All our workshops have the ultimate aim of building resilience and increasing productivity in the work place. Our topics are listed below:
Achieve your full potential
You will in this workshop, start to explore your beliefs about yourself, others and the world you live in. Focus is on working towards achieving your highest potential and that, by doing so, you will ultimately experience a sense of freedom and joy and that the effort invested as part of the process is likely to be experienced as liberating, meaning full and often effortless. It is important that you feel safe to freely explore different aspects of yourself, therefore, in this workshop it is entirely up to you to choose the level of interaction you wish to have with other members in the workshop.
Anger Management
Assertiveness
You can be direct without being aggressive – it’s just a matter of knowing how to be assertive.
Imagine what it would be like to: Tell someone no without having to make up excuses. Speak up for yourself when someone tries to take advantage of you. Stand up for what is right without being be rude or aggressive. Politely disagree with someone, knowing they will still like you as a person.
Are you constantly trying to please people? So much so that you often find yourself keeping your thoughts and opinions to yourself? Do you do things you don’t want to do or verbally agree with things you don’t want to agree with just to “keep the peace”? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you desperately need to be more assertive. People aren’t “born” being assertive. It’s a behavior that is often learned in childhood.
LeapSkills Cognitive and Behavioral Workshops introduces you to scientifically proven and well established tools and techniques designed to give you an opportunity to put an end to passive behavior and will teach you how to be assertive when the situation calls for it.
A clear head in the workplace
Who are you when you have recovered? This workshop is helping you to see yourself on a continuum from addiction to sobriety and look at your first steps in recovering and building your personal and professional identity without your addiction. You will use Cognitive and Behavioural tools to work on your triggers and see yourself in challenging work situations and define how and who you want to be without drugs and /or alcohol. This educational workshop will also outline the psychological, physical and emotional benefits from sobriety and together identify a number of areas where you are likely to change your thinking and behaviour when you are not influenced by drugs or alcohol.
Addiction
This workshop will look at behaviour that may indicate addiction problems( unpredictability, irritability, depression, instability, frequent sick leave and bad time keeping) and help you as an individual or a professional to identify and recognise typical addictive behaviours. Often we do not see ourselves and it may be that someone close to you in the workplace or within the family or circle of friends may be the person who will first point out to you that your behaviour is addictive. In this workshop you will use questionnaires and well established self assessment tools using a Cognitive Behavioural Approach to gain better insight in to your addictive behaviour. You will also gain some insight in to typical personality traits and why some people are more in danger of using avoidance rather than dealing with the fear.
Behavioural techniques
Being new to the company
Fault finding, whether it is within yourself or in others often stems from a strong inner judgmental voice not giving any space for you to be OK even when you are not “perfect”. In this workshop we explore how being new in a work place may result in the use of well known defense mechanisms, and look at how you set yourself or those around you up to “fail” in order to maintain a “safe” but in reality destructive coping strategy.
Building resilience
Lack of resilience is always multi factorial and although work stress may be a contributing factor leading to poor coping strategies, it is also a combination of personality, social structure, a sense of vulnerability (at work and outside ), material deprivation and social networks ( at work and outside )Using Cognitive Behavioral approaches, this workshop is in two parts. Firstly exploring and teaching you more about what we generally understand resilience to be and in the latter part we will explore your individual level of resilience and which tools and techniques may be best suited to strengthen your inner core and build resilience.
Building Confidence
Recently increased focus has been given to the pitfalls young employees often tend to fall in to when they start their careers. Their role models are their new colleagues who are already established employees. Newly employed sometimes end up in unhealthy working patterns because they are scared of not being seen as doing what they think is expected of them and their lack of self confidence and fear may be detrimental to their performance and a healthy productivity level.
Often young employees come with great academic achievements but are totally unprepared for the emotionally and intellectually demanding environment they arrive in. This work shop aims to remedy what they did not learn during their studies, by offering young employees some insight in to typical traps they are in danger of falling in to. This learning is essential for new employees. Used as a part of the initial introduction to a new position and a new company it will prevent escalating problems in new employees and ensure continuity and high performance without developing mental health problems.
Career Change
“When you have started to think about change it is time to change”. This workshop will take you on a journey of self exploration and self discovery. We use a combination of questionnaires and calculations to help you to find out which personality type you are most likely to be. From there we will go through what is most likely to be your preferred way of being in life and how your life is most likely to make you happy.
This workshop does not necessarily advocate a change in profession and work place but also explores how you can make your current work place a better place for you by having a better understanding of yourself and what it is that makes you happy or unhappy.
During this 2: ½ hour session we will aim to take you on a journey in a new direction whether it is to learn how to voice your wishes and stand up for your self or move towards a new direction in life.
Change Management
This workshop goes through the following 9 essential areas to succeed in implementing change: Paying adequate attention to perceived injustice, give psychology equal weight to finance and support structure, consider culture and norms, develop comprehensive communication strategies, give early comments to reduce uncertainty and agitation, make sure any information is coherent, buffering chaos, integration in to business as usual, be people focused, show empathy and positive thinking.
Communication techniques
This workshop identifies the difference between effective and non effective communication. It will briefly look at how your individual style has developed. Using Cognitive Behavioural techniques you will be exploring solutions to cultural and personal differences that cause communication problems and how you can make a conscious choice to change ineffective, unconscious communication. The facilitator will illustrate why communication is a complex and multilayered topic and will discuss body language, tone of voice and how your self confidence and emotional state influences effective communication.
Denial and defence
A recent survey conducted by counselling services revealed that one in ten employees have problems with addiction (alcohol, drugs, eating, shopping, sex and many others). The entire issue of drug and alcohol addiction is complex because the attitude to alcohol and drugs is dependant on the individual company, family and social structures and therefore always must be seen in the context of which it is identified. Although most people on some level will have sense of when their “self medication” is becoming a problem, no one wants to own up to the problem. In fact the majority of people go to extreme lengths to cover up a dependency. Using simple Cognitive Behavioural tools this workshop helps the individual to recognise in a non judgemental way, human defence mechanisms such as denial, aggression, projection and splitting.
Dealing with conflict
How you deal with conflict in the work place must be seen in the context of several factors that may influence your capacity to stay constructive and focused when faced with difficult situations. Difficult situations may be: time pressure and dead lines, work overload, the amount of traveling required, long working hours, taking work home, lack of power and influence, beliefs conflicting with those of the organization, keeping up with new technology, doing jobs beyond the appropriate level of competency, inadequate training, interpersonal relations, demands from works influence on family, private and social life and incompetent managers. In this workshop we will explore personality types, distinguish and explain the difference between healthy and unhealthy anger and practice various assertion and communication techniques.
Humour
This workshop explores how using humour can build resilience. Using Cognitive Behavioural tools and techniques the workshop facilitator will, together with you, find examples of situations where you can use humour as an alternative coping strategy. When we notice the humor in a situation we are in an observant role. It takes a little bit of psychological distance in order to see the humor in ourselves and our circumstances. We are standing beside our painful situation when we can laugh at it. This can give us a chance to stick a pin in negative emotions and choose actions that are coping and positive. It is hard to wallow or ruminate in negative emotions when you’re seeing the absurdity in your situation. Research on resilience suggests that a sense of humor helps to stress-proof employees who are in conflict or when there is a tendency to high emotional expression within the work place. Reports from companies that have deliberately explored ways that humor can be used to foster positive developments and resilience within the work force confirms that applications of humor in front-line professionals is useful in their work.
Image Consultancy and Body Language
When you lead a meeting, present a proposal or try to convince people of your good idea, you body language is also “communicating” as you speak. And, if your body language works with your message you are likely to be much more successful. Body language can also give you an edge when negotiating. If you can read key signs from the people you are dealing with you can discover things that can give you a better deal.
During this 2: ½ hour workshop you will gain insight in to why body language is an important part of any communication, how to use body language to increase your impact, how to increase your presence and strengthen your command over your listeners and how to build a rapport with others.
Identifying Triggers and Cravings
The Cognitive Behavioural strategies for coping with cravings and compulsive behaviour are well documented as the most powerful tool to aid change. This workshop will provide questions and education to help you identify your triggers and how to cope with the overwhelming cravings and urges that inevitably are a part of the road to recovery.
Jet Lag
During this two-hour work shop we will go through with you the most recent developments in understanding the physical as well as mental consequences of jet lag and frequent flying. We will explore a variety of common symptoms and you may discover that what you have not thought of as symptoms of jet lag, in fact is directly linked to crossing continents and frequent flying to different time zones.
How you choose to deal with jet lag is as with all things a matter of personal choice, however we will in this workshop present you with a number of recent approaches to beat the jet lag and explore with you which way might suit you best, ranging from meditation to medication. Our Jet lag work shop facilitator is an experienced expert in the field of understanding and dealing with jet lag and is running workshops for pilots and the military on a regular basis.
Life skills without a chemical duvet
As human beings our life is lived in a larger context than work alone. This workshop aims to address the complexity of recovering the position as a responsible and sober member of work, family, friends, community and society. It emphasizes life skills such as efficient communication and assertiveness, how to make priorities and maintain boundaries and learn what is important to you.
Maintaining High Productivity
Personal experiences by Narcotics and Alcoholics Anonymous
During the initial stages of recovery you are at your most vulnerable and the support from other who have similar experiences is by far the most meaningful support you can have. Becoming familiar with a network of people who are coping without using may be your safest social out let during early recovery. In this work shop you will be introduced to a person who is in recovery from a drug or alcohol addiction. The speaker has recovered through joining the NA( Narcotics Anonymous) or AA (Alcohol Anonymous) and will help you to recognise that you are not alone battling the denial, resistance, cravings, judgements, and the addictive circle. Our speakers are typically experienced in the professional world and highly pressured working environments.
Relationship and Family Problems
Being a part of a relationship or a family unit is often seen as the fundament that holds everything together. It is difficult if all parties need something from the other and especially if the focus and energy required providing what is asked for, is going. Your family or relationship unit will, if it is like most relationships and families, fall inn to certain ways of coping with difficulties. The problem is often that what used to work does not work any more, communication breaks down and the friendship, trust and companionship that once was there is no longer as strong as it used to be. It is difficult to stop and recognise the decline before the destructive pattern has got a stronghold.
From theory to practical exercises using Cognitive Behavioural approaches, together with your fellow participant, the facilitator will take you in to the “family unit” and illustrate how you can contribute to develop a healthy family dynamic and a happier family unit.
Resisting change
This workshop is designed to explore a variety of ways that employees may resist change and introduce a range of strategies to help them move beyond that resistance. We look at how to develop and deepen the employee’s commitment to and “ownership” of company achievements and how to integrate change as a natural part of being in any work place. Our natural resistances to change and our normal defense mechanisms will always “protect” us and only allow us to take “on board” and process as much as we can take or feel comfortable with at the time of learning. During this workshop you will explore your comfort zones and how to stretch yourself to achieve change.
Staying resilient
It can be incredibly challenging to let go of your negative thought systems and to allow yourself to imagine positive and fantastic things happening to you. This is an interactive workshop where the facilitator will work together with you to find out what your desires and visions are, how to apply the skills and tools you have learnt in earlier workshops and how to work towards your visions of who and what you want to be. Keeping your focus on your vision eventually may lead to the ultimate achievements of becoming who and what you desire.
Stress Management
Sleep Management
Sleep is one of those things that are mostly appreciated when you don’t have it! When we go through periods of sleep deprivation we quickly realise that sleep is not a luxury, it is a necessity. Using a Cognitive and Behavioral model this workshop is looking at sleep in three parts: What is normal sleep, why do we have disrupted sleep and how can we get better sleep.
The first part will allow us to look at what sleep is and what are the practical things we can do to aid sleep.
The second part will help us to look at our thoughts and beliefs around sleep, and how this could prevent us from having a good nights’ sleep even if we are in the perfect sleep promoting environment. We are going to challenge myths about sleep that both we and society might hold.
The third part will look at common sleep problems, and you will have the chance to apply both your practical knowledge gained in part one and your newly gained insight from part two to help solve common sleep problems. This will be the time you can think about how you can personalise your own sleep plan to help you get better quality and quantity sleep.
Strength in Sobriety
To face life’s challenges without self medication or relying on destructive coping mechanisms can at first be riddled with anxiety and fear of not coping. However testimonies from those who have been on both sides illustrate a new sense of fulfilment particularly to do with having “reconnected” with the world and those who are in it. Having had the strength to go down the path of recovery, may also have given you an opportunity to look closely at your priorities and helped you to change direction to better meet your desires and ensure that you stay healthy and happy. During this work shop, using Cognitive techniques you will learn how to create you visionary board and focus your desires and intentions on how you want your life to be, and teach you how to recognise and understand that your mind as a powerful tool in shaping your life.
Trapped in Circumstances
“Carrying managerial responsibilities comes at a price”. You have higher earnings and the level of satisfaction when you succeed may be higher, however your resilience may be compromised by ongoing demands and pressure. You capacity to find creative resolutions, maintain a healthy attitude and keep a positive outlook may deteriorate. Using Cognitive Behavioural Techniques this Workshop will help you to use constructive coping mechanisms when faced with restricted budgets, unhappy employees, family and friends demands, inadequate and ignorant management and a fear of loosing your position.
Workshops for parents dealing with anxious children
This workshop aims to give the participant insight in to better and more effective ways of dealing with anxious children. Anxiety is universal and normal. Using Cognitive Behavioural techniques the facilitator will illustrate how you can help your child to normalise their anxiety, modelling how to deal with anxiety provoking situations, working through the problems together and, as a parent, improving your responses to the anxious child to enable you to be the parent you wish to be.
Why addicted
Any addictive behaviour can normally be understood in the light of a combination of several factors, one major factor being poor boundaries and not recognising where your pain threshold is, when faced with life challenges. Individual strategies and coping mechanisms are often developed from child hood and it is by recognising your individual history, genetic and social inheritance, patterns and where it started that you may choose to think differently and more consciously choose different ways of behaving. The Cognitive Behavioural Approach will teach you how to see your unhelpful ways of coping and give you new options to choose from.
