Creating Healthy Workplaces with Organisational Psychotherapy

I started my career as a tech-head, a geek, getting deep into programming and related things. Some years into my career, however, I began to notice how many of the people I worked with were suffering from what I later came to understand as toxic work cultures.

In my work I had long had a focus on helping people to overcome personal issues and achieve greater fulfilment in their lives. However, as I worked with more and more client organisations, I noticed that many of the problems their people faced seemed to stem not just from their own personal issues, but from the cultures and systems in which they worked.

I would see low morale and disengagement, as well as anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. And as we delved into the root causes, it became clear that much of their suffering was due to the toxic or unhealthy work cultures they found themselves in. They would describe feeling unfulfilled, unsupported, and unheard at work, and it was clear that these feelings were contributing to their overall sense of unhappiness and lack of fulfilment.

I became determined to find a way to address this issue on a larger scale, and to help not just individual people, but entire organisations to become healthier, more supportive, and more fulfilling places to work. That's when I hit upon the idea of organisational psychotherapy.

Organisational psychotherapy is a form of therapy that focuses on the psychological health and well-being of an organisation AS A WHOLE, rather than just on the individuals within it. It involves working with the collective psyche of organisations to identify and address the underlying beliefs, assumptions and values that may be contributing to unhealthy or unfulfilling work cultures.

One of the key issues I saw was that many organisations held onto outdated or unjustified beliefs about how work should be done, and these beliefs were often causing a great deal of misery and frustration for people. For example, some organisations believed that employees should be at the office for long hours, even if it meant sacrificing their personal lives and well-being. Others held onto rigid hierarchies and power dynamics that made it difficult for people to have a voice or to feel valued and supported.

Through organisational psychotherapy, I work with organisations to furnish opportunities to challenge these beliefs and to create new, healthier ways of working. This might involve helping organisations to discuss and act to adopt more flexible work arrangements, or to create more open and collaborative cultures where people feel able to speak up and be heard.

It can also involve working with leadership to develop more empathic and supportive management styles, or to introduce new systems and processes that better support employee well-being and fulfilment.

One of the key benefits of organisational psychotherapy is that it helps organisations to address their issues at the root cause, rather than just treating the symptoms. By changing the underlying beliefs and assumptions that contribute to unhealthy or unfulfilling work cultures, we can create lasting and meaningful change that benefits both individuals and the organisation as a whole.

I'm proud to say that, through my work in organisational psychotherapy, I've been able to help countless organisations and people to find greater happiness and fulfilment at work. It's been a challenging and rewarding journey, and I'm excited to continue working to improve the lives of people everywhere through this important and transformative approach.