and empathic listening will allow managers and leaders to ask questions that get to real concerns before they become costly issues. Creating space for engagement and dialogue fosters a sense of belonging and respect. It also allows you the opportunity to grasp innovative ideas for your best assets that will eventually contribute to your bottom line. Engaged and included employees are more likely to navigate stress and overwhelm and less likely to use lunch breaks for job interviews.
Create Opportunities for Advancement
Humans crave progress. Employees must feel they are on a meaningful path and part of an evolving workplace culture.
Do you know the areas where your team members need the most support or want to develop? Is it communication, managing emotions, resolving conflicts, or enhancing professional skills? Do you allow them to focus on these areas during their workday?
Have you created space for continuing education and critical conversations that address and dismantle race-based biases limiting upward mobility within your organization? We live in one of the most diverse times in history, at the crossroads of our beliefs, experiences, community trauma, and survival. This reality enters your workplace daily, impacting your staff’s emotional safety, well-being, and productivity.
While recognizing the importance of mental health at work is a positive shift, it can still be a struggle to conceptualize where to start and what steps to take next. This is where external expertise can make a significant difference. Bringing in professionals who aren’t entangled in company dynamics can provide fresh perspectives, essential skills, and much-needed support.
Investing in wellbeing and leadership training may seem costly, however, when compared to the expenses associated with losing the expertise of staff, intellectual property, and the hidden costs of presenteeism and burnout, it’s a minor investment in your retention strategy. Prioritizing a mentally healthy workforce is essential for overall organizational health.
Amanda Fludd, LCSW-R, and Katiuscia Gray, LCSW-R, are Licensed Psychotherapists and Mental Health Consultants. They work in partnership with organizations and institutions like law firms, schools, and women’s organizations to assess an organization’s emotional health and craft customized mental health and wellness workshops and trainings incorporating evidence-based approaches like Mindfulness, Yoga, Movement, and Human Behavior Strategies. To request further details contact: 347-868-7813
Mental health encompasses more than just our emotions; it’s influenced by our actions, diet, and thoughts. A comprehensive self-care plan can significantly improve your mental well-being by taking inventory of your entire life, honing in on what you’re doing well and where you might need additional support. This plan is a vital tool in therapy, guiding clients toward taking ownership of their mental health.
Creating a self-care plan helps identify gaps in your current routine and highlights areas needing attention. It’s like driving a car; you can only ignore that check engine light for so long.
Get Honest About the Barriers in Therapy
During therapy sessions, we have open, honest conversations about these barriers. Therapist Tamara Dopwell shared this reflection: “When clients identify that their thoughts are the problem, we go further and dig deeper—How often are we thinking negatively? We explore where this behavior was learned.” With honest conversations and the right clinical skills, we can unpack the false narratives that have taken root, something we do with care and compassion for our clients, entering these spaces with curiosity and leaning into the discomfort to dismantle the untruths.
This journey is about reclaiming your power and embracing the dope, transformative process of self-discovery and healing.
Take Action and Start the Journey
If you’re ready to take charge of your mental health, consider booking a session with one of our therapists at Kensho Psychotherapy. We offer virtual appointments and accept various insurances, including Cigna, Aetna, 1199, BCBS, UBH, Oxford, and Northwell Direct. Don’t wait to start your journey toward better mental health. We recognize it’s sometimes difficult to prioritize your needs, but the benefits are well worth it.
Take the first step today. Book a session with our therapists. If you are already in therapy, we encourage you to think about how you can be more honest and open on your journey. It’s not easy, but it will only help with your healing.
Tamara Dopwell, LMSW, is currently a Psychotherapist at Kensho Psychotherapy. We appreciate her work with children, families, and women. If you reside in NY and would like to inquire about therapy, call us at: 347-868-7813.
It’s easy to lose sight of our goals and values when we’re busy on the move chasing our list of expectations and responsibilities. Most of us can do it with our eyes closed on autopilot.
Autopilot is the opposite of awareness.
Autopilot is where we go when we are tired of how hard it is to be successful in this country. It’s where the familiar is dialed up, but our minds are practically on mute, not engaged with driving to work, leading teams, cleaning the house, ubering the kids to their activities, or binging shows on the couch at 1:58 am. For black and brown women, it can be our haven from power struggles and being “the only” in the room, but it’s also where we lose ourselves.
Something about it feels good, but something also feels so far from the self you want to be. So how do we find her again? How do we come back into awareness and reconnect to something that gives us life? This is where the importance of self-care for Black and Brown women becomes a necessity.
Switching Off Autopilot: The Journey Back to Self
Learn how to do nothing.
It is a scary concept to embrace when we’ve established that success only comes by hard work. We are constantly in motion, in what feels like a never-ending loop where achievement is idolized, and being busy is flaunted as a mark of distinction. Instead, I wan’t to offer the profound strength found in the practice of retreating to a place of pause.
You should try something: picture yourself stepping into a quiet space, away from all the noise, where you can deepen your thought process and listen to your heart. Instituting periods of pause isn’t about running away; it’s about running toward a deeper understanding of your aspirations and dreams. Feeling connected and powerful again lies in asking ourselves if we’re living in alignment with our true selves—and having the courage to adjust our sails if we’re not.
From Historical Figures to Us: The Essential Retreat
Historical and spiritual narratives remind us of the importance of this practice. Take Jesus, for example. Amid his teachings and miracles, he found it essential to retreat to the Garden of Gethsemane. This wasn’t a timeout but a deliberate choice to reconnect, reassess, and recharge. If such a moment was crucial for him, why wouldn’t it be for us? It’s a compelling reminder that taking time to realign and refill is beneficial and necessary.
Filling Your Cup
So, when was the last time you allowed yourself this kind of retreat? When did you last recognize the signs of burnout or disconnect and decide to do something about it? We’re talking about stepping back to fill your cup, to rediscover yourself, to ensure you are not just moving but moving in the right direction with your tank full and spirits high.
Remembering who you are, or intentionally trying to discover that, is a radical act of care. The premise is what led us to create the Renew Connect Restore Annual Retreat, especially for Black and Brown women. We know firsthand the transformative impact of retreats. Retreats are not escapes but vital experiences for growth, deep reflection, and the joy of rediscovery, surrounded by similar women pouring into you. With workshops on leadership, health, entrepreneurship, identity, mental well-being, and finding one’s purpose, we offer a safe emotional space to release the responsibilities and rest, find inspiration, and enjoy whatever location we retreat to. This year, its Bali.
Intentionally building quiet moments into our lives allows us to stop, think, and connect with what we genuinely want. This habit helps us sift through the chaos, identifying what genuinely matters to us versus what keeps us busy.
Practicing A Retreat to Pause to Rediscover Self
Here are a few journal prompts to guide you:
What’s been taking up most of my headspace, and how can stepping back help me see clearer?
Where am I out of alignment with my core values when considering my personal and professional life?
What does ‘filling my cup’ look like, and who or what can help me achieve that?
Reflect on your current commitments and tasks. Which tasks need my immediate attention, and which ones can I let go of or don’t need to worry about at all? I’ll think about the power and freedom in simply saying no. What can I delegate or cut out of my schedule to make space for the things that truly matter to me? How will clearing this clutter help me zero in on the projects and goals aligning with my deeper purpose?
What can I commit to in the next three months, this month, and even today that can help me discover what fuels my joy?
These exercises is an opportunity to connect you back to living a present, bold, and audacious life. It’s your reminder to navigate what is in your control and wake up to this experience called your life.
An Invitation to Nurture Yourself
Ready to carve out that much-needed space for yourself? We’re extending an open invitation to you. Join our community and stay informed about our retreats, workshops, and other experiences designed with your growth and restoration in mind. Subscribe to our mailing list, and let’s continue this growth journey together.
How are you going to work on rediscovering yourself?
Amanda Fludd, LCSW-R is a Licensed Psychotherapist, speaker, and Mindset Coach for high-achieving women in business. Her joy is addressing mental health on multiple levels, from the boardroom to stages with dynamic keynote speeches to therapy on the couch. Her workshops target self-care for black and brown women who lead.
Have you ever wondered what keeps making us feel stuck and unable to connect to others authentically?
Committing to your emotional healing or recovery is key to forming honest, genuine relationships with oneself and others. However, the recovery process can be challenging with internal barriers such as self-criticism, fear of judgment, and people-pleasing behaviors. The journey to recovery from emotional struggles is complex. You might find that it feels beautiful sometimes, or you might find that it feels unpleasant, happy, sad, challenging, easy, intimate, or vulnerable in others. All of these feelings apply at different times on our journey. Recovery is a process that doesn’t have a finish line. We keep growing and learning, one day at a time, but do that knowing it will have a ripple effect on our connections with others.
Embracing Vulnerability
Authentic, honest connections with ourselves and others are essential, yet they’re often disrupted by the very mechanisms we use to protect ourselves. Behaviors like people-pleasing and self-criticism, driven by a fear of judgment, are common defensive strategies that create barriers to the very growth-supporting actions we need, such as seeking support from family and friends or pursuing professional therapy in times of intense emotional struggle. Instead of fostering genuine connections, these protective measures often lead us to isolation and loneliness, distancing us further from the possibility of healthy and authentic relationships.
It does take a lot of courage to admit that we need help and feel lonely. Sometimes, we might feel afraid of sharing our fears, dreams, and struggles with others. We are often afraid of being rejected, not liked, or perceived as weak and judged- but that vulnerability is the beginning of healing.
Self-Discoveryand Recovery
We live in an intense, competitive society where our worth is based on our achievements. We learn early in life that we must be perfect, “better than’ others, and that being human and making mistakes is wrong. Some of us might have received messages from childhood that we are not good enough. Messages that trigger self-doubt and questions like “Who am I?” “What do I really want?” or “What do I need?” Without that certainty or clarity, we can easily become lost as we continue to depend on external acceptance and validation.
As a result, we might perhaps find ourselves in unhealthy relationships that are conditional and far from being vulnerable or authentic. We might find ourselves engaging in unhealthy, compulsive behaviors, including substance use, binging on food, overspending, etc., to fill the emptiness we feel inside and escape the negative thoughts we have of ourselves. The first step in changing that is looking inside ourselves.
In order to have an authentic relationship with others, we must start by having an authentic relationship with ourselves.
An Approach to Authentic Connections: A Two-Way Street
I want to offer one approach to connection and healing- engaging the body. In my regular yoga practice, I do a lot of balancing poses. At the beginning of my practice, I often felt self-critical and judged myself harshly. I was incredibly worried about what others would think, and I was afraid of being rejected and disliked. I would get wrapped in the bondage of self where my ego takes control. The crazy thing is, the more I worried, the more I would fall and be off my balance.
Falling was difficult for me because I thought I had to be perfect.
As I’ve grown in my practice, I’ve started accepting the falls with an open heart and mind. Something interesting that also happened is that the more I allowed myself to fall, the more authentic my connection became with others around me. Since we all make mistakes and are not perfect, my class members connected with my imperfection and my vulnerability.
I realized that it’s ok to fall.
Genuine relationships with others start with being true to oneself.
The Value of Falling
As we walk on the path to recovery, we are allowed to make mistakes, trip, and fall on the way. Through my yoga practice, I realized that falling is not a setback. It is an opportunity to expand your body, check in with yourself to what it needs, where you are too hard on yourself, and allow vulnerability and imperfection. Listening to what the body tells you requires skill and engaging in emotional healing. Both in yoga and life, when we fall, we have a great opportunity to listen to ourselves, our needs, and what is going on inside. As you do that work to understand yourself better and heal, it will be reflected in external connections.
Emotional takes courage and involves progress, not perfection. We need courage, compassion, and vulnerability, which leads to an authentic connection to self and others, ultimately reaffirming your path to recovery, love, and belonging.
So allow yourself to fall once in a while.
Beata, is one of the many exceptional therapists on the Kensho Psychotherapy Team and this is a great piece on emotional healing. If you need to book a therapy, please leave your details here.
Mental health is a topic that is now being recognized as a serious issue today. In this blog, Industry Scholar Intern, Efia Blair, explores the definition of mental health and the surprising things she learned exploring the topic. Efia believes the Coronavirus lockdown shed light on why mental health is so important. The lockdown brought a lot of awareness to mental health because people were stuck in their houses for such a long time that it was inevitable for them to begin to experience mental health issues and illness as they grappled with change, uncertainty, loneliness, and new stressors.
So, What Is Mental Health?
Well, it is your overall emotional well-being, and it is critical for us because it controls our actions and reactions. Various things can impact your mental health. Still, your main concern should be taking precautions to improve or sustain your mental health.
One thing that was surprising to me, that widened my knowledge on mental health, is that not only can mental health affect your state of mind but also your physical health. Your body can stop functioning how it used to because of psychological effects, increasing your possibility of developing an illness. Did you know that? I had no idea the mental and physical health connection was that strong. I also learned that our mental health can affect our ability to make decisions if our mental health is compromised. One more thing, did you know mental health problems can be passed down through genes? I thought your mental health was only affected by one’s environment or if you’ve experienced some sort of trauma.
How Can You Protect Your Mental Health?
Mental health struggles are sometimes inevitable, but many practices can help support good mental health. First, you can connect with a therapist to talk to someone and get the help you need. Sometimes it’s helpful to speak about your feelings out loud. You can also start new hobbies, join a new club, or connect to the people around you. Those two essential acts- asking for help and doing things you enjoy can help protect your mental health in more ways than you realize.
What things are you doing to protect your mental health? What about using a journal like this one or taking the time to nurture your well-being with walks, meditation, or yoga? Please share your suggestions in the comments!
Researched and Written by High School Student Efia Blair for Kensho Psychotherapy Services, where she is an intern through Industry Scholars. If you or someone you know in the NY area is in need of a therapist or counselor, please click here and submit your details for someone to get back to you. The practice offers individual, family, or couples therapy and accepts several insurances like Aetna, 1199, BCBS, UHC, and Optum.
