Wellington
There's money in stress, or at least in helping people deal with it.
That's the business plan of eight month old Wellington start-up company
UHR director and founder Gaynor Parkin is a registered clinical psychologist and two days a weeklecturer in psychology at Victoria University. She has attracted
She's also the author of a book published in 2008 in conjunction with Consumer called 'I’ve hadit up to here: From stress to strength'.
From that she "received a lot of phone calls and emails, asking if I could come and talk, give aworkshop, present something," she says. "The business has grown from that."
Parkin also has a passion for psychology and working with people to make changes for the betterin their lives. Seeing her own children's development and the intersection of nature versus nurtureis also a driver to help them grow in a resilient way she says.
Resilience can be described as a way of acting, thinking and feeling where you can stay strongand calm and cope with life even when under pressure says Parkin.
Much of the evidence-based and best practice research around resilience developed from observinggroups of peoples' reactions after natural disasters or other traumatic experiences. Some cope well,some fall to pieces.
Understanding why, and what people can do differently to cope with difficult circumstances hasbeen built into the Umbrella training package.
She's aimed the business at workplaces in particular, as this is where many of us experience themost stress and feel under the most pressure.
There are five key modules delivered in either a one day or two half day sessions, with anall-important follow up review (may be individual or small group) a few weeks later.
The aspects covered are:
•Physical health - looking a how to start and maintain essential health habits, as thecornerstone of building resilience. If a person's not physically well, maintaining resilience is achallenge.
•Managing thinking, this is called “flexible thinking” in the Umbrella training - tellingyourself things that are helpful compared to unhelpful thoughts
•Emotional intelligence, managing your emotions – learning how to deal with strong emotions,especially, how to stay calm, remain productive, and maintain relationships when under pressure.
•Realistic optimism, staying hopeful - realising that even if things go pear-shaped, it won'tbe forever. Those who are good at being optimistic are generally better at coping, and are morelikely to problem solve and to ask for help.
•Making use of social support networks and nurturing professional and personal relationships -it is easier to stay resilient if you're connected to others, it’s much harder to be resilient onyour own
•Working smarter - ideas for improving work-life balance, time tips, and improving recoveryfrom work.
Parkin says that while other organisations may provide similar advice and training, or havemotivational type speakers, as far as she's aware, UHR is the only one that employs clinicalpsychologists.
"We're trained to know how to help people make lasting behaviour change," she says. "For us, thelitmus test is do the participants make and maintain changes."
The workshop training modules are also all developed from scientific research. “If the researchindicates new best practice, it can immediately be incorporated and adapted to the coursematerial” says Parkin.
Based on qualitative feedback, UHR is achieving positive changes in participants' lives, and thecompany is currently collecting data to demonstrate this quantitatively.
Parkin prefers to have about 15 people in each course which is a good number to share experiencesas well as provide individual help during the workshop. It is also more manageable from a follow uppoint of view.
Follow up reviews are a critical component says Parkin, as participants are asked how they'regoing with making changes to their lives.
•What's working, what's not?
•What else is needed to do better?
•What is getting in the way of further change?
•Has there been lasting behaviour change?
Its cost is presently $500/person/day (including follow up), which she says from market researchis at the low to medium end compared to some professional development courses which charge from$1000 - $1500/person.
"Our business advisers want us to bump it up," she says. "In my view we're still growing,testing, getting feedback about how we can do better and improve. Also, it is important to me as apsychologist, that we're offering training that is affordable."
About 1000 people have been through the courses so far. These have been provided by Parkinherself, and having trained other trainers UHR courses can also be run by a South Island colleague,others in Wellington and an Auckland based associate.
The goal is to have UHR as a broad team of expertise, based in different locations around theworld. Based on her training modules, and a trainer's manual that outlines a step by step workshop,Parkin sees the concept as being scalable.
She's still working on how to protect her intellectual property.
"We're not sure yet," she says. "A service business is very different from a technologybusiness."
Parkin says running a business is immensely different from her work experiences so far.
"I have to apply my own training at times," she says. "It's about staying calm, watching what I'mthinking, what I'm telling myself and making use of my support networks. I'm trying to practice whatI preach."