Shifting From Reactive to Proactive in Building Mentally Stronger Workforces as Psychotherapists
- Brainz Magazine
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
Jessica Chesterman (HG, Dip.P) is a psychotherapist dedicated to transforming workplace mental health. As a distinguished Human Givens Ambassador, she specialises in helping individuals conquer depression and guiding couples through relationship challenges.
For too long, the dominant approach to workplace mental health has been largely reactive. We often wait for distress signals, such as absenteeism, burnout, or plummeting morale, before implementing interventions. This leaves organisations playing catch-up and missing crucial opportunities to prevent mental health challenges from escalating in the first place.
As a psychotherapist, my role extends beyond treating mental health conditions. It involves understanding the fundamental drivers of human well-being and, crucially, helping individuals and organisations create conditions where mental health thrives proactively. This is precisely where the Human Givens approach offers a powerful framework, shifting the focus from fixing what is broken to building robust, mentally strong, and informed workforces.
Human Givens psychotherapy is built on the premise that human beings have a set of innate emotional and physical needs, or "givens," that must be met for optimal well-being. When these needs are met in healthy, balanced ways, life as a whole tends to work better for individuals and better equips them to deal with the natural and inevitable uncertainties of life. When these needs are consistently not met, conditions such as distress, anxiety, depression, and burnout can arise. The beauty of this framework lies in its inherent proactivity. By understanding these universal needs and the essential resources we possess to meet them, we gain the core knowledge necessary to prevent distress and foster mental and emotional strength.
The human givens framework: Our innate design for well-being
At the heart of Human Givens theory are the innate needs, our "givens", which are universal. These include nine emotional needs listed below, in addition to 6 core physical needs*
Security: Feeling safe and secure in our environment.
Control: A sense of autonomy and volition over the choices and direction of our lives.
Status: Feeling valued and respected by others for roles that hold importance.
Attention: Giving and receiving appropriate, positive, authentic attention
Intimacy: Having at least one close, emotionally connected relationship.
Community: Feeling part of a wider group, something bigger than ourselves.
Privacy: Time and space to reflect & process emotions, thoughts, and feelings.
Achievement: A sense of competence and achievement within our lives.
Meaning & Purpose: Engaging in activities that feel significant and worthwhile, which comes from being stretched in how we think and what we do
We also have innate resources, our "givens", for meeting these needs, including such things as our ability to learn, positively utilise our imagination (something we use in an unhelpful way during depression when we can imagine catastrophic scenarios, for example), empathy, the rational mind, rapport.
Mental health conditions, from a Human Givens perspective, are a signal that one or more of these innate needs are not being consistently or healthily met or that our internal resources are not being effectively deployed to meet them.
Proactive mental health: Core knowledge for strong mental health
The psychotherapist's role in building resilient workforces, therefore, becomes one of education and facilitation, providing this core knowledge to individuals and the organisation as a whole.
Although slightly simplified examples, let's look at some soundbites that highlight the importance of understanding our needs and the role they can play
Educating on innate needs: The blueprint for well-being
Beyond symptoms to sources: Instead of solely discussing anxiety or stress, it would be more impactful to educate employees and leaders on why these states arise, as indicators of unmet needs. For example, understanding that chronic stress often stems from unmet needs for control (over workload) or privacy (lack of downtime to process thoughts/emotions) empowers individuals to identify the root cause, not just the symptom.
Self-awareness as the first line of defence: By understanding their own needs, employees gain a proactive vocabulary for their internal experience. They can learn to recognise early signs of need-deprivation and take preventative action, rather than allowing and accepting that things will worsen.
Organisational responsibility: For leaders, this core knowledge highlights how organisational structures, policies, and culture can either facilitate or hinder need-fulfilment. A culture of constant urgency, for instance, can systematically deprive employees of the need for privacy and control, leading to widespread burnout.
Designing for well-being: Proactive organisational change
Beyond perks to principles: My role as a psychotherapist in this proactive shift involves consulting with organisations to move beyond superficial "wellness perks" to fundamentally redesign work. This means asking: "How do our current policies and practices help or hinder the meeting of our employees' innate needs?"
Facilitating healthy culture: We work to embed principles of autonomy (meeting the need for control), clear communication (enhancing security), regular feedback and recognition (addressing status and attention), and opportunities for meaningful work (meaning/purpose) into the fabric of the organisation.
Training leaders as needs-facilitators: As discussed in a previous Brainz article, managers can impact an employee's mental health to the same degree a spouse does*. Proactive training equips managers to identify unmet needs in their teams and respond effectively, directing individuals towards resources or advocating for specific human-centric systemic changes. This moves them beyond being reactive problem-solvers to proactive well-being architects.
Rapport & empathy: Building stronger connections
The problem (misuse/underuse): While empathy is crucial, the ability to build rapport can be underutilised or misused in ways that don't effectively meet needs. For example, avoiding difficult conversations to maintain superficial harmony (failing to address unmet community or control needs within a team).
The proactive solution: We emphasize conscious rapport building not just for comfort, but for facilitating open, needs-focused communication.
Example: A manager needing to discuss performance issues with an employee (where the employee's achievement or status needs might be challenged) can proactively establish rapport. This involves active listening, mirroring body language subtly, and genuinely seeking to understand the employee's perspective before delivering difficult feedback. This creates a psychological "safety net" where honest, constructive dialogue is possible, even when challenging.
Workplace application: Training in advanced communication skills, including mirroring, pacing, and leading techniques, understanding non-verbal cues, and facilitating exercises that build genuine connection within teams, helps employees harness this resource to create a supportive and collaborative environment, proactively meeting needs for community and intimacy.
The rational mind: From ruminating to reality-checking
The problem: Our conscious, rational mind is designed for analysis and planning, but in distress, it can get stuck in endless loops of rumination, dissecting problems without finding solutions. This can be seen when an employee obsesses over a past mistake, for example, a perceived slight or criticism (unmet status or security), endlessly replaying events without moving forward.
The proactive solution: We teach individuals to consciously engage their rational mind in a more solution-focused way.
Small example: An employee feeling overwhelmed by workload (unmet control) might endlessly list tasks without planning. They can be guided to use their rational mind to break down the workload into manageable steps, prioritize, identify what's within their control, and create a realistic schedule. This shifts them from vague anxiety to concrete action, using their rational capacity for effective problem-solving.
Workplace application: Promoting structured problem-solving techniques, encouraging "thought records" (where individuals write down distressing thoughts and rationally challenge them, steps we take within a therapy room), and fostering a culture where asking "What's the next step?" is more common than "What if?" can empower the rational mind.
The psychotherapist's proactive impact
Although this is all a snapshot, by embracing the Human Givens framework, the psychotherapist's role in the workplace transforms. We move from being primarily "fixers" of pathology to empowerers of strong and informed mental health. We provide the core knowledge about our universal human design and how our minds work when healthy, which enables individuals to become more self-aware, take proactive steps to meet their needs, and utilise their innate resources more effectively.
This proactive approach builds a "higher cliff" for everyone. It cultivates a workforce that is not just surviving but thriving, less prone to the impact of stressors because their fundamental needs are consistently being met. The result is a more engaged, innovative, and ultimately, a truly resilient organisation that understands mental health not as a burden, but as its greatest asset.
Read more from Jessica Chesterman
Jessica Chesterman, Psychotherapist HG, Dip.P
As a Human Givens Ambassador with 15+ years in corporate enterprise sales, Jessica Chesterman (HG, Dip.P) is passionate about empowering individuals to manage their mental health. Her therapeutic approach, grounded in the latest psychological and neurobiological research, is focused on understanding how emotional needs are met across all aspects of life. By addressing these needs, she aims to help as many people as possible thrive in the workplace and beyond
