New York, NY — MaternityWise International is proud to announce that its acclaimed Doula Trainer Certification Program is now available to qualified professionals worldwide, marking an exciting new chapter in the organization's mission to improve maternal and infant health through education, leadership, and community-based support. For more than two decades, MaternityWise International has educated doulas who serve families across diverse communities. By expanding its Doula Trainer Certification Program internationally, the organization is empowering experienced birth professionals to become educators, mentors, and advocates within their own countries, cultures, and healthcare systems. "Our vision has always extended far beyond borders," said Anne Wallen, Founder and Director of MaternityWise International. "Every family deserves compassionate, evidence-informed support during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. By training educators around the world, we are multiplying that impact exponentially." The Doula Trainer Certification Program prepares experienced doulas and maternal health professionals to confidently teach future doulas using MaternityWise's comprehensive curriculum. Participants receive advanced instruction in: Adult education principles and teaching methodology Curriculum delivery and classroom facilitation Student mentorship and evaluation Professional ethics and leadership Cultural humility and respectful maternity care Business development and program implementation Graduates are equipped to establish training programs in their own communities while maintaining the educational excellence and integrity that have become synonymous with the MaternityWise name. Recognizing that birth practices, healthcare systems, and cultural traditions vary throughout the world, MaternityWise encourages trainers to present educational content in ways that honor local customs while remaining grounded in current evidence, respectful communication, and the physiological processes of pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and postpartum recovery. The expansion comes at a time when many countries are investing in maternal health initiatives and seeking innovative ways to improve birth outcomes. Research continues to demonstrate that doula support is associated with higher satisfaction, improved birth experiences, increased breastfeeding success, and reduced rates of unnecessary interventions. By preparing educators rather than training only individual doulas, MaternityWise aims to create sustainable growth in the availability of professional birth support worldwide. International students will have access to MaternityWise's flexible hybrid educational model, combining online coursework with mentorship, practical teaching experiences, and ongoing professional support. Graduates become part of an international network of educators dedicated to raising standards, expanding access to quality doula education, and strengthening maternal health in their regions. "We believe knowledge should be shared generously," Wallen added. "Our goal is not simply to certify trainers, but to cultivate leaders who will inspire confidence, elevate professional standards, and create lasting change for mothers, babies, and families around the globe." As the organization continues its international expansion, MaternityWise is actively seeking partnerships with healthcare organizations, educational institutions, community leaders, ministries of health, and maternal wellness advocates interested in bringing professional doula education to their regions. Professionals with experience in birth work, midwifery, nursing, childbirth education, lactation support, or related maternal health fields are encouraged to apply. About MaternityWise International MaternityWise International is a globally recognized maternal health education organization dedicated to preparing compassionate, knowledgeable, and skilled birth professionals. Through comprehensive certification programs for doulas, childbirth educators, lactation professionals, and maternal health specialists, MaternityWise equips graduates to support families with confidence while promoting informed decision-making, respectful care, and evidence-informed practices. Its graduates serve families throughout the United States and around the world, helping improve the pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and early parenting experiences of thousands of families each year. For additional information about the International Doula Trainer Certification Program, visit here or contact the MaternityWise International admissions team to learn about upcoming training opportunities and international partnerships.

Written by Dawn Chubai, Live Shopping Strategist Dawn Chubai is an award-winning broadcaster (Breakfast Television & The Shopping Channel), and founder of Live Selling School. After generating more than $250 million in live sales and spending over 40,000 hours on live television, she now helps brands harness live shopping, video commerce, and on-camera communication to drive growth. AI is changing how brands create content, communicate with customers, and sell online. Used well, it can help businesses move faster, show up more consistently, and support customers in smarter ways. I am not an AI expert. But I am a trust expert. I built a career creating trust through technology: television cameras, live broadcasts, digital video, livestreams, and now live shopping. So I am all for using the tools. The opportunity is not to resist technology. The opportunity is to use it in a way that still feels human. What does trust mean in an AI-driven world? Trust has always mattered in business, but the way customers evaluate trust is changing. In the past, a polished website, professional photos, strong copy, and consistent branding could go a long way toward helping a company appear credible. Those things still matter, but they are no longer enough on their own. Customers are now moving through a digital world filled with automated emails, AI-generated captions, chatbots, templated videos, polished brand messaging, and even AI clones and virtual presenters. The more content people consume, the more they begin to notice what feels generic, overly produced, or disconnected from a real person. The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer found that people are more likely to embrace innovation when they feel informed, in control, and confident that it will improve their lives. That matters for brands using AI. It is not enough to adopt the technology. Customers also need to understand, trust, and feel connected to the way it is being used. Trust now comes from signals of humanity. It comes from voice, presence, perspective, transparency, consistency, and proof. It also comes from imperfection, which should not be confused with a lack of preparation. A natural pause, an honest answer, a moment of real interaction, or the ability to respond thoughtfully in real time can separate a human brand experience from the synthetic sameness customers are beginning to recognize online. That is why, when I work with brands to execute their livestream and video content strategies, the goal is not to appear flawless. The goal is to feel credible, prepared, and real. On-camera presence still matters, but presence is not about pretending to be perfect. It is about helping the audience feel that the person speaking is prepared, connected, and trustworthy. Why does technology still need humanity? Technology has always changed the way brands communicate. Television changed how audiences experienced personalities and products. Social media changed how customers interacted with businesses. Ecommerce changed how people discovered and bought products. AI is now changing how quickly brands can create, respond, and scale. But every major shift creates the same question: Does this make the customer feel closer to the brand or further away from it? That is why I see live shopping and live video as such powerful hybrids. They use modern technology, but they restore something deeply human: presence, tone, demonstration, conversation, and trust. A customer can still shop from their phone. A brand can still use digital tools. But the experience can feel less like a transaction and more like a connection. That is where the real opportunity is. Why is authenticity harder to prove online? AI has made it easier than ever to create content. That is not a bad thing. I use and appreciate AI myself. For many business owners, it can remove friction, organize ideas, speed up production, and make it easier to show up consistently. The challenge is that when everyone has access to similar tools, many brands start to sound the same. The same polished phrases appear. The same captions circulate. The same “value-packed” posts begin to blur together. The result is not always bad content, but it can become forgettable content. Authenticity is not about rejecting technology. It is about making sure technology does not erase the point of view, lived experience, personality, and emotional intelligence that make a brand memorable. A brand can use AI and still sound human. A founder can use AI and still lead with original thought. A company can use automation and still create meaningful connections. But that only happens when the technology supports the brand voice instead of replacing it. Can brands use AI and still feel authentic? Yes, but only if AI is used as a support tool, not as a substitute for a brand’s actual voice. AI can help with research, outlines, editing, customer service, repurposing, brainstorming, and content planning. It can help a small team create with more consistency and help a busy founder organize ideas more quickly. But the stories, opinions, experiences, values, and customer understanding still need to come from the humans behind the business. The risk is not that a brand uses AI. The risk is that the brand becomes so dependent on AI-generated language that it loses what made it distinct in the first place. Your customers do not need you to be perfect. They need you to be clear. They need to understand what you stand for, why your work matters, and why they should trust you over another option. Why are customers craving human connection? Even younger generations who have grown up surrounded by technology are showing signs of craving more analog, tactile, and real-world connections. Gen Z’s renewed interest in digital cameras, vinyl records, physical media, and printed photos points to something larger than nostalgia. It suggests a desire for experiences that feel slower, more intentional, and more real. That does not mean digital is going away. It means digital experiences need more humanity built into them. People want convenience, but they also want connection. They want speed, but they also want confidence. They want information, but they also want to know whether they can believe the person or brand delivering it. This matters for businesses of every size. Customers are not only asking, “Can I buy this?” They are also asking, “Do I trust this?” “Do I understand this?” “Do I believe in this brand?” “Do I feel confident making this decision?” Those questions are not answered by automation alone. How does video help brands build trust? Video gives brands something static content often cannot: tone, expression, energy, demonstration, and context. A customer can read a product description and understand what something is. But when they see a founder explain why it was created, watch a product being demonstrated, or hear a real person answer a common question, the relationship changes. Research from Wyzowl found that 91% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service, and 87% of consumers say video quality impacts their trust in a brand. That does not mean every brand video needs to look like a commercial. It means the customer experience needs to feel clear, credible, and considered. Video helps customers assess more than information. It helps them assess confidence, credibility, warmth, and fit. That does not mean every video needs to be perfectly produced. In fact, overly polished content can sometimes create distance. The goal is not perfection. The goal is presence. After spending more than 40,000 hours on live television, I can tell you that audiences do not connect because everything is flawless. They connect because something feels clear, grounded, useful, and real. The same applies to brands. Customers do not need every founder, expert, or brand representative to become a broadcaster. But they do need to feel that the person speaking understands the product, understands the customer, and can communicate with confidence. Related article: 5 ways poor camera presence hurts trust and sales How live and recorded video builds customer trust Recorded video allows a brand to educate, explain, and create consistency. It can live on websites, product pages, social platforms, emails, and sales funnels. It gives customers a way to experience the brand before they ever speak to someone directly. Live video adds another layer of trust because it happens in real time. Whether it is a founder Q&A, a product demonstration, a launch event, a webinar, or a live shopping experience, live video allows customers to see how a brand responds, explains, listens, and interacts. That kind of real-time presence is difficult to fake. This is one of the reasons live shopping and shoppable video are becoming more relevant. They are not just sales tools. Used well, they are trust-building experiences that bring education, interaction, and commerce together. A live experience allows a brand to answer questions, show details, demonstrate use cases, handle objections, tell stories, and create urgency without removing the human element from the buying journey. That is powerful because trust often grows in the moments between the scripted points. Seven ways brands can build trust in an AI-driven world 1. Use AI to support your voice, not replace it: AI can help you organize your ideas, refine your message, and create more efficiently. But your voice should still sound like your brand. Before publishing content, ask yourself: Could any brand say this, or could only we say this? If any brand could say it, the message likely needs more specificity. Add the lived experience. Add the founder’s perspective. Add the customer insight. Add the real example. Add the human reason behind the business decision. That is where trust begins to build. 2. Make your point of view clear: In a crowded digital space, neutral messaging rarely cuts through. Customers are drawn to brands that know who they are, who they serve, what they believe, and why their work matters. This does not mean every brand needs to be controversial. It means your audience should be able to understand your perspective. What do you believe about your industry? What do you wish your customers understood? What problem do you solve differently? What are you unwilling to compromise on? These are the kinds of questions that help a brand move from generic content to thought leadership. 3. Show the people behind the brand: Customers often trust brands faster when they can see the people behind them. This could be the founder, the product expert, the educator, the stylist, the service provider, the customer support lead, or the person who understands the details better than anyone else. I was an early adopter of livestreaming when Periscope launched on Twitter over a decade ago, long before it was discontinued in 2021. At the time, I was a host on Breakfast Television, and the idea of showing behind-the-scenes moments felt almost rebellious. Crew members, talent, desks, cables on the floor, and real conversations before or after a segment were not things traditional media were eager to reveal. In fact, I remember getting “in trouble” for pulling back the curtain. The concern was that I was showing the messy parts when the finished product was supposed to look polished. Now, that kind of behind-the-scenes content is often part of the job requirement. What once felt too imperfect to share has become one of the ways brands create trust. Audiences want to see the process, the people, the preparation, and the moments that make a brand feel alive. Human presence does not always need to mean personal oversharing. It can simply mean allowing people to see the care, knowledge, and intention behind the business. A short founder video, a behind-the-scenes explanation, a product demonstration, or an honest answer to a common customer question can create more trust than another polished graphic. 4. Create content that answers real customer questions: Trust grows when people feel understood. Instead of only creating content around what the brand wants to promote, create content around what the customer is already wondering, worrying about, comparing, or trying to decide. What do they need to know before buying? What objections come up repeatedly? What mistakes do they make when choosing a product or service like yours? What do they not know to ask yet? This kind of content builds confidence because it reduces uncertainty. It also shows that the brand understands the customer’s decision-making process, not just the sale. 5. Let video carry more of the relationship: Video is one of the most effective ways to bring humanity back into a digital brand experience. It allows customers to see facial expressions, hear tone of voice, watch a demonstration, and understand context in a way that static content often cannot provide. This can include founder videos, short educational clips, product demonstrations, customer tutorials, recorded FAQs, webinars, livestreams, or shoppable video experiences. The goal is not to create more content for the sake of content. The goal is to create more moments in which the customer can build confidence in the brand. 6. Use live interaction to create real-time trust: There is a different kind of trust that develops when a brand shows up live. Live video allows customers to ask questions, hear unscripted answers, see products in real time, and experience the brand’s energy directly. It also allows the brand to respond to what the audience actually needs in the moment. This is where live selling, live shopping, webinars, interviews, Q&A sessions, and product education can become powerful trust-building tools. When done well, live video does not feel like pressure. It feels like access. 7. Keep the customer experience personal, even when the process is digital: Digital does not have to mean detached. A brand can use automation, AI, ecommerce tools, email sequences, chat support, and digital content while still creating a customer experience that feels thoughtful and human. The difference is intention. Does the customer feel guided or pushed? Do they feel educated or overwhelmed? Do they feel like the brand understands their needs or simply wants the transaction? The brands that build trust will use technology to make the customer feel more supported, not less seen. How brands can turn humanity into a competitive advantage In an AI-driven world, humanity becomes a competitive advantage when customers can clearly recognize the people, values, and expertise behind the brand. That can look like a founder video. It can look like behind-the-scenes content. It can look like live demonstrations, customer education, honest product conversations, or a more human approach to service and selling. It can also look like having a stronger point of view. The opportunity is not to appear less digital. The opportunity is to become more recognizable within the digital experience. When customers can see your face, hear your voice, understand your values, and experience your expertise, you become harder to compare. The future of business is not less digital The future of business is not less digital. It is more human. AI will continue to change how brands operate, communicate, and sell. It will help businesses move faster, create more efficiently, and support customers in ways we are still learning to understand. But the brands that build lasting trust will be the ones that use technology to deepen connection, not dilute it. That is why new tools, including Facebook Live Shopping, are worth paying attention to. When used strategically, they can reduce friction while giving brands a more human way to educate, engage, and sell in real time. In a world where content is easier to create than ever, human presence becomes more valuable, not less. The brands that win will be the ones that still feel real and human. Related article: Meta is putting live shopping back in focus. Is your brand ready? Start building a more trusted brand experience Most brands are already using some form of AI, automation, video, or digital selling. These tools have made tasks easier, content creation faster, and customer navigation more efficient. But in making the process smoother, many brands have also removed some of the human signals that help customers feel connected, understood, and confident. The goal should not simply be to create more content, automate more steps, or add another sales channel. The goal should be to build enough trust that the customer feels comfortable taking the next step. That trust comes from clarity, consistency, visibility, and human presence. Technology can help you move faster. Human connection is what helps people believe you. Ready to make your brand feel more human, more confident, and more trusted online? At Live Selling School, you’ll find free resources designed to help you bring more clarity, connection, and strategy to your digital presence. From ebooks and guides to training videos and free clarity calls, these tools can help you understand how video, Live Social Shopping, and on-camera communication can support your next stage of growth. Visit my website to explore the free resources and take the first step toward building a more trusted, more human brand experience. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Dawn Chubai Dawn Chubai, Live Shopping Strategist After spending more than 40,000 hours live on television and generating over $250 million in sales, Dawn Chubai now helps brands apply the same principles that drive successful live selling to modern ecommerce. As the founder of Live Selling School, she works with businesses to leverage live shopping, video commerce, and audience engagement to compete in the trillion-dollar social commerce economy.

Brainz Magazine Exclusive Interview Genvièv St. Clair is an award-winning, board-certified educator and the founder of CORE NRG RESET®—a groundbreaking, science-backed methodology known for producing rapid and lasting transformation in cases considered chronic, complex, or resistant to treatment. A summa cum laude graduate from the Dept. of Doctorates of the Sorbonne, Genvièv has decades of specialized expertise in trauma and emergency medicine, neuroscience, integrative wellness, and forensic regression in criminal investigations. She is renowned for her unique ability to identify and resolve the causes responsible for persistent physiological, mental and emotional challenges. Genvièv has been featured on Discovery Channel, and interviewed on television, radio and podcasts programs worldwide. Her work is featured in international magazines and the New York Times best-selling series Chicken Soup for the Soul. She is the recipient of the NGH President’s Award—the highest honor delivered by the leading institution in her field—and a Fellow and former President of the Oregon Hypnotherapy Association. In recognition of her lifetime contributions to her field, Genvièv was inducted into the Order of Braid International Honor Society. With CORE NRG RESET®, Genvièv helps people from all walks of life recover from traumatic events, achieve profound breakthroughs, and discover a quality of life they never imagined possible. Her Professional Academy delivers internationally recognized certifications to medical and mental health practitioners, coaches and integrative wellness providers seeking to facilitate rapid and lasting results for their clients and patients. Genvièv St. Clair, photo by Nicole Severson You’ve had a remarkably diverse journey — from your career as a television personality, to your academic studies, your work in trauma and emergency medicine, and your specialization in criminal justice. How did this path lead you to creating CORE NRG RESET®? From the earliest age, I had to develop a level of resilience and adaptation far beyond my years. It wasn’t a choice. I had to survive the unsurvivable. This shaped the foundation of everything that followed — from my career as a television personality in Paris, to my academic studies at the Sorbonne, and to my specialization in criminal justice, trauma and emergency medicine in the United States. Across these fields, I saw a recurring gap: traditional approaches address symptoms, while the core mechanisms at their root remain ignored. My forensic expertise in criminal investigations gave me the keys to the missing piece. In criminal justice, accuracy is everything. You return to the scene of the crime to solve a case. Similarly, when we locate the exact cause of an issue, when we release its traumatic, emotional, or neurological charge, we change the trajectory of someone’s life. CORE NRG RESET® emerged from decades of research in neuroscience, brain plasticity, epigenetics, forensic regression and integrative wellness. It is the culmination of a lifetime spent studying the mechanisms of human suffering, and the extraordinary capacity we have to transcend it. "CORE NRG RESET® facilitates rapid and lasting results where nothing else worked". How would you describe the core focus of your work today? At the heart of my work is a single focus: creating rapid and lasting transformation by identifying and releasing the root causes keeping people stuck in repeating and persistent patterns. This is not surface-level mindset work, or traditional symptom-management. It is profound, precise, “ground zero” recalibration. CORE NRG RESET® bridges science and life intelligence. It combines neuroscience, trauma physiology, and brain plasticity with our innate human life force. Our clinical work helps others break cycles that have held them back for years, sometimes decades. The CORE NRG RESET® Academy delivers professional certifications and unique tools to medical and mental health providers, wellness practitioners and performance trainers, who want to offer rapid and lasting relief to their patients and clients. What patterns do you most often see in people seeking transformation? People come to us after trying everything else without results. Years, sometimes decades, of medical interventions, therapy, alternative modalities, personal development programs, even invasive procedures gave them, at best, temporary relief. They remain stuck in endless cycles of relapse. They arrive exhausted, hopeless, and convinced that nothing will ever bring them relief. They’re not broken. Their situation is not hopeless. The exact cause for their suffering was simply never correctly identified, addressed and released. People don’t fail to heal because something is wrong with them. They fail to heal because no one ever took them back to where the wound began. CORE NRG RESET® does exactly that. Beneath every persistent struggle lies an unresolved charge from the past. When we go back to the child we once were, at a time when we felt frightened, shamed, ignored, or overwhelmed — when we rescue that younger part of us — everything changes. Once the original survival patterns are released, our nervous system resets, symptoms dissolve, and life opens again. Transformation becomes not only possible — but unstoppable. Genvièv St. Clair, photo by Nicole Severson "People don’t fail to heal because something is wrong with them. They fail to heal because no one took them back to the place where the wound began". What types of challenges or conditions does CORE NRG RESET® most often help people overcome? CORE NRG RESET® specializes in cases labeled chronic, complex, or resistant to treatment. We help those who have tried everything without finding relief, finally achieve freedom, health, wellness, success, and a quality of life they never imagined possible. Here are a few examples: • Chronic Health Conditions Sherri spent decades in excruciating, paralyzing pain. Countless medical experts, invasive procedures, every prescription and supplement available, and years of therapy never brought her relief. Her life turned to agony. Then she discovered CORE NRG RESET® and everything changed. Sherri shares her transformation here. Through neuroscience, brain plasticity, and epigenetics, we targeted the root mechanisms causing her symptoms, released stuck blockages, reset her nervous system, and sent her on her path to begin the best chapter of her life. “ Working with Genvièv was life changing. I finally got real results and found amazing relief! Thank you so much!!! You changed my life! You changed another life!” — Sherri Holstad • Peak Performance & Success After 20 years in his company, David had reached his yearly quota only once, some years finishing with only half of it. By October 2024, with only 3 months left in the year, he embarked on the CORE NRG RESET® journey. Within 3 months, David quadrupled his previous year’s results, doubled his annual quota, and received the Sales Winner of the Year award, from the largest company in his field, in the world. David describes his experience here. CORE NRG RESET® allowed him to release subconscious blocks, restore his focus and confidence, and accelerate his capacity to peak-performance levels he had never before experienced. “The success we achieved — in a very short period of time — has been unbelievable. Within just three months, I doubled my quota and received the Sales Winner of the Year award — from the largest company in my field in the world. I never understood what I was truly capable of until I worked with Genvièv. She reframed my entire mindset — my focus, my vision, and my belief in my own abilities.” — David Harju • Emotional Wellness & Life Quality For most of her life, Mandy was trapped in loops of depression, anxiety, and trauma. Therapy, medications, and endless self-help strategies left her exhausted, burned out, and still stuck. CORE NRG RESET® gave her the breakthrough she had been seeking for decades — inspiring her to join the Academy and become a practitioner herself. Watch Mandy as she shares her empowering journey. “Working with Genvièv saved my life. I am freed from years of unbearable pain. Thankful doesn't even begin to cover it. I wish I had done this decades ago!”— Mandy Clark • Forensic Regression & Memory Recovery A young woman arrived with an eight-hour memory gap following a traumatic event. Terrified, confused, and unable to recall what had happened, she had lost her sense of safety. With forensic regression, we recovered the missing hours, restoring her sense of safety, coherence and strength. “Losing a block of your life from your memories is unbearable. Your mind spins in endless loops attempting to pierce through the veil. The relief I experienced when we recovered my memories was immense. It gave me the strength I needed to survive.”— Crime Victim • Panic & Trauma Resolution Kathy spent decades trapped inside her own home — not by walls, but by the crippling effects of early childhood trauma. Today, she lives free — joyful, grounded, and with a peace and quality of life she never imagined possible. “Genvièv gave me a life for the first time. Working with her changed everything. I never knew such transformation was even possible. Today, I wake up and go to sleep at peace. It’s a new beginning for me. She is my miracle.” — Kathy B. How has your background in trauma medicine, neuroscience, and forensic regression shaped CORE NRG RESET®? In trauma and emergency medicine, I learned to read the body and mind under crisis, identify subtle patterns, and act with precision when every second matters. My research in neuroscience, brain plasticity and epigenetics gave me the scientific frameworks to understand why people remain stuck in repeating cycles long after the initial events have passed. But it was my forensic regression work in criminal investigations that gave me the final piece. Forensic regression requires returning to the exact origin of an event — reconstructing sensory impressions, emotional signatures, and memory pathways with absolute accuracy. When you bring that level of precision into clinical work, into to the internal landscape of someone’s life, you can identify the origins of chronic patterns with remarkable clarity. Every issue, symptom, and condition has a cause. Once a cause is identified and released at its core, the symptoms disappear. This understanding is the foundation of our approach. CORE NRG RESET® blends the physiological understanding of trauma, with the scientific framework of neuroplasticity, and the investigative depth of forensic work. The result is a methodology capable of resolving long-standing issues at their source with incomparable precision and speed. “CORE NRG RESET® merges trauma medicine, neuroscience, and forensic precision to identify and release the causes of chronic patterns.” What separates CORE NRG RESET® from other approaches? Traditional approaches rely on insight, repetition, and coping strategies. CORE NRG RESET® takes a fundamentally different path. We calm the central nervous system. We identify the original imprints responsible for recurring patterns. And instead of managing symptoms, we remove their cause. When you apply this level of precision to human suffering, you discover something extraordinary: nothing is random. Every chronic pattern, block, symptom, condition or limitation has an origin. When this origin is correctly located and released, the pattern collapses permanently. The transformation is immediate, measurable, and lasting — not because we work harder, but because we target the epicenter and hypocenter, from which the issues initially ignited. Our results are demonstrated by thousands of clients who experienced profound relief after having battled for years — sometimes decades — with agonizing pain and suffering. Their stories, shared in their own words, in reviews and testimonials across every platform, consistently describe a similar outcome: a profound, permanent shift that enabled them to access a quality of life they never imagined possible. “CORE NRG RESET® doesn’t manage symptoms—it removes their cause, allowing you to access a quality of life you never imagined possible.” What long-term impact do you hope CORE NRG RESET® will have — both on those you help and on the future of integrative wellness? My deepest hope is that CORE NRG RESET® becomes a catalyst for global change in how we understand, address, and resolve human suffering. My capacity to work one-on-one is finite — but the reach of our methodology is not. That is why my long-term mission, with our Integrative Wellness Academy, is to pass on this lifetime of research and specialization to practitioners in the medical, mental health, and integrative wellness fields. Our Academy allows practitioners, therapists, coaches, and healthcare providers to learn a proven methodology that delivers rapid and lasting results, even in chronic and treatment-resistant cases. Unlike traditional wellness education, which often requires years of study and considerable debt, our programs can be completed in under a year and prepare graduates to begin their practice immediately. Certifications are valid internationally, never expire, and include prestigious credentials with the NGH, the largest and most respected institution in the field. I envision a future where people no longer believe they must battle with lifelong limitations — where practitioners worldwide have the tools to resolve suffering at its true origin, not just manage it. When CORE NRG RESET® shifts the global standard from symptom-management to lasting resolution, its mission will be fulfilled. Learn more about Genvièv’s pioneering work by visiting her website, and connect with her on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. Read more from Genvièv St. Clair CORE NRG RESET® is always used in collaboration with licensed medical providers. We do not diagnose, treat, prescribe or replace medical care.

Written by Claire Wilding, Founder of Lead Success Deliver & Leadership Consultant Claire Wilding is the founder of Lead Success Deliver, specialising in identity-led leadership, decision clarity, and execution under pressure. She works with founders and senior leaders navigating complexity, growth, and high-stakes responsibility. For a long time, we have treated founder performance as though it is mostly a strategy problem. If the business is stalling, the answer must be a better plan. If execution is inconsistent, the answer must be more discipline. If the founder is overwhelmed, the answer must be tighter systems, stronger routines, or a more aggressive approach to productivity. On paper, that logic seems sound. In practice, it misses the real issue more often than many leaders realise. Some of the brightest, most capable founders I know do not struggle because they lack ambition, work ethic, intelligence, or even strategy. They struggle because they are trying to execute through an overloaded internal operating system. They are carrying too many open loops at once. They are switching constantly between strategic thinking, delivery, client work, team decisions, sales, content, family logistics, and the mental residue of everything they have not yet processed. They are making important decisions while cognitively fragmented, emotionally stretched, and trying to hold too much in their working memory. From the outside, it can look as though the issue is execution. Underneath, the issue is often architecture. The hidden cost of an overloaded founder operating system High performers are particularly susceptible to this because they are often very good at functioning under pressure. They can keep moving. They can hold a lot. They can absorb complexity. They can deliver even when their internal environment is far from clean. That ability is useful, but it can also mask a problem for far too long. A founder can continue operating at a decent standard while quietly accumulating friction in the background. Priorities become blurred. Decision-making becomes reactive. Important work gets repeatedly delayed by urgent noise. Boundaries soften. Delegation stalls. Recovery becomes inconsistent. The business keeps moving, but at a cost that is rarely visible in a spreadsheet. What looks like a time management problem is often a decision quality problem. What looks like a discipline problem is often a clarity problem. What looks like a productivity problem is often an operating system problem. By “operating system,” I do not mean a software stack or a colour-coded planner. I mean the underlying structure a founder uses to think, prioritise, decide, recover, and move. It is the set of internal filters that determines: What receives attention and what does not. How priorities are ranked under pressure. Whether decisions are made from clarity or reactivity. What gets held, delegated, delayed, or dropped. How a founder returns to centre when the environment becomes noisy. When that system is weak, strategy does not disappear. It simply becomes much harder to execute consistently. Why strategy often sit downstream of something else Most founders do not need more information. They need a cleaner way to process the information they already have. The challenge is rarely a complete absence of direction. More often, the founder’s attention is spread too thinly across too many demands for that direction to be applied effectively. They know the goals. They know the opportunity. They know the broad priorities. But knowing and executing are not the same thing when the mind is cluttered and the operating rhythm is fragmented. This is why founders can look decisive in one area and strangely avoidant in another. It is why intelligent people still procrastinate on high value work. It is why leaders who are exceptional in front of clients or teams can still struggle to make clear decisions for themselves. The issue is not capability. It is friction, and friction compounds. The more friction there is between what matters and what receives attention, the more likely the founder is to spend their day reacting rather than leading. Small tasks create false progress. Urgent requests hijack strategic work. Personal and professional responsibilities bleed into one another. The mind never gets the signal that anything is fully contained, so it keeps everything half open at once. The result is not just inefficiency. It is erosion. Erosion of decision quality. Erosion of energy. Erosion of consistency. Erosion of the founder’s ability to think clearly enough to lead the business from the front. The problem with treating everything as a productivity issue The market has no shortage of advice for founders who feel stretched. Most of it falls into one of three buckets: Optimise your calendar Work harder on the right things Simplify your systems There is value in all three, but none of them goes far enough if the underlying architecture remains unchanged. You can optimise a calendar and still make poor decisions. You can simplify a workflow and still be mentally overloaded. You can work harder on the right things and still be trying to do so from a state of cognitive fragmentation. This is why so many capable founders end up consuming more advice than they can realistically use. They are searching for a tactical solution to a structural problem. If the founder’s internal operating system is full of unmade decisions, unstructured responsibilities, unclear priorities, and unexamined emotional load, then even good strategy will struggle to land properly. It will be layered on top of noise rather than integrated into a clean decision environment. What a stronger founder operating system actually does A strong operating system does not eliminate pressure. It does not make a founder’s life easy. It does not remove the reality of complexity, uncertainty, or high stakes. What it does is reduce unnecessary friction. It gives the founder a way to return to what matters when everything feels important at once. It makes it easier to separate urgency from consequence. It creates clearer criteria for what stays on the founder’s plate and what should move elsewhere. It reduces the amount of work the brain has to do just to keep the day functioning. In practical terms, a stronger founder operating system helps answer questions such as: What genuinely matters this week? What am I holding that no longer needs to be mine? What feels urgent but is not actually consequential? Am I avoiding this because it is difficult, or because it is unclear? What does the business need from me at my best, rather than at my busiest? Those are not small questions. They are strategic questions, operational questions, and leadership questions all at once. From ambition to architecture Founders do not need to become less ambitious. They do not need to stop caring. They do not need to reduce the standard of what they are trying to build. What many of them need is a more robust structure between ambition and execution. A way to think clearly enough to move cleanly. A way to reduce the noise around decisions. A way to hold real life and real business without treating constant overload as a badge of honour. Strategy matters. Of course it does. But when a founder is overloaded, fragmented, and operating without a strong internal system, strategy is often not the first problem. It is simply the first place people look. The more useful question is this: What kind of operating system is the strategy landing on? Because if that layer is unstable, the problem is rarely the plan itself. It is the architecture underneath the founder who is trying to carry it. That is where better execution begins. Follow me on LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Read more from Claire Wilding Claire Wilding, Founder of Lead Success Deliver & Leadership Consultant Claire Wilding is the founder of Lead Success Deliver, a leadership consultancy specialising in identity-led leadership, decision clarity, and execution under pressure. She works with founders, executives, and senior leaders operating in complex, high-stakes environments. Claire is known for her calm, direct approach and her ability to cut through noise to the root of performance challenges. Her work focuses on strengthening leadership identity so decisions become clearer, execution sharper, and results sustainable.

Written by Annelin Knutsen, Intuitive Life Coach Annelin Knutsen is an intuitive life coach who helps women rebuild self-confidence by learning to trust themselves. She guides women out of overthinking and self-doubt, especially during life transitions and relationship challenges. Many women believe divorce is the hardest part, but for many, the real challenge begins afterward, when years of people-pleasing, self-doubt, and putting others first leave them questioning their own instincts. In this article, I share my journey of losing trust in myself after divorce and the lessons that helped me rebuild it. I lost trust in myself long before the divorce Looking back, I did not lose trust in myself the day I got divorced. I had been losing it for years. Like many women, I believed it was my responsibility to make the relationship work. If I could explain myself better. If I could be more patient. If I loved him the right way. If I gave it more time. Then maybe everything would change. It took me six years to realize that I was not the only one responsible for making a marriage work. A healthy relationship requires two people. For years, I carried most of the responsibility for our home and children while working full time. I became so focused on holding everything together that I stopped noticing how exhausted I had become. Although I was married, I felt alone. I kept telling myself things would get better if I just tried a little harder. Instead, I slowly lost touch with myself. Then something happened that forced me to stop. I was diagnosed with cancer. Looking back, I realize my body had been trying to get my attention for years. I had ignored the signals. Life forced me to slow down. For the first time in years, I stopped asking how I could save my marriage and started asking different questions. What kind of life did I want to live? What did I actually need? The moment everything changed Living abroad gave me a completely new perspective. As an expat wife, I met women from many different countries, and watching how they lived made me question something I had never questioned before. One afternoon, I stood outside our apartment complex, watching families return home from work. I saw husbands greet their wives with a hug or a kiss and children run to meet their fathers. Standing there with my own children, I felt an overwhelming sense of loneliness. It was not jealousy. It was grief. For the first time, I realized how much I had accepted as normal. I had spent years believing that being a good wife meant putting everyone else first. But no one had ever asked me to live that way. I had been doing it all by myself. That afternoon, something shifted inside me. It was not just the way I looked at my marriage that changed. It was the way I looked at myself. From that moment on, my focus slowly changed, from trying to change my husband to finding my way back to myself. Why divorce magnifies self-doubt After the divorce, the questions became even louder. Did I make the right decision? What if my children like his new partner more than me? What if I never find love again? What if I cannot do this on my own? Divorce does not just end a relationship. It shakes your identity. You are no longer someone’s wife. You suddenly have to build a completely new life. And when you have spent years putting everyone else first, it can feel impossible to know who you are without that role. I was not only grieving the end of my marriage. I was grieving the future I had imagined for my family. The hidden grief no one talks about People often think divorce is about losing a partner, but that is only part of the story. You grieve the family you imagined. The future you planned. The traditions you thought would last forever. The holidays and birthdays. The ordinary moments you assumed you would always share. Perhaps most of all, you grieve the woman you used to be before you stopped trusting yourself. How self-doubt shows up after divorce When I no longer trusted myself, I started looking for answers everywhere else. I stopped trusting my own voice, so I asked my friends, listened to podcasts, searched Google, and watched YouTube videos. I consumed more and more information, hoping someone else would tell me what the right answer was. But the more advice I sought, the further away I got from my own answers. What finally changed for me Everything changed when I stopped trying to understand him and started understanding myself. I realized I could not change another person. I could only change myself. That became the beginning of everything. I took coaching classes and later became a certified coach myself. I discovered Human Design, which helped me understand why I had always had strong gut feelings but had not always trusted them. For the first time, I understood that my intuition was not something I should question; it was something I could trust. Nature became my place to think. Long walks in the forest helped quiet the noise in my mind. Meditation helped me reconnect with myself. Silence became something I needed instead of something I feared. Looking back, I realize something important, "The answers did not come when I thought harder. They came when I became quieter." Eight steps to start trusting yourself again If you are reading this and questioning yourself, your feelings, or your decisions, I want you to know this, "You do not need to become someone else. You do not need to have all the answers. You simply need to begin listening to yourself again." Start with small decisions: Self-trust is not built overnight. It grows every time you make a choice that feels true to you. Listen to your body: Your body often notices what your mind tries to explain away. Pay attention to how you feel, not just what you think. Set one healthy boundary: You do not have to change everything at once. One clear boundary is enough to begin rebuilding self-respect. Say yes only when it feels right: Stop saying yes out of guilt or obligation. Let your yes come from alignment, not pressure. Learn to say no without apologizing: Every time you honor your own needs, you strengthen your trust in yourself. Trust your intuition: Your intuition may speak quietly, but it is often wiser than fear. Give yourself permission to listen. Spend time in stillness: The answers rarely come when life is noisy. They often appear when you slow down and create space to hear yourself. One choice at a time: Remember that self-trust is built one choice at a time. Every small decision that honors who you are becomes another step back to yourself. Final thoughts For years, I believed clarity would come if I thought harder, analyzed more, or waited long enough for someone else to change. I was wrong. Real clarity came when I stopped looking outside myself and started listening within. Today, that is the journey I help other women take, not because I have all the answers, but because I have walked that path myself. If there is one thing I hope you take away from my story, it is this, "You are not broken. You have not lost yourself forever. You may simply have stopped trusting the voice that has been within you all along." Your inner compass never left you. You just stopped listening. Ready to start trusting yourself again? If you recognized yourself in my story, I hope it reminded you of one thing, "You are not broken. You may simply have lost touch with your own inner voice, and that connection can be rebuilt." If my story resonated with you and you'd like to continue the journey, I'd love to hear from you. I'm currently creating my free guide, Autoritetskompasset™ – 4 Steps to Trust Yourself Again. If you'd like a copy when it's ready, simply send me an email and I'll be happy to send it to you personally. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Annelin Knutsen Annelin Knutsen, Intuitive Life Coach Annelin Knutsen is a coach who helps women rebuild trust in themselves after divorce and major life transitions. She is the creator of Autoritetskompasset™, a coaching method that helps women reconnect with themselves, trust their intuition, and make decisions they can stand behind.

Written by Colby Jones, Empathy Researcher and Human Capacity Strategist Colby is an empathy researcher, organisational development practitioner and entrepreneur at the intersection of leadership, culture and human systems. At Cognitive Humanity, she leads strategy, product thinking and the development of tools that help organisations measure and strengthen human capacity at scale. Walk into any HR department, scroll through any LinkedIn post about professional development, or sit through any career coaching session, and you will hear the same refrain: soft skills matter. You can even scroll through our articles or browse our website, and you will see it there too. Actually, what you will see is that we think skills such as communication, empathy, and adaptability are anything but soft. “Soft skills” is a serious misnomer In fact, the more we use the term, the more the word “soft” bothers me. We are consistently told that these skills are important, undervalued, and increasingly what separates good employees from great ones. Yet “soft” has an entirely different connotation. The term suggests something that is nice to have rather than an essential set of skills that matters just as much as practical, hard skills. While reading Adam Grant’s book, Hidden Potential, I came across his discussion of how the term “soft skills” came into use, and its history surprised me. The term was not invented by a career coach, a management consultant, or a business school professor. The United States Army played a major role in formalising the distinction while developing training systems that separated broader human and organisational capabilities from skills involving machinery, such as gun handling, something that never came up in my master’s coursework in industrial and organisational psychology. Machines, people, and the problem of training In the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, the U.S. Army was investing heavily in what we might now call evidence-based training, drawing on lessons from World War II and responding to the pressures of the Cold War. The Army wanted to move away from intuition and tradition and towards something more systematic, a rigorous, engineerable approach to turning civilians into effective soldiers. In 1968, the U.S. Continental Army Command, known as CONARC, formally introduced a training doctrine called “Systems Engineering of Training.” The idea was straightforward: break down every job in the Army into its component skills, determine how to teach those skills efficiently, and measure how well soldiers had learned them. It worked beautifully for skills involving machines. Teaching someone to operate a tank, fly a helicopter, or field strip a rifle fit neatly into a systems engineering framework. These were concrete, measurable, and observable actions. You either hit the target or you did not. The gun either jammed or it fired. Every skill and action had clear outcomes and clear feedback. But Army leaders were confronting something that did not fit neatly into the model. Units with similar technical training could produce very different outcomes in the field. The difference was not always marksmanship or mechanical aptitude. It could be leadership, cohesion, how soldiers communicated under stress, how they motivated one another, and how a sergeant could read a room and make decisions that no training manual explicitly covered. These were critically important capabilities, but the Army’s systems model did not yet offer an adequate framework for teaching, measuring, or even discussing them. Naming the unnamed The solution was, characteristically and bureaucratically, to hold a conference. In December 1972, CONARC convened a two day Soft Skills Training Conference at the U.S. Army Air Defense School in Fort Bliss, Texas. Researchers, trainers, and military officials gathered to grapple with a fundamental question: How do you systematise the training of skills that resist systematisation? Dr. Paul Whitmore, a key figure at the conference, offered what became a foundational working definition. He described soft skills as important job-related skills that involve little or no interaction with machines and whose application on the job is broadly generalised. That was the working definition. It did not define soft skills solely as interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, or résumé building. Instead, it referred broadly to important skills that did not centre on operating machinery. The counterpart, hard skills, referred primarily to skills that did involve machines. The distinction was material, not a judgment about difficulty or importance. There was even debate over whether map reading counted as a hard or soft skill because maps were made of paper rather than machines. A phrase that outlived its definition What is even more fascinating is that, even as the Army was formalising the term, conference participants were sceptical of the distinction. The 1972 conference formally recommended that the terms be deemphasised or discontinued because they were ambiguous and potentially misleading. The recommendation did not prevent the phrase from spreading. Over the following decades, “soft skills” migrated into business schools, HR departments, and self-help books. Along the way, its meaning shifted substantially. What had been a technical distinction became a loaded value judgment. The irony is profound. The Army was not dismissing soft skills. It was trying to take them more seriously and find ways to rigorously develop and assess capabilities recognised as crucial to military effectiveness. The rebrand that has not stuck For decades, critics have argued that the term “soft skills” does these capabilities a disservice. Proposed alternatives have proliferated: people skills, human skills, power skills, core skills, essential skills, transferable skills, interpersonal skills, and emotional intelligence. And I will say it, Capacities of a Thriving Workplace, the framework we created. Seth Godin has argued that these should be called “real skills” rather than soft skills. Language shapes perception, and perception shapes investment. What the history actually tells us There is something clarifying about knowing how the Army used and formalised this phrase. More than fifty years ago, it recognised that the skills most resistant to a checklist were often among the skills most responsible for success or failure. It saw the importance of communication, trust, leadership, and cohesion in environments where technical competence alone was not enough. What the Army classified as soft skills, we might more honestly call human skills or capacities. They are the things machines cannot do, algorithms struggle to replicate, and no amount of technical training alone can replace. The Army understood this by 1972. Most of us are still catching up. The full proceedings of the 1972 CONARC Soft Skills Training Conference are available as a scanned document, a record running 329 pages that captures the moment the Army formally examined and attempted to define something that had always been there. Start the conversation Perhaps it is time we retired the phrase “soft skills” altogether. If language shapes how we value human capability, choosing better language is more than semantics. It influences where organisations invest, what leaders measure, and how we prepare people for the future of work. At Cognitive Humanity, we believe these are not soft skills. They are measurable human capacities that underpin trust, collaboration, decision making, leadership, and performance. And they are too important to keep describing as optional. Follow me on LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Read more from Colby Jones Colby Jones, Empathy Researcher and Human Capacity Strategist Colby Jones is an empathy researcher, Colby is an empathy researcher, organisational development practitioner and entrepreneur at the intersection of leadership, culture and human systems. Her background blends organisational psychology, empathy research and practical experience in building brands, products and teams. She is particularly focused on how data about human experiences, stress, trust and relational patterns can be used to ethically support better decisions for both people and organisations.

Written by Swati Mukherjee, Relationship Coach & Corporate Trainer Whether at the dinner table or in the boardroom, relationships run on the same patterns. Swati Mukherjee is an ICF-certified Relationship Coach and Corporate Trainer who spent 15 years in HR and psychology before founding Resilient Relationship, helping couples and organisations trade conflict for trust and honest communication. A few years ago, I nearly put one of our highest performers on a Performance Improvement Plan. What stopped me was not the paperwork. It was a coffee, an hour of conversation, and a truth most workplaces never get around to noticing until it has already become expensive. What is relational trust, and why do most workplaces overlook it? Relational trust, as I use the term here, is the degree to which people at work actually know each other beyond their job titles, well enough to ask for help, admit a mistake, or say, “I’m struggling,” without expecting a cost for saying it. Most organisations assume this kind of trust builds itself simply by putting people in the same meetings often enough. It does not. The gap between assuming trust exists and actually building it is where many high-performing teams quietly start to fail. I learned this the hard way in a meeting room I still think about. The employee everyone had already judged A few years earlier, I had stood on a stage and handed this man an award. He was the highest performer in the business. Meticulous and dependable, he was the kind of employee other managers pointed to as proof that the system worked. Then, over several months, something shifted. Small errors started appearing in his reports, the kind he had never made before. Deadlines that used to be handled without a second thought began slipping. Eventually, one of those small errors became a significant financial one, and HR was called in. That was me. By the time I sat down in that meeting room, everyone had already reached the same conclusion: put him on a Performance Improvement Plan. The process existed, the paperwork was ready, and nobody would have questioned the decision. It would have been the easiest thing I did all year. But something about him stopped me. He was not defensive. He was not making excuses. He just looked exhausted in a way that had nothing to do with spreadsheets. So, instead of opening the file, I asked his manager for some time alone with him, and we walked to the cafeteria. What an hour of conversation actually revealed We talked for almost an hour, and barely any of it was about work. He apologised a few times for the mistake, out of habit more than anything. Then, slowly, the real conversation started. His father had died six months earlier. Not long after, his marriage had started coming apart. He was living alone, had not slept properly in months, and was showing up every day carrying grief and exhaustion that nobody around him seemed to know existed. Here is what stayed with me. It was not that his performance had declined. It was that he had been sitting beside the same colleagues, attending the same meetings, and delivering the same reports for months, yet no one seemed to have noticed what he was carrying. The financial error was not the first failure in that story. The relationship was. Why professionalism cannot mean switching people off There is a quiet assumption built into most workplaces: professionalism means arriving as a version of yourself with the personal parts switched off. Leave the grief, the divorce, the sick parent, and the sleepless nights at home, and bring your best self to the desk. People do not actually work that way. Nobody has an on and off switch between the front door and the desk. When someone is unravelling privately, that does not pause because it is nine o’clock on a Tuesday. Pretending otherwise does not make organisations more professional. It simply makes them slower to notice when someone needs support, and that slowness usually appears on a balance sheet before it appears in a conversation. This is not just a feeling. Gallup’s U.S. workplace data from August 2025 found that only 19 percent of employees strongly agreed that they trusted the leadership of their organisation. Gallup also reports that employees perform better when their leaders and managers are trusted and inspirational. The pattern I saw in that meeting room was not an isolated case. It reflects a structural blind spot in how many companies are run. Trust does not lower accountability, it enables it One of the more persistent myths in corporate life is that relationships make teams less serious, somehow softer or less accountable. In practice, I have found the opposite. When people actually know each other beyond a job title, difficult conversations become easier, not harder. Asking for help stops feeling like a confession. Feedback stops landing as an attack. People admit to problems while they are still small instead of waiting until someone else has to find them. This is close to what Google’s internal research on team performance found. Project Aristotle identified psychological safety as the most important of five team dynamics associated with effectiveness at Google. The research found that how team members worked together mattered more than who was on the team. People needed to feel safe enough to admit mistakes, ask questions, offer new ideas, and take interpersonal risks without fear of embarrassment or punishment. Trust does not lower the bar on accountability. It is what makes accountability possible in the first place. What changed when I stopped keeping my distance Early in my career, I joined a team where I never quite felt like I fit. Everyone seemed distant, a little intimidating, and perhaps even arrogant. I kept my head down, did the work, and went home. For a long time, that was the whole relationship. Then, almost by accident, that started to change. We began having conversations that had nothing to do with the project. Lunches. Staying behind after a long day. Birthdays. Ordinary conversations about families, frustrations, and where people wanted their careers to go. The people I had quietly judged from across the room had not changed at all. My understanding of them had. Once that shifted, so did the way we worked. People started offering help before anyone asked for it. Ownership stopped needing to be assigned; it simply showed up. When deadlines became demanding, nobody had to be chased because, by then, we were not just protecting a project. We were protecting each other. That is the part of relational trust that never makes it onto a quarterly report. You will not find it on a dashboard, but it sits underneath every team that holds together when things get hard. In much the same way, a shift away from micromanagement and towards trust-based leadership tends to unlock ownership that no amount of oversight ever could. What we actually did for that employee We did not ignore the financial error, and we did not pretend the mistake had not happened. But we did not rely on the standard process alone. Instead, we added extra checks around his work, redistributed some of his responsibilities, and had an honest conversation about what support actually looked like. His manager understood what he was carrying. His team quietly stepped in where needed without having to be asked. Accountability stayed exactly where it should. But so did compassion, and the two turned out not to be in competition with each other. He recovered. Not long after, so did his performance. The relational debt that eventually appears Looking back, that case taught me something that has held up across every team I have worked with since. High-performing teams rarely collapse because people suddenly become less capable. They collapse because the relationships underneath them have often been quietly weakening long before anyone notices it in the numbers. Performance is often the last place it appears. Long before that, people stop asking questions. They stop admitting when something is wrong. They stop mentioning the concerns that, six months later, turn into the problems nobody saw coming. The strongest organisations I have worked with were never simply the ones with the most talented people in the room. They were the ones where someone could say, “I’m struggling,” out loud and know it would not cost them anything to say it. Relational trust is not a soft skill sitting somewhere below strategy and execution on the list of things that matter. It is the infrastructure everything else is built on, and it is invisible right up until the moment it is not. If you are leading a team and cannot remember the last time someone felt safe enough to tell you something was wrong before it became a crisis, that silence is worth paying attention to. Over the years, I have found that whether the challenge sits in a boardroom or around a dinner table, the patterns are often the same. Everything is relational. The way we build trust, handle conflict, communicate under pressure, and respond to one another shapes the outcome far more than most people realise. That is the work I do. I help individuals, couples, leaders, and organisations understand the relational patterns beneath the visible problem because, once you can see what is really happening between people, lasting change becomes much easier to create. If your relationships, at work or at home, feel like they are carrying more tension than trust, let us have a conversation. Book a call with me, and together we will uncover what is really happening beneath the surface and identify the changes that can create stronger relationships, whether in your organisation or in your personal life. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Swati Mukherjee Swati Mukherjee, Relationship Coach & Corporate Trainer Swati Mukherjee is an ICF-certified Relationship Coach and Corporate Trainer based in London, working with couples on the edge of separation and workplaces where good people quietly become poor managers. After 15 years in HR and psychology watching the same story repeat in exit interviews, she noticed that people leave relationships, not organisations. That insight became Professional Proximity, her framework for rebuilding trust and communication before they break down completely, taught through Resilient Relationship. Her work continues in Proximity, her newsletter on the relational side of work, and her podcast, Relationship Ironies of the World We Live In.

Roje Khalique is a BABCP-accredited Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist and Founder of rkTherapy, a London-based clinical practice established in 2018. An ex-City professional, Roje began her career in clinical psychology, spending a decade in the NHS before returning to the City of London to support professionals' well-being. That dual experience, working within high-pressure professional environments and the clinical setting, shaped an approach that integrates psychology, sociology, and culturally adapted CBT. In 2020, the practice expanded into virtual therapy, enabling Roje to support clients across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the USA. Roje Khalique, Clinical Consultant and Founder of rkTherapy You have spent over two decades in mental health, including on NHS front lines during COVID-19. What did that experience show you? Supporting medical staff on NHS front lines, lawyers and partners at a leading City law firm, and investment professionals through the same pressures showed me something important. High achievers in high-pressure environments rarely ask for help. They are often more likely to suffer in silence because seeking support can feel like giving someone permission to question their capability. Some of these professionals are at the top of their field, but they have been conditioned to intellectualise feelings rather than experience them. They keep going because stopping feels inefficient, unproductive, or even like a weakness. Ambition fuels them, but it can also deplete them. Who exactly do you serve? I work with high-achieving professionals across law, finance, medicine, and other demanding industries, particularly those navigating a bicultural life alongside the pressures of their careers. For many, the pressure compounds in ways that are rarely named correctly. They carry the expectations of their professional environment, their family, their culture, and often the experiences and expectations of previous generations, all at once. Many carry it in silence because showing vulnerability feels like giving others a reason to doubt them. You have been openly critical of the wellness industry. What is it getting wrong? Much of the wellness industry remains monocultural. It often assumes one language, one culture, and one worldview, and therefore one universal approach to the mind and behaviour. Wellness also frequently follows trends rather than evidence. For example, some social media messaging promotes hyper-independence as the ideal, whereas many collectivist cultures view interdependence as a psychological need rather than as unhealthy. It promotes a model that assumes success is purely individualistic and that well-being requires every emotion to be expressed publicly and immediately. That does not reflect the reality of my clients. For many bicultural professionals, ambition is a collective effort. They are driven by family, heritage, and the future of those who come after them. Furthermore, there is often great wisdom in knowing which emotions to share and which to manage privately. Why do traditional mental health tools often fail to address the reality of bicultural high achievers? For bicultural high achievers, this disconnect creates additional frustration because the tools do not align with the psychological reality they experience. They may check work repeatedly because the fear of judgment triggers a survival response. They may procrastinate because mistakes have historically carried greater emotional consequences. They may constantly compare themselves or continue to chase achievement because slowing down feels unsafe. When the tools do not fit, people often assume they are the problem. They are not. They are navigating two worlds at once, managing the demands of both. The intelligence in my work is helping them do that without feeling like they are failing one identity while succeeding in another. The tools are simply wrong for the mind they are being applied to. You often distinguish between internal psychological barriers and external structural barriers. Why is that distinction so important? One of the biggest mistakes in mental health is assuming every barrier sits inside the individual. Sometimes the work is helping someone address negative self-beliefs, perfectionism, or fear of judgment. Sometimes the challenge is bias, exclusion, or environments that make visibility feel psychologically unsafe. Treating external barriers as simply a mindset problem can lead people to blame themselves for experiences that require a different response. Equally, treating every challenge as external can prevent people from recognizing the beliefs and coping strategies that no longer serve them. Good therapy helps people understand the difference. For diaspora professionals, psychology and sociology are inseparable. Lasting change comes from understanding both. Why do you place so much emphasis on sponsorship and visibility? Performance alone does not always determine progression. Many bicultural professionals, whether British Polish, British Lithuanian, or particularly those from Black and Asian heritage communities, can access entry-level opportunities and receive mentorship, yet still struggle to access sponsorship and the visibility that leads to senior opportunities. That is not a performance gap. It is often a structural one and carries a high psychological cost. When people begin to believe they must work harder simply to be seen, they often become trapped in cycles of perfectionism, over-preparation, self-doubt, and burnout. Part of my work is helping professionals build the confidence to be visible without believing they must be perfect first. The language used to describe diaspora communities in mental health has long been criticised. What is the problem with it? Language matters in mental health. The terminology often used to describe diaspora communities, including Asian and Black heritage communities, has historically centered around deficit terminology, such as minorities, disadvantaged, marginalised, and underrepresented. These labels often describe structural inequalities rather than the people themselves. For a high-achieving lawyer, physician, financier, or executive navigating multiple cultural worlds, that language can feel inaccurate and limiting. It can also become a barrier to accessing care and support because people do not recognise themselves in descriptions that focus only on disadvantage rather than complexity, capability, and resilience. What does the research say about bicultural professionals? Research on Bicultural Identity Integration (BII), the psychology of successfully navigating multiple cultural identities, suggests that individuals who can integrate their heritage and host cultures demonstrate greater emotional resilience, cognitive flexibility, and creative problem-solving. Research by Tadmor, Galinsky, and Maddux (2012) has highlighted that diaspora professionals with stronger integrative capabilities can experience cognitive advantages, including enhanced adaptability and perspective taking. Living between two worlds is not a disadvantage. It is a sophisticated cognitive capability that mainstream wellness and mental health approaches have not always recognised or built enough clinical tools around. If we do not name the experience, we cannot build effective clinical approaches for it. That is the gap. What is Diaspora Intelligence®, and how does it address the mental health gap? Diaspora Intelligence® is my proprietary clinical framework, informed by culturally adapted CBT, bicultural identity research, and clinical experience working with high-achieving professionals. At its core, DI® is built on three principles. First, bicultural identity is not a conflict to resolve but a strength to integrate. Second, ambition should be defined by the individual rather than by inherited expectations or external definitions of success. Third, emotional awareness is not about controlling feelings but learning to regulate them without being overwhelmed. Those principles recognise that professional ambition, family, and cultural identity do not need to compete with one another. Sustainable success comes from integrating them rather than choosing between them. The therapeutic approach is Integration-Led Culturally Adapted CBT, which recognises that psychological wellbeing cannot be understood through the individual alone. It must also account for culture, identity, relationships, and the social environments people navigate. My work brings psychology and sociology together because, for diaspora professionals, they cannot be separated. What changes for a client when they stop treating their biculturalism as a burden and start recognising it as intelligence? The high-achieving bicultural brain has been both surviving and thriving at the same time, code-switching, reading rooms, detecting bias, anticipating reactions before they happen, navigating belonging, adapting quickly, and never fully switching off. That is an advanced operating system. The shift begins when they stop choosing between two worlds and start integrating them. They no longer must be a different version of themselves in every room or feel the exhaustion that comes with it. They begin to see perfectionism for what it is, often a response to fear and anxiety rather than simply a marker of excellence. They recognise that ambition should never require sacrificing their wellbeing. They distinguish between emotions that belong to them and emotions they may have carried from previous generations. What was inherited gets named, understood, and put down. The same skills that helped them navigate multiple worlds, adaptability, perspective taking, and cultural fluency, are also the skills that can make exceptional leaders. What does that shift mean for how they live and work? They go from second-guessing decisions to trusting their own judgment and defining success on their own terms. The perfectionism that once drove them becomes something they can observe rather than obey. The procrastination rooted in fear of failure gives way to purposeful action. They stop tying their worth to achievement or external validation and start building from a deeper sense of self-trust. Mastering their emotional world does not slow them down. It accelerates everything. They move from constantly proving themselves to leading from a place of self-trust and self-respect. Your work is expanding into corporate settings. How does Diaspora Intelligence® serve the organisation, not just the individual? Diaspora professionals do not usually quit loudly. They often go quiet first, then they leave. They may hesitate to seek mentorship, sponsorship, or visibility opportunities even when they have earned them, because being seen can feel psychologically unsafe. The organisation then loses talent it never fully accessed. Having worked within a leading City law firm and alongside investment and medical professionals, I have seen firsthand what happens when this support is in place and what it costs when it is not. When professionals learn to manage stress, trust their judgment, and allow themselves to be visible without burning out, it supports stronger psychological wellbeing, healthier leadership development, and reduced burnout, helping organisations keep high-performing professionals who might otherwise quietly disengage. What are you working on now? Science-based psychological knowledge has been locked inside clinical rooms and academic journals for too long. I want to change that. Through Diaspora Intelligence® and Integration-Led Culturally Adapted CBT, I work at the intersection of psychology, sociology, and culture, helping bicultural high achievers identify what is holding them back internally, recognise the structural barriers they may be facing externally, and stop carrying what was never theirs to carry. The goal is dissemination. To take this work beyond the clinical room and into the cities where bicultural high achievers are building careers and burning out in silence, in London, New York, Dubai, and Singapore. Organisations that recognise, develop, and retain their bicultural talent will be better positioned to build resilient leadership and compete in an increasingly borderless global workforce. Psychological science should reach as many people as possible. When high achievers know who they are, what they really want, and how to recalibrate their emotions rather than be controlled by them, they operate at the highest level of personal development. For high achievers, that is the ultimate form of self-mastery. If you are interested in learning more, you can reach Roje and her team here. Visit my website for more info! Read more from Roje Khalique

Atlanta, GA – July 15, 2026 – Licensed clinical social worker, speaker, educator, and author Dr. Moniek Garside proudly announces the release of her highly anticipated new book, The Power of Your Pause: From Autopilot to Awareness – The Transformative Power of Stillness. Available beginning July 15, 2026, the book offers readers a practical and compassionate guide to slowing down, reconnecting with themselves, and creating a life rooted in purpose rather than survival. Drawing from nearly two decades of experience in mental health and her own personal journey of resilience, Dr. Garside challenges the cultural belief that constant productivity equals success. Instead, she invites readers to discover how intentional pauses can strengthen emotional well-being, improve relationships, reduce burnout, and create lasting personal transformation. "We often believe we need to keep pushing, producing, and proving ourselves," said Dr. Garside. "But some of life's greatest breakthroughs happen when we pause long enough to truly see ourselves. This book is an invitation to step off autopilot, embrace self-awareness, and choose a life that aligns with who you truly are." More than a self-help book, The Power of Your Pause blends evidence-informed mental health principles, personal reflection, and actionable strategies that empower readers to move from surviving to thriving. Whether navigating stress, major life transitions, burnout, grief, or simply feeling disconnected from themselves, readers will discover practical tools to cultivate mindfulness, establish healthier boundaries, and make intentional choices that support long-term well-being. The release comes at a time when conversations surrounding stress, mental health, and work-life balance have never been more important. Through her compassionate and relatable approach, Dr. Garside reminds readers that slowing down is not falling behind—it is often the first step toward healing, clarity, and meaningful growth. The Power of Your Pause is available in paperback and Ebook through major online retailers, bookstores, and libraries worldwide. To celebrate the release of The Power of Your Pause, Dr. Garside will host a Fireside Chat and Book Signing on Saturday, July 25, 2026, in Atlanta, Georgia. The event will feature an intimate conversation about the inspiration behind the book, the importance of intentional living, and practical ways to incorporate the power of the pause into everyday life. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet Dr. Garside, purchase signed copies of the book, and engage in meaningful conversation centered on mental wellness, resilience, and personal growth. About the author Dr. Moniek Garside, Ph.D., LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker, educator, speaker, and founder of FitLife Wellness, LLC. With nearly 20 years of experience in behavioral health, she specializes in helping individuals navigate stress, burnout, anxiety, life transitions, and personal growth through evidence-based and holistic approaches. She is also an Executive Contributor for Brainz Magazine and a passionate advocate for mental health awareness and emotional well-being. The Power of Your Pause is her second book, continuing her mission to help others create lives grounded in intention, resilience, and self-awareness. Media contact Dr. Moniek Garside Email Website

Natasha Wallace is an award-winning leadership expert, executive coach, speaker, and creator of the Conscious Leadership Performance System™, a scientifically validated methodology for building healthy, high-performing organisations. After a cataclysmic burnout while leading the people function of a market-leading consulting firm, Natasha set out to answer one question, "Why do leaders suffer, and what would it take to build cultures where they don't have to?" That question became her life's mission, to uplift humanity through conscious leadership and help 100 million people thrive. Formerly a Chief People Officer, Natasha has spent almost a decade advising boards and senior leaders on performance, wellbeing, and burnout prevention, working alongside senior academics at University College London to validate her system. Her work has been adopted by organisations including Xero, Kraken Technologies, the NHS, JP Morgan Chase, Alvarez & Marsal, and the UK Ministry of Defense. She is the author of The Conscious Effect and a friend of Alan Mulally, the former CEO of Ford and Boeing, who has said her work is the clearest articulation of the leadership approach that guided his own career. Natasha Wallace, CEO and Executive Coach Who is Natasha Wallace? I am a mum first and foremost to two wonderful daughters who teach me how to be a better human every day. My role as a mother is closely followed by the activist and humanitarian in me, which is where I spend the majority of my energy when I’m not with friends, going out for dinner, at the cinema, or walking the dog with the kids. I am a prolific self-developer and love to journal, meditate, find time for reflection, and buy lots of books, although I don’t find quite enough time to read them all. I love music, and I try to find time to sing when I can. I was in an acoustic duo called Grateful for a while, and I love spending time with family and friends, usually in forests, in deep debate, or eating good food. I have become more spiritual over the years, as my awareness of the world around me has evolved. I am currently reading The Bhagavad Gita, but I have read plenty of books teaching us the power of self-understanding. I am often awake at night, scribbling down ideas about how we can evolve the way we lead society and how we lead ourselves. I have made it a lifelong mission to help 100 million people through Conscious Leadership. I believe all of my experiences to date have led me towards this mission, and while there is fire in my belly, I will do everything in my power to help make the world a better place. What inspired you to dedicate your work to conscious leadership and workplace wellbeing? About ten years ago, I led the people function at a market-leading consulting firm. I was totally dedicated to my job and worked long hours to make sure we delivered something incredible for the people who worked for us. I took it seriously. Then, without much warning, I burnt out. It was a cataclysmic burnout. In the end, I was a shadow of my former self. Now, if I had known anything about burnout, I would have seen it coming. The anxiety, panic attacks, bad back, migraines, regular breakdowns, inability to think straight, self-doubt, cynicism. I would have known that these were all symptoms of a hyper-stressed system. When one of the senior leaders suggested I take some time off, I would have said yes. When I sat on the living room floor all morning in a catatonic state, after a Board presentation, I would have questioned whether something was a bit off. When I found the thought of setting up my new iPhone totally overwhelming, I knew it wasn’t a healthy response. The fact was, I was in such a crisis that I didn’t see I was on the brink of destruction. Then one day, after my final plea for us to be better as leaders fell on deaf ears, I walked out. The realisation was that I was one of the few leaders who were brave enough to challenge the status quo. Although I thought I was surrounded by friends and allies, once I started to speak more honestly about change, I was on my own. That isolation and disconnection from being able to live my values at work became a death by a thousand cuts. No matter how much I loved my work, the culture broke my spirit. Eventually, it broke me too. That led me on a quest. Firstly, how to stop fellow leaders from burning out and suffering the same fate. Secondly, how to build environments that enable us to fulfill our potential as people. That then became my mission and led me to create a framework of leadership called Conscious Leadership. In your experience, what is the biggest reason leaders and teams burn out today, and how do you help them reverse this? It's rarely what organisations think it is. They look at workload, at hours, at resources. Yes, those things matter. But the root cause I see most consistently, in the research and in the coaching room, is something far more internal. It's the combination of masking your true feelings, making sure everyone else is OK, and pouring your energy into relationships that don't pour back. Leaders are expected to be the steady ones. The ones who hold it together. So they perform wellness while quietly falling apart. The leaders most at risk aren't the disengaged ones. They're the deeply committed ones. The ones who care too much to say they're struggling. So being safe enough to tell the truth about how you are feeling at work matters. Most of the time, leaders don’t tell the truth or express themselves honestly because safety is missing. When the problems that leaders are facing become internal battles, it’s an issue. When I work with a leader who's burning out, the first thing I do is make it safe for them to tell the truth. That sounds simple. It isn't. Most of these leaders haven't told anyone. Not their team, not their partner, not themselves. Just being heard by someone who isn't going to judge them or tell them to push through is often the beginning of everything. When I was going through my own burnout, my coach gave me what she probably thought was tough love. Put up or shut up. She told me that I hadn’t been given the mandate to make the changes I wanted to make and so not to bother. I think she felt that by taking the pressure off myself, I would be happier at work. It couldn’t have been further from the truth. Your Conscious Leadership approach is widely recognized. How does your methodology transform the way people lead? I've worked with many leadership models over the years. There are frameworks for managing change, communicating effectively, and having direct conversations with care. All of them, in their own way, are useful. All of them share the same fundamental design flaw. They're fixing downstream problems. They're action-oriented approaches that tell leaders what to do, without first addressing who the leader is and what's going on inside them. They build capability. They rarely build the person. You have to get to the heart of values, beliefs, and self-view to move the dial when it comes to leadership behaviour. I remember running a leadership program many years ago and an engineer saying something that stopped me in my tracks. "This is all fine, referring to the theory we were teaching, but none of us are actually self-aware, so how do we do any of this?" She was right. Nobody in the room had a good answer. Development programs might introduce the concept of self-awareness, but they almost never reach the belief level. It's beliefs that drive everything. The way a leader sees themselves, the assumptions they carry about what leadership requires of them, and the deeply held convictions they hold. Not frameworks. Not capability models. It’s why behaviour often fails to change as a consequence of development programs. They float on the surface of who a person actually is, and it’s not the surface where the change happens. Not in any material sense, anyway. When I work with leaders, we go to the core. What they value. What excites them? What limits them? How they see the world. We work on the being of leadership, not just the doing. That is a fundamental shift. When you help a leader to put their own oxygen mask on too, it’s a focus on wellbeing that no other leadership model has been developed to do. Conscious Leadership sits at the intersection of performance and wellbeing, and that’s a game changer. Can you share a company transformation that shows the impact of Conscious Leadership on performance? I have had the absolute pleasure of spending time with Alan Mulally, who I came to learn, through our friendship, is one of the greatest leaders of our time. Alan was responsible for one of the biggest corporate turnarounds of all time. He took Ford from a $12.7 billion loss in 2006 to a $6.6 billion profit by 2010 in one of the most extraordinary corporate turnarounds in American business history. But what struck me most, having spent real time with Alan, is that it wasn't the financial engineering that saved Ford. It was his mindset. He operated as a Conscious Leader long before either of us had a name for it. At the heart of the turnaround was "Working Together," Alan's own leadership and management system, built on one simple principle, everyone knows the plan, the status, and where attention is needed. He gave Ford one plan, a compelling vision, and a weekly business plan review where telling the truth about barriers was expected, not punished. A clear purpose moved everyone in the same direction, avoiding competing agendas and siloed working. But clarity alone doesn't turn around a business on the brink of collapse. Alan built resilience into the culture itself and made it psychologically safe for people to tell the truth, long before either term was fashionable. He told his people to "expect the unexpected and deal with it, positively," and gave them permission to be honest about what wasn't working. He wanted everyone to feel "seen," to know he had their back, and he was famous for his expression "love 'em up." That combination of high standards held together by genuine care is what saved Ford. That's the long-term impact I care about most. Alan didn't save Ford through sheer force of will. He built a belief system that let Ford save itself, one that people still use today. It's the clearest proof I've seen that sustainable performance isn't a personality trait or a turnaround tactic. It's what happens when purpose, resilience, self-awareness, growth, and togetherness get embedded into how an organisation actually operates. Alan is, quite simply, the embodiment of Conscious Leadership. What are the early warning signs organisations often miss before culture starts to break down? The honest answer is that culture doesn't break down because of strategy failures, market pressures, or organisational structure. They can contribute but they are not the problem. It breaks down because of the leadership mindset fuelling the business. A healthy leadership mindset, fuelled by a human-centered approach, drives a healthy culture. That means you can optimise the potential of the organisation because you optimise the potential of the humans working within it. Healthy cultures are led by senior leaders who aren’t threatened by the voice of the people. They are grounded and humble enough to listen, even when the going gets tough, and they welcome challenges. They are evolved enough to hear the truth because they know it’s the only way to make things better. They have a healthy relationship with themselves and the people around them, and they achieve that through awareness and trust, trust in others, but more importantly, trust in themselves. They create psychological safety not as a program or an initiative, but as a natural consequence of how they show up, making it OK to be human, giving people freedom to work in ways that suit them, accepting that things go wrong, and learning rather than reacting to the mishaps. They don’t punish or blame people, they recognise the imperfection of being human, and they work hard to bring out the best in everyone. These leaders are grounded and calm under pressure. They pay attention to how people are feeling. They set clear boundaries to protect their own energy. They do what they say they're going to do. Because they're honest, they create environments where others can be honest too, where people don't have to hide things or perform a version of themselves that isn't real. They are regulated, self-aware, and they manage their ego because they understand it. Then there's the other kind of leader. This is where culture quietly begins to die. They stop listening. They make excuses for why things aren't working. They downplay the problems people raise, or worse, label people as negative, dismiss them, or blame them. When things go wrong, they look outward for someone to hold responsible. They micromanage and remove essential resources, which makes people fearful and kills decision-making. All the while, they're not sensing the team's energy, not reading what's out of kilter, not responding to what people actually need. What they're doing, though they may not realise it, is damaging the nervous system of their team. A stressed system performs worse, gets sick more often, and eventually breaks down. The thing that makes this particularly insidious is that it’s often hard to spot and it spreads. A high-performing person being led in this way will often end up feeling less empowered, less able to make good-quality decisions, and less curious, with their performance impacted as a result. What should be conditions for high performance, genuine trust, empowerment, and a growth mindset, get quietly replaced by control, reactivity, and unawareness. The early warning signs are rarely dramatic. There's a slight drop in people speaking up. A few more excuses in leadership conversations. A little less follow-through. A little more blame. By the time it looks like a culture problem, it's been a leadership problem for a long time. Many companies try wellbeing initiatives that fail. What do you believe they’re getting wrong, and how do you help them course-correct? I had a leader come to a coaching session a few months ago, saying that he needed to start looking after himself and that he needed to go back to the gym. I told him that he wasn’t going to start going to the gym until he tackled the way he was feeling. He had lost his mojo. I had a feeling that until he figured out why, he would be building on shaky foundations, and so that’s where we started. He talked about how he had built a successful business in the past, how he had so many ideas for the company he now worked for, but that his ideas were falling on deaf ears and that he’d lost his autonomy. What transpired was that he had also lost his confidence. An old HR Director of mine once said to the CEO, about how he was leading me, not to push competence to the point of incompetence. That’s what was happening to him. He was being impacted by the executive team's direction and it was disempowering him. He saw it as a personal failure. Having understood the source of the discomfort and once he had realised that it wasn’t his fault, his mojo came flooding back. The gym started back up as a natural consequence of his energy coming back. I've talked about this for years, and we're still focusing on the wrong things when it comes to mental health. When we put our investment into creating healthy leaders and culture, everything else flows from that. It's the inner work that creates wellbeing, not the plasters we put on the cuts that have already been created. A small side note here. This story doesn’t necessarily point to the fact that the executive team was ineffective. Leaders will make mistakes. They will miss cues. They will think they are doing or saying the right things, and it will have a negative impact. Leaders are humans too. However, when you have a safe culture where people can speak up about what’s not working, changes can be made. This leader that I was coaching couldn’t tell the truth, and so the truth left unheard started to break him. That was my story too. What core principles from your book The Conscious Effect do you most want leaders to embody right now? If I had to pick the principle I most want leaders to sit with right now, it's this, you can't lead well until you know yourself. In the book, I call this being AWAKE. The question underneath it is simple, what is going on in and around me? "The identity we assume as a leader influences our decision-making, thinking and behaviour," and until you've done the work to actually see who you are, you're leading on autopilot. That's been the single most transformational shift in my own life. Understanding myself, my patterns, my triggers, the stories I tell myself, gave me the ability to step back and look at the world more objectively, rather than reacting to it from old wiring I never chose in the first place, from childhood, formative experiences, and so on. I write in the book that "most of us don't really know ourselves that well," and that self-deception blinds us to the true cause of our problems. That was certainly true for me. So much of what I used to find frustrating or personally wounding in other people, in situations, and in myself, wasn't really about them at all. It was about parts of me I hadn't looked at yet. I still get things wrong. I'm still learning. But I experience far less of that frustration and annoyance now because I understand where it's coming from, and understanding it takes its power away. That's the gift of self-knowledge. It doesn't make you perfect. It makes you honest with yourself, and that honesty is what lets you finally accept who you are. I talk in the book about the masks we all wear, the ones that "protect us from getting hurt and feeling discomfort," but that, worn too long, keep us from being our authentic selves. I know that mask well. I wore it for years before my own burnout forced me to take it off. Because I've done that work on myself, I'm now driven to build environments where other people don't have to wear theirs, where it's safe to tell the truth and be who you actually are, even when that's hard. That's the real work of Conscious Leadership. Not fixing people. Helping them find themselves, the way I had to find myself, so they can lead, and live, with a bit more truth. What is the most valuable first step a leader or company can take if they want to create a healthier, more human-centred workplace? The first step is to recognise the central idea that people need to feel psychologically safe to deliver sustainable results. Without believing that fundamental truth, nothing human-centered is likely to happen or stick. I didn’t always understand that. Fifteen years ago, we talked about the change curve, communicating well, consulting with people, and taking people on the journey. We rarely talked about how people actually felt. I sensed when people weren't feeling great and knew we needed to make them feel good to allow them to perform, but I didn’t really understand the nuanced day-to-day behaviors that actually enable a team to feel consistently good, so they came to work feeling motivated to deliver. We did a piece of research a few years ago called Project Bright Spot. A team of leaders from organisations like BT, Oracle, and St John Ambulance, supported by an incredible academic from University College London, wanted to understand the traits of outstanding leaders. We interviewed people whose lives had been positively impacted by their leader and then decoded what they did. The leaders who had the most transformational impact demonstrated these traits, they see you, they have your back, they are present, they trust you, they set clear direction, they are not afraid of challenge, and they stretch you. On average, the leaders we studied displayed six of the seven, and 47% displayed all seven, which told us something important. Conscious Leadership isn't one trait wearing different faces, it's the combination that makes the difference. A leader needs to understand these traits because each does a different job. Being seen and present is what unlocks energy and builds followership. Ninety-two percent of our interviewees described feeling truly seen by their leader, and that's what made people want to perform for them, not just for a title. Having someone's back and trusting them is what builds the safety that lets people tell the truth without fear. Setting a clear direction while still being willing to challenge and stretch people is what turns that safety into growth, rather than comfort. I don't see these as a checklist of nice-to-haves. They're the operating traits of a leader who gets the best out of people, sustainably, without burning them out in the process. For organisations reading this who are ready to elevate performance without burning people out, what can they expect when they start working with you? My first job is to see the leaders. That’s what makes this work different. When you create a safe space for leaders to speak up, to be themselves, to tell the truth, and when you give them permission to take care of themselves, things shift. The leader becomes the team member, the human, the person who needs to be seen. It releases the burden they carry, and it boosts their performance. It helps them to become more conscious. In my work with senior academics at University College London, we found that when leaders become more conscious, they produce better results. They are more satisfied, they are more engaged, and they are less likely to burn out. They contribute more to their organisation. Just sharing this story starts that journey. That is why I speak about this a lot. I was the leader who broke, and often, through my own vulnerability, it creates a big, wide-open space for other leaders to step into, and they do. The energy that unleashes in an organisation is profound. It transforms leaders. When leaders transform, they transform their organisation. That is good for them, and it’s good for every single stakeholder, including the shareholders. When leaders are given permission to become more conscious, everyone wins. If any of this speaks to where you or your organisation is right now, you may contact me here or visit my website. I’d love to hear from you. Follow me on LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Read more from Natasha Wallace

Written by Lisa Dunn and Lori Sherrington, Co-Founders of Inner Vision Healing & Wellness Lisa Dunn and Lori Sherrington are the Co-Founders of Inner Vision Healing & Wellness, a wellness practice focused on energy healing, frequency wellness, and holistic transformation. Together, they combine intuitive healing modalities with compassionate client care to support emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. Many of us keep promising we'll make time for ourselves, only to let work, family, and endless responsibilities push our well-being further down the list. This article explores why prioritizing wellness matters, how accessible remote holistic support can help remove common barriers, and why making space for self-care today may be one of the most important investments we can make in our overall health. When did we stop making ourselves a priority? "I'll make time for myself next week." It's a promise many of us have made. Next week we'll slow down. Next week we'll finally book the appointment we've been putting off. Next week we'll begin taking better care of ourselves. But next week becomes next month. Then next year. Life gets busy. Work demands more. Families need us. Our calendars become filled with responsibilities, and by the end of the day, we're often physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. Somewhere along the way, wellness became another task to squeeze into an already impossible schedule. At Inner Vision Healing & Wellness, we've learned something through years of supporting people from many different backgrounds. Most people don't neglect their wellness because they don't care. They neglect it because life gets in the way. Ironically, the people who need time to recharge the most are often the ones who believe they simply don't have the time. That realization challenged us to think differently. Instead of asking, "How do we get people to come to us?" we began asking, "How can wellness meet people where they are?" That single question has shaped everything we do. Meeting people where they are One of the philosophies that guides our work is simple. Healing begins by meeting people where they are, not where they think they should be. When we say that, we don't simply mean geographically. We mean physically, mentally, emotionally, and energetically. Every person arrives with a different story. Some are navigating burnout after years of putting everyone else first. Some are grieving. Others are balancing careers, raising families, caring for aging parents, or living with ongoing stress that has quietly become their new normal. Healing doesn't begin when life is perfect. It begins exactly where someone is today. Sometimes that's inside our wellness center in Port Perry, Ontario. Other times, it's from a living room, hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Over the years, we've had the privilege of supporting clients throughout Canada and internationally, including India, Colombia, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and England. Distance has never changed our intention. It has simply changed how we deliver support. Whether someone visits us in person or connects with us remotely, our goal remains the same, to create a safe, compassionate environment where they can slow down, reconnect with themselves, and feel supported on their wellness journey. Thinking outside the box Modern life doesn't always leave room for wellness. For many people, attending an appointment isn't simply an hour out of their day. It's arranging childcare, leaving work early, driving across town, finding parking, driving home again. By the time they return home, they're often more exhausted than when they left. We've heard countless people say, "I know I need this. I just don't have the time." That statement stayed with us. Instead of expecting people to work harder to fit wellness into their already busy lives, we asked ourselves a different question. What if wellness became more accessible? Remote wellness sessions weren't created to replace in-person care. They were created to remove barriers, to allow a parent caring for young children to receive support without leaving home, to help a healthcare professional relax after a demanding shift instead of driving another hour, and to make wellness available to someone traveling for work or living hundreds of miles away. Sometimes thinking outside the box isn't about changing the care. It's about changing how we deliver it. Sometimes making wellness more accessible is all someone needs to finally say yes. Can wellness really happen hundreds of miles away? This is probably the question we're asked most often. "How can a session work if I'm not even in the same room?" It's a thoughtful question, and one we genuinely appreciate. Practices such as Reiki have included distance sessions for decades, and many practitioners around the world have incorporated remote work into their practices for years. At Inner Vision Healing & Wellness, our work is guided by the understanding that energy is dynamic rather than fixed. From our perspective, meaningful connection isn't necessarily limited by physical distance. At the same time, we recognize that people come to these experiences with different beliefs and perspectives. Some understand them through the lens of energy. Others through intention, mindfulness, or simply by creating dedicated time to slow down, reflect, and reconnect with themselves. Rather than asking anyone to accept one explanation, we simply invite people to remain open, curious, and to experience it for themselves. For us, the most important question isn't, "How do we prove this?" It's "How can we create a meaningful experience that allows someone to relax, reconnect, and support their own wellness?" What does a remote session look like? One of the biggest misconceptions about remote wellness sessions is that clients spend the entire session sitting in front of a computer screen. In reality, most of our remote Reiki, Biofield Tuning, and intuitive wellness sessions are interactive. Rather than beginning with a detailed discussion about what may be happening in a client's life, we usually begin by quietly working within their energy field. This allows us to experience the session as openly and authentically as possible, without being influenced by their story or expectations. As the session unfolds, we begin sharing our intuitive impressions and energetic observations. We discuss areas that appear to hold energetic congestion or imbalance, assess the energetic balance of the chakra system, and explain what we're noticing as the session progresses. Only then does the conversation naturally develop. Many clients are fascinated when our observations resonate with experiences they haven't yet shared. From there, they are free to participate in whatever way feels most comfortable. Some enjoy talking throughout the session, sharing what they are experiencing physically, emotionally, or energetically. Others simply choose to lie back, relax, meditate, or close their eyes. Some even fall asleep. There is no right or wrong way to experience a session. Some clients become emotional and begin to cry. Others notice warmth, tingling, or gentle sensations moving throughout their body. Some experience involuntary shaking or twitching, while others simply feel deeply relaxed. From our perspective, these responses often coincide with a person allowing themselves to relax deeply and release stress or emotions they may have been holding onto. Many clients tell us they leave the session feeling lighter, calmer, more centered, and with a greater sense of clarity. Our intention is never to force an experience. It is to create a compassionate, supportive environment where each person feels safe enough to relax, release, reconnect, and simply allow the session to unfold naturally. The Harmonic Egg® Experience The Harmonic Egg® experience is intentionally different. Before a remote Harmonic Egg® session begins, we spend time speaking with the client about what they hope to receive from the experience and help them establish a personal intention. We often describe the Harmonic Egg® as creating a safe cocoon, a peaceful space where individuals can let go of the outside world and simply receive. During a remote session, clients listen to their personalized music from the comfort of their own home while we facilitate the session using their photograph. Unlike our interactive sessions, this becomes their personal journey. There is nothing they need to do. Nothing they need to figure out. Nothing they need to fix. Our role is simply to hold space while they allow themselves permission to rest, reset, and trust the process. For many people, this uninterrupted time becomes one of the greatest gifts they can give themselves. Every session is unique Many people ask us, "What should I expect during a session?" The honest answer is that no two sessions are ever the same. Every individual brings different experiences, different stressors, different emotions, and different life circumstances. Some people experience deep relaxation. Some become emotional. Others notice warmth, tingling, or gentle movement throughout their body. Some receive moments of clarity or personal insight. Every experience is unique, and there is no right or wrong way to experience a session. Our role is not to create an experience. It is to provide a safe, supportive environment where each person can simply be present with whatever arises. Supporting self-awareness For clients who choose this option, we also provide a personalized written report following their session. These reports summarize our intuitive impressions, energetic observations, recurring themes, and areas that appeared to need attention during the session. Many clients tell us they revisit these reports weeks or even months later, often discovering new insights as they continue their personal journey. Rather than telling someone what decisions to make, our intention is to encourage curiosity, self-awareness, and reflection. Sometimes, seeing recurring patterns written down helps people better understand what they have been feeling all along. Why we believe in remote wellness One of the reasons we feel so strongly about offering remote wellness sessions is that we've experienced them ourselves. On separate occasions while traveling, each of us found ourselves in situations where visiting the center simply wasn't possible. While Lori was vacationing in New Brunswick, she wasn't feeling like herself. Rather than waiting until she returned home, Lisa facilitated a remote Harmonic Egg® session while Lori remained where she was, allowing her the opportunity to rest and receive support. Months later, the roles were reversed. While Lisa was away on vacation, unexpected circumstances made it difficult to relax and enjoy the experience. Lori recognized that something wasn't quite right and facilitated a remote Harmonic Egg® session, giving Lisa the opportunity to pause, reset, and reconnect before continuing her holiday. Those experiences reinforced something we had already come to believe. Support doesn't always require people to be in the same room. Sometimes the greatest gift we can offer another person is creating the time and space for them to feel supported, wherever they happen to be. They also reinforced something we've always believed. Healing begins by meeting people where they are. Sometimes that's in our wellness center. Sometimes it's across the country. Sometimes it's on the other side of the world. Distance has never changed our intention to support another person with compassion, presence, and care. Looking beyond the symptoms to the root cause Lisa's background managing medical clinics and Lori's years of experience supporting children with special needs have given us a unique perspective on wellness. We have enormous respect for conventional healthcare and the incredible work medical professionals do every day. At the same time, our experiences have taught us that while symptoms often tell us what is happening, they don't always explain why. That curiosity has become an important part of our work. We encourage people to explore what may be contributing to their feelings rather than simply accepting stress, exhaustion, emotional overwhelm, or chronic tension as normal. Sometimes those experiences are connected to the pace of modern life. Sometimes they relate to unresolved emotions, chronic stress, or a nervous system that has been under pressure for far too long. Our role is not to diagnose illness, prescribe treatment, or replace medical care. Rather, we create a compassionate space where people can slow down, reconnect with themselves, and become curious about what their body, mind, and emotions may be trying to communicate. We believe the body has an incredible capacity to restore balance when given the opportunity to feel safe enough to relax, release, and reconnect. Whenever someone has ongoing pain, persistent symptoms, or concerns about their health, we always encourage them to continue working with their physician or healthcare practitioner. From our perspective, conventional healthcare and holistic wellness don't need to compete with one another. We believe the most supportive approach is one where they work alongside each other, each contributing to a person's overall well-being. Our role is to complement, not replace, medical care by creating time and space for people to relax, release what no longer serves them, restore balance, and reset in a way that supports their overall wellness. Sometimes healing begins not by asking, "How do I make this symptom disappear?" but instead by gently asking, "What is my body trying to tell me?" A different way of looking at wellness Perhaps the greatest lesson we've learned is this. Wellness isn't something we should squeeze into the spaces left over after we've taken care of everyone else. It deserves to become part of the way we choose to live. Whether that's creating time for a remote wellness session, spending a few quiet moments in reflection, or simply paying attention to the whispers before they become something louder, every small step matters. We believe healthcare and holistic wellness each have an important role to play. One helps us when illness demands our attention. The other encourages us to create the time and space to support our wellness before illness does. Together, they can provide a more complete approach to caring for the whole person. At Inner Vision Healing & Wellness, our hope is that people leave every session feeling more connected to themselves, to their bodies, and to the understanding that healing is often a journey rather than a destination. We believe healing begins by creating the space to slow down. To listen. To become curious. To reconnect with who we are beneath the noise of everyday life. Because the question isn't whether we're willing to make time for wellness. The question is whether we're willing to make time for wellness before we're forced to make time for illness. Healing isn't about returning to who you once were. It's about releasing what no longer serves you, restoring balance, and creating a life that aligns with who you are today and who you choose to become tomorrow. Continue your journey If you're new to energy healing and frequency-based wellness and would like to learn more, we invite you to visit here and download our complimentary ebook, Energy Healing & Frequency, available in the Shop section of our website. Whether you're exploring holistic wellness for the first time or simply curious to learn more, we hope it encourages you to think differently about wellness and inspires you to make yourself a priority before life makes that decision for you. Follow me on Facebook and Instagram for more info! Read more from Lisa Dunn and Lori Sherrington Lisa Dunn and Lori Sherrington, Co-Founders of Inner Vision Healing & Wellness Lisa Dunn and Lori Sherrington are the Co-Founders of Inner Vision Healing & Wellness, a wellness practice focused on energy healing, frequency wellness, holistic transformation, and autonomic nervous system reset. Both Lisa and Lori have experienced personal health challenges, which inspired their passion for holistic healing and for helping others reconnect with balance, clarity, and self-healing. Lisa brings more than 20 years of healthcare leadership experience and is a Certified Holistic Health Practitioner, Reiki Master, Harmonic Egg Guardian, and author. Lori specializes in Biofield Tuning and Reiki and also works closely with children with special needs as an Educational Assistant, with knowledge of American Sign Language (ASL).

Chitra Soerdjbalie is an international model, entrepreneur, and founder of Curated Moments by Chitra. In this exclusive interview, she shares how confidence, visibility, and authentic leadership have shaped her journey from her first international runway to building two purpose-driven brands. She also explores why representation matters, how meaningful experiences create lasting impact, and why women should never wait for permission to take up space. Chitra Soerdjbalie, Business Owner You’ve built a career across modelling and entrepreneurship; what first made you realize that visibility could become a powerful tool for leadership? For a long time, I thought visibility was simply about being seen. Over the years, I realised it is much more than that. When people see someone stepping outside of expectations, they often feel encouraged to do the same. Through modelling and entrepreneurship, I discovered that showing up authentically can inspire confidence in others. To me, leadership isn't about being the loudest person in the room; it's about creating space where others feel empowered to step forward too. After walking your first international runway at Milan Fashion Week in 2022, what changed most in how you viewed yourself and your potential? Walking my first international runway was a defining moment. It wasn't just about fashion; it was proof that opportunities can become reality when you are willing to pursue them. It reminded me that growth begins outside your comfort zone. That experience gave me the confidence to dream bigger, trust my abilities, and stop placing limits on what I thought was possible. As a curvy model, what conversations about representation do you think the fashion industry still needs to have? We've made progress, but representation should become the standard rather than the exception. Diversity is about more than body size; it's about reflecting real people with different backgrounds, cultures, ages, and stories. Everyone deserves to feel seen. Fashion has the power to influence confidence, and with that comes the responsibility to show that beauty exists in many forms. What have brands gained when they move beyond traditional ideas of beauty and embrace more authentic representation? Authenticity builds trust. Consumers connect with brands that reflect the world they live in, rather than an unrealistic ideal. When people genuinely see themselves represented, they feel included and valued. That creates stronger relationships, greater loyalty, and ultimately a more meaningful impact than simply following trends. You often connect fashion and event planning through storytelling; what makes a memorable experience regardless of the industry? People rarely remember every detail, but they always remember how something made them feel. Whether it's a fashion campaign, a runway show, or a carefully curated event, the most memorable experiences create an emotional connection. Both industries are about bringing a vision to life, paying attention to the smallest details, and creating moments that leave a lasting impression. What is one practical way someone can build confidence when they feel hesitant about being seen or heard? Start before you feel completely ready. Confidence isn't something that appears overnight; it's something you build through action. Every small step, speaking up in a meeting, sharing your work, or saying yes to an opportunity, helps strengthen your confidence. Waiting until you feel fearless often means waiting forever. For entrepreneurs building a personal brand, what helps create genuine connections rather than simply attracting attention? Authenticity. People connect with people, not perfection. Sharing your journey, your lessons, and even your challenges creates trust because it shows you're real. A personal brand shouldn't be about creating an image that impresses everyone; it should reflect your values and allow the right people to connect with you for who you truly are. You often speak about creating opportunities instead of waiting for them; how has that mindset shaped your own journey? Many of the opportunities I've had didn't simply appear, they started because I took the initiative. I reached out, introduced myself, applied, travelled, and said yes to experiences that felt both exciting and intimidating. I've learned that growth often begins with one courageous decision. If I had waited for the perfect moment, many of the milestones I'm proud of today would never have happened. What is one message you hope women carry with them when they decide to step into greater visibility and leadership? Don't wait until you feel perfect before taking your place. Your voice, your story, and your perspective already have value. Leadership isn't about fitting into someone else's definition of success; it's about leading with authenticity, lifting others as you grow, and having the courage to be visible exactly as you are. Sometimes the simple act of showing up is enough to inspire someone else to do the same. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Chitra Soerdjbalie