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If EMDR can help a Spice Girl, it can help your employees

If you’re like us, you relish those moments when you can relax and read a good book. I had chance to indulge in reading a few during the recent festive break that have left me feeling inspired. Among them, two that stood out were by well-known celebrities who have each encountered traumatic personal relationships and have survived to tell their tales. Melanie Brown’s, ‘Brutally Honest’ and Tina Turner’s ‘My Love Story’ are on a similar theme, with both women hav...

A lawyer’s last lesson in how to talk to colleagues about cancer

Charlie Hainsworth was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2017, aged 38. She’d gone to her GP after noticing a strange hardness to one of her breasts. Within three weeks she was told that the cancer had spread to her bones and that it was incurable, something known as secondary breast cancer. Months of chemotherapy, a mastectomy and radiotherapy followed to maintain and prolong her life. We had the privilege of knowing Charlie in the final year of her life and want to celebrate everything s...

Be ready to deal with the ‘quiet horror’ of a traumatic birth

My nephew was born after a traumatic caesarean section 22 years ago and I witnessed the emotional harm it caused my sister for years to come. I’m not telling an unusual story here, by the way: giving birth is terrifying for many women. The Birth Trauma Association estimates at least 20,000 women suffer birth trauma every year. So, my nephew was due early in the July. My sister and brother-in-law were ready for their first baby: they’d been to the NCT classes, learnt about the breathing and â...

How to help employees let go of emotional issues

When employees suffer a traumatic event such as losing a baby, a divorce, death of a loved one or any other one of life’s big challenges, we expect them to react emotionally. For a while, allowances are made for unusual behaviour because we expect them to get back to being ‘themselves’ over time. But did you know emotional trauma caused by these common, if distressing, life experiences can leave a negative imprint on a person’s brain in the same way as soldiers are affected by military a...

How coaching can reveal the right decision after loss

A business owner hired us because a long-standing and valuable employee had suffered 4 personal losses in less than 3 months. Her auntie, mother and husband had died, along with the life plans they had made for the future. Overwhelmed, she had been off for 2 months when her employer asked Beyond EAP to support and facilitate her return to work. My work with her is a good example of how ‘right’ result is not always the one you expect. ‘Unsure if she wanted to return’ It was a challenging ...

Why your employees can’t just ‘get over’ grief

When Fiona Cosh was first offered Grief and Bereavement support, she didn’t think it was for her. Her husband of 27 years, Dave, died in early December 2017. Fiona, a legal Secretary at Winckworth Sherwood, soon decided that she did need professional help to deal with her profound grief. And she’s glad she did. She says: ‘I can honestly say that if I hadn't had the support, I wouldn't be here at work full time today. I would still be a long way off, struggling to understand all the differe...