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Our Approach and Values
While some people are able to see burnout as an 'opportunity' to turn their lives around, many others would prefer to develop an early warning system. We support people in activating knowledge that they can implement in their everyday lives in order to reduce the likelihood of burnout, depression or stress-related illness.
We aim to avoid clichés about positive thinking and go beyond superficial 'list your strengths or resources' exercises. We assist people in a systematic evaluation of what has worked well in their lives up to now and work with them to create a coherent story of resilience that will sustain them in the future.
Some approaches focus on the role of faulty cognition as an obstacle to resilience; others work on emotional intelligence or personality. We acknowledge the complexity of the individual; our concept includes an awareness of thinking, feeling and behaviour as well as an exploration of the physical, interpersonal, structural, contextual and spiritual factors that influence resilience.
We do not believe in imposing a diagnosis, carrying out tests or providing 'recipes'; we do not find it helpful to think in 'types'. We have found that each individual already has a personal definition of resilience as well as a personal 'narrative' that they live by. We help people to find out what works for them and to activate their own 'insider' knowledge and skills.
As research has shown that resilience is a multi-faceted phenomenon, the training approach and the trainers must be flexible and able to 'do what works'. Our training model is inspired by narrative practice* as these areas most closely match our philosophy of empowering the people we work with. We also draw on a wide range of non-academic sources to provide memorable ways of engaging our workshop participants. Exercises used vary considerably according to learning styles, preferences and the learning context.
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