Blog

Smart, articulate teams still misunderstand each other. It’s rarely about intelligence or effort. More often, it’s about what happens in the space between what someone means, what they say and what another person hears.

We have more ways to communicate at work than ever: email, Teams, Slack, Zoom and now AI tools that can draft, summarise and respond for us. So why do teams miscommunicate more than ever, rather than less? More communication doesn’t necessarily mean better communication.

We can be in the same meeting and leave with completely different interpretations. A neutral message can sound abrupt. A conversation can feel fine in the moment, only for tension to appear later.

So what gets in the way? Often, it’s not the words. It’s everything happening...

Continue reading...

Neurodivergent adults consistently report higher rates of anxiety and depression than their neurotypical peers, which makes this an area managers genuinely can’t afford to get wrong. This article explores what struggling looks like for a neurodivergent team member, and what supporting neurodivergent employees realistically involves for a manager.

World Mental Health Day exists to widen the conversation about mental health at work. This year’s theme is ‘Lived Experiences Heard,’ and it matters particularly for neurodivergent employees, whose experience of struggling often looks nothing like the standard advice managers are given.

...

Continue reading...

Stoptober challenges smokers to stay smoke-free for 28 days, because the evidence behind the campaign shows that’s the single biggest predictor of being able to quit smoking for good. This article looks at how hypnotherapy can help you get there and what a session involves.

Every October, the same question lands in my inbox more than any other time of year: does hypnotherapy actually work for quitting smoking?

Smoking is one of the hardest habits to break, precisely because it isn’t just physical. Nicotine withdrawal fades within days. The habit, the association, the hand-to-mouth ritual built into a hundred small moments of your day, that’s what tends to outlast the...

Continue reading...

Team misalignment rarely looks like conflict. It looks like a group working hard, hitting deadlines and still falling behind, because each person is quietly operating from a different picture of the goal, often the single most common reason a team with good people and good tools underperforms. This article explains what causes it, how to spot it early, and what actually rebuilds a shared picture the whole team can see themselves in.

You’ve sat in that meeting. Everyone nods, the plan sounds settled, and two weeks later three people are doing three different things, each convinced they were following what was agreed.

That is why ...

Continue reading...

Mindfulness at work is often mistaken for a break from the job: a breathing exercise, a moment of calm. In a professional context it’s closer to a cognitive skill, one that shapes how people think, decide and lead under pressure. This article explains what the evidence actually shows and what it looks like in practice.

Most people picture a yoga studio or a guided breathing app when they hear the word mindfulness, something to reach for on a break rather than use during one. That association isn’t wrong, but it undersells what’s actually being asked of people at work every day: to notice what’s pulling their attention, and choose where it goes instead.

I’m Katie Fobbester, a mindfulnes...

Continue reading...

Feeling completely drained but still lying awake has a name: tired but wired, a genuinely recognisable pattern rather than a contradiction. This article explains what’s actually happening in your body when exhaustion and sleeplessness happen at the same time, and what genuinely helps.

You’ve been running on empty all day. Your eyes are heavy by nine. You finally get into bed, certain you’ll be asleep within minutes. And then nothing happens. You lie there, wide awake, more alert than you were an hour ago, wondering how you can be this exhausted and this unable to switch off at the same time.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not imagining it, and you’re not...

Continue reading...

GLP-1 medications aren’t right, accessible or wanted by everyone, and that doesn’t leave you without options. This article looks at what actually happens when you can’t or don’t want to use drugs like Ozempic or Wegovy, and where hypnotherapy genuinely fits.

It feels like everyone is talking about Ozempic and Wegovy at the moment, and for some people, these medications have genuinely helped. But they’re not for everyone. You might not be eligible. You might not be able to afford ongoing private prescriptions. You might have tried one and found the side effects weren’t worth it. Or you might simply have decided, for entirely valid reasons, that injecting a weekly medication isn’t the route...

Continue reading...

Someone struggling badly often shows it in small, easy-to-miss changes long before they say anything. This article explains what those changes can look like at work and how to check in without making things worse.

If you’re worried someone may be in danger right now, call 999. For urgent, non-emergency support, Samaritans are free and available 24 hours a day on 116 123.

You’ve probably had the thought before. Something feels off with a colleague, but you can’t quite say what.

Maybe they’ve gone quiet in meetings where they used to speak up. Maybe they’re staying later than usual, or barely showing up at all. Maybe you just ...

Continue reading...

Losing control is one of the most common fears people have about hypnotherapy, and it’s based on a real misunderstanding of what hypnosis actually does. This article explains why the conscious mind isn’t always the one driving your anxiety, what hypnotherapy actually works with instead, and what a session really involves.

Have you ever thought about trying hypnotherapy for anxiety, and then stopped yourself at the very last moment with the same nagging thought: what if I lose control?

It’s one of the most common questions I hear before someone books their first session, and it’s completely understandable. Most of what people know about hypnosis comes from stage shows: swinging pocket watches and people clucking like chickens. If that were really what happened in a ther...

Continue reading...

Guilt and shame feel similar but work very differently. Guilt is about something you did and can often be repaired. Shame is about who you believe you are, which is why it can linger long after an apology has been accepted. This article explains how to tell the two apart and what actually helps when shame is the one you’re carrying.

Have you ever apologised for something, been forgiven for it, and still felt terrible days or even years later? Not because of what you did, but because of what it seemed to say about you?

If you’ve been forgiven but still feel like a bad person, shame may be playing a bigger role than guilt. Most people use the words interchangeably. In practi...

Continue reading...