We offer a feasible and customized program for various teams or groups within the organization. The program’s strength lies in its cohesive set of interventions and robust implementation.
Employees work on rediscovering their sources of inspiration, finding what energizes them and gets them going again. This approach is engaging, concrete, and humorous.

Vision and approach
The foundation of our prevention program is Positive Psychology: achieving a healthy balance between mind, heart, and body. We strive for employees who feel optimally connected to themselves, each other, and your company. And who can move forward with energy and passion. Our program focuses on preventing absenteeism due to psychological reasons.
We believe that we can help people increase their resilience more effectively and efficiently if they are not in survival mode, but in living mode.

Afterwards, you can choose to delve deeper if desired. This can be done at the organizational, team, or individual level. Stepping Stones always begins with an inventory phase using questionnaires and, if necessary, in-depth interviews. After the inventory phase, we determine together whether the focus should be on reducing stress or primarily on increasing well-being. For stress reduction, we utilize the “Insight into Stress” training. “After the Insight into Stress training, I realized how I increase my own stress.”: Marian said after training.

If the focus is on increasing resilience, we utilize the Wellbeing training. “After the training, I felt stronger, happier, and more connected to my team,” Pieter’s feedback from the final evaluation. Both the “Insight into Stress” Stepping Stone and the Wellbeing Stepping Stone are fully customized to the target group and the challenges being faced.

This ensures that each Stepping Stone we use seamlessly aligns with the employees’ experiences and the results from the assessment. Each Stepping Stone we use builds on the previous one, with the sum being greater than the whole of its parts. Embedding what has been learned is essential and integral to the program.

Would you like to learn more about our Stepping Stones program and the various applications of all the Stones? Schedule a free (online) consultation to learn more about the purpose, the various components, and the effectiveness of Stepping Stones. Call 023 – 751 0341.

The following interventions can be Stepping Stones in the prevention program:

• Understanding Stress Course
• Wellbeing@Work Course
• Caring for Yourself (30 minutes)
• Your Mental Boost

Employees gain insight into the causes of their (excessively) high stress levels.
They also learn practical ways to manage stress.

The course consists of three online sessions in a carousel format. New participants can join any week. The course can also be delivered to a permanent team.

In the course, participants will learn:

• What stress is and what it does to your heart, mind, and body;
• What causes excessive stress levels;
• How to calm the stress system;
• Some practical ways to make stress more manageable;

Advantages include:

• The group element: we find this very positive (recognition in each other, not being alone, sharing).
• Participants always gain access to the latest (scientific) insights into stress and stress management.
• Participants play an active role. Self-management is encouraged, as they are required to work on (homework) assignments both during and outside the course. At the end of the third session (third week), this results in an action plan that participants can immediately implement independently or as part of an individual program.

Scientific research shows that eliminating human suffering is not the same as allowing people to flourish.
The Dual Continua Model (Keyes and Lopez, 2002) distinguishes two different dimensions of mental health. On the one hand, there is the degree of mental complaints or problems. On the other hand, there is the degree of psychological well-being. People can only truly flourish when they have a high level of psychological well-being.

Well-being can be developed.
As mentioned above, research from positive psychology shows that there are five key building blocks that contribute to psychological well-being:
Positive emotions, Enthusiastic involvement, Connectedness, Experiencing meaning, and Achievement.

This course addresses these five elements. In three (online) sessions, participants learn how to increase their well-being and achieve greater flourishing.

While the course can be taken separately, it often serves as the starting point for a longer-term prevention program in which we help your employees sustainably master these five factors. This contributes to vital and resilient individuals, teams, and organizations.

Our prevention program can be followed by individual employees, but is also ideal for entire teams. Following this program together provides additional integration, a common language, and mutual support.

We consider the impact of this on their work style, their personal life, the balance between the two, and how they feel they are functioning. Questions about energy, sleep, emotional management, and any challenging situations they’ve experienced can be addressed. We offer tips and advice on how to strengthen their resilience, and together we determine whether further care is needed.

We determine the needs together and reserve 30-minute time slots in the psychologists’/counselors’ schedules. Employees can make an appointment anonymously in our online booking system, without the intervention of a manager or occupational health physician, using a link or QR code.

The sessions are conducted by an experienced psychologist/coach.
During the initial 1.5-hour session, the employee’s personal situation, work context, and personal style are discussed. The employee gains insight into the balance between their mind, heart, and body. They learn where their strengths lie and what they can do to restore or maintain this balance.
The employee receives practical advice aimed at promoting this balance between their mind, heart, and body. Agreements are made about which interventions the employee will implement, and these are evaluated in the follow-up session.

The follow-up session takes place after four weeks and aims to encourage the employee to actively adopt new behaviors and also to provide the opportunity to discuss and adjust any difficulties encountered during implementation. This increases the likelihood that the interventions will be sustainably integrated into daily life.
The psychologist/coach is preferably familiar with the employee’s other company offerings and can point these out to the employee. Participation is anonymous; there is no individual substantive feedback with the employer.

Mindfulness also has a positive effect on mental resilience. It fosters more conscious control over emotional reactions, including stress.
Self-confidence is increased, and more energy and zest for life are released. This leads to a reduction in physical and psychological complaints. The ultimate goal is greater inner freedom. As a result, employees are often more effective at work. Many practical exercises and tools are provided.