ABOUT US
How we can help
Distress can adversely impact the corporate ecosystem, leading to poor morale, absenteeism, burnout and, eventually, churn. A huge cost to the organisation.
Our holistic approach, based on work with global clients, decades of specialist knowledge and clinical experience, provides a proven, effective, wellbeing and psychological service.
Origami’s adaptive strategies work, developing happier, mentally healthy, resilient and successful leaders. This drives innovation, stability, and long-term profitability for your organisation, raising your reputation and improving the attraction and retention of top talent.
WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?
Do big corporations rely on distress?
Executive mental distress can negatively impact business, manifesting as:
- Increased perceptions of threat
- Excessive working hours/time commitment
- An obsessive focus on immediate results
- Pressure for increasingly higher standards
While some of these may have corporate value, for the executive, combined with a tendency to mistrust others, compulsive behaviours, and intense enmeshed relationships that lack boundaries, they can be indicative of mental distress.
We commonly observe loss of confidence, personal crisis, uncertainty and exhaustion, exit and early retirement. And standardised psychological treatment does not serve the recovery of trauma, this is a complex, specialised and emerging field that requires specialist knowledge and support.
For your company the repercussions maybe absenteeism, incidents in the workplace, staff or client conflict, loss of skills and talent, a huge financial cost and risk to organisational reputation – impacting your growth and position as a market leader.
To attract, recruit and retain the best, you require a happy, healthy and cohesive working environment. Supportive of positive relationships, mental wellbeing, and nurturing of talent – those individuals whose skills and revenue ensure continued growth and brand success.
HOW WE HELP THE CORPORATE BODY
We take a trauma-focused approach
Distress does not belong in the workplace. Origami’s qualified psychologists take a trauma-informed approach to helping elite performers achieve business success and grow their professional careers without the cost of distress.
Origami has developed a unique and game-changing holistic approach to mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.
The world of work is changing more profoundly and more rapidly than anytime previously. The concept of ‘psychological safety’ at work is has become a widely accepted notion, but few of us have any practical guidance on how to manifest the positive environment that is ideal for the cultivation of fresh thinking and new ideas. There is no guidebook on the practical interventions to effectively tackle distress in the workplace. Executive leaders need expert help either in better managing their own behaviours and/or those of their peers and colleagues.
We create bespoke programmes for individuals, teams, and companies to help them transition in their understanding and management to become distress-free, confident, high-performing cultures.
“Investing in employee wellbeing and mental health can yield a 5-fold return on your investment.” (Deloitte 2024).
OUR APPROACH
Understanding the impact of trauma
“Poor employee mental health cost the UK £51bn” (Deloitte 2024).
The mental health of your highest earners has a profound impact on the performance, and economic success, of your whole organisation. Our personalised mental health support is rooted in specialised expertise and a deep understanding of the causes of distress.
The following excerpt from the book Destroying Sanctuary: The Crisis in Human Service Delivery, by Sandra L Bloom, provides clarity around the need to understand the impact of trauma on leadership styles, individual and group performance, and how organisations can mitigate it.
“Becoming a truly trauma-informed system requires a process of reconstitution within our organisations top to bottom. It is the job of the staff to become trauma-informed about the impact of past experiences on the evolution of the client’s problems.
But it is the shared responsibility of staff and administrators to become ‘trauma sensitive’ to the ways in which past and present overwhelming experiences impact individual performance, leadership styles, and group performance.
A system cannot be truly trauma-informed unless the system can create and sustain a process of understanding itself. A program cannot be safe for clients unless it is simultaneously safe for staff and safe for administrators.”
(Destroying Sanctuary: The Crisis in Human Service Delivery. SL Bloom; Oxford University Press)
Our Process
How we work
At Origami, we understand that ‘top-down’ models and conventional mental health approaches can fall short and may not work for those with limited time or unresolved trauma. These methods can worsen the issue or provide only temporary relief.
Trauma-triggers risk provoking intense, overwhelming physiological and emotional responses – worryingly these can be volatile, spontaneous, subconscious and involuntary. To address this risk effectively, Origami prioritises practical approaches to calming the body’s instinctive stress responses – rooted in the amygdala – so that executives can enhance their self-control. We then work on developing positive behavioural and thought processes to better leverage the benefit of greater control.
Our specialised trauma training and interventions work from the ‘bottom-up’, starting with the body and emotional regulation and, by identifying and addressing the neurophysiological symptoms of mental trauma, we guide individuals back to a state of well-being, providing your elite performers with expert, confidential care to help them to heal and thrive.
Step 1
Needs analysis
Our first step is to have a needs analysis meeting with the relevant individuals within the client organisation. We work closely with your commissioning team to develop a plan that will fulfil the requirements of your organisation and, most importantly, the individual elite executives.
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Step 2
Understanding requirements
Once the formal arrangements are in place, each executive will be assessed on their level of need.
Some may simply require reassurance and coaching to understand that what they are experiencing is normal in a high-stress environment while others may have more complex clinical needs. Each need will be assessed individually and the number of sessions agreed.
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Step 3
First consultation
The initial consultation allows us to understand the individual’s specific needs, agree their goals and develop a plan for therapeutic outcomes. Most importantly, it enables us to establish a strong, trusting relationship with the client, allowing them to feel comfortable and confident to move forward with the process.
Step 4
Delivery
Within the delivery process, we apply a broad range of clinical techniques and interventions that respond to the unique stresses and personality of the individual’s clinical presentation. We invite the client to influence the direction and level of therapy, and continuously review their progress.
Where the client requires additional clinical input, for example when there are serious mental wellbeing concerns, we work in close collaboration with psychiatrists, crisis intervention specialists and other experts, providing them with a truly multidisciplinary service.
Step 5
Anonymised reporting
No matter their size, every organisation has budget constraints and will want to see a positive change in the mental health of their high performing executives. We provide an annual, anonymised report that shows the breadth and depth of change pre- and post- our clinical interventions.
Within our research department we are developing a tracking process that enables a live data feed – which will be made available to the individual client and, if relevant, to the organisation in anonymised format.
Step 6
Review process
We are justly proud of the success of our interventions, as testified by our annual review process, which includes an anonymised report or survey, and is undertaken with the commissioning team. To-date, our corporate clients have chosen not only to continue with our services but also to extend them.