Most leaders attack habit change like a business problem: make a plan, take action, get results. But Dr. Abby Medcalf says that's exactly why it fails. Whether it's alcohol, sugar, or any high-stakes habit, lasting change doesn't start with what you do. It starts with getting radically honest about why you want to change.
Most workplaces wait for crisis before offering support. But what about the breakup, the demotion, the quiet "I don't know who I am anymore" phase? Nick Freud, founder of Fellow Humans, joins me to make the case that the most powerful support isn't clinical, it's human. And it belongs at work.
What if we treated psychological harm at work the same way we treat a fall hazard or faulty equipment? Australia is already doing it. ACTU Assistant Secretary Liam O'Brien joins Dr. Sally and Jørgen Gullestrup to unpack work-related suicide as a regulatory issue, not just a mental health one.
What if chasing profit is quietly burning out the people who make it possible? BuildWitt founder Aaron Witt joins Dr. Sally to explore how leaders who prioritize their own wellbeing and invest in relationships before the crisis hits build teams that are stronger, more resilient, and more profitable in the long run.
Sleep loss isn’t just a wellness issue. It’s a workplace safety crisis. Workers with sleep problems face a 60% higher injury risk, and 17 hours without sleep impairs you like alcohol. In this episode, I break down the mental health–sleep–fatigue cycle and shares five organizational strategies leaders can act on today.
Most leaders attack habit change like a business problem: make a plan, take action, get results. But Dr. Abby Medcalf says that's exactly why it fails. Whether it's alcohol, sugar, or any high-stakes habit, lasting change doesn't start with what you do. It starts with getting radically honest about why you want to change.
What if chasing profit is quietly burning out the people who make it possible? BuildWitt founder Aaron Witt joins Dr. Sally to explore how leaders who prioritize their own wellbeing and invest in relationships before the crisis hits build teams that are stronger, more resilient, and more profitable in the long run.
Sleep loss isn’t just a wellness issue. It’s a workplace safety crisis. Workers with sleep problems face a 60% higher injury risk, and 17 hours without sleep impairs you like alcohol. In this episode, I break down the mental health–sleep–fatigue cycle and shares five organizational strategies leaders can act on today.
What if the exhaustion you feel isn't just burnout but something deeper? Soul exhaustion erodes your core identity. In this episode, Sarah Gaer and I share two life-changing tools: treating time as your most valuable currency and reclaiming yourself one boundary at a time. Your soul is worth protecting.
What does it look like to grow through profound loss and not just survive it? AnneMoss Rogers, advocate, author, and suicide loss survivor, joins me to share two powerful strategies workplace leaders can use to support employees through grief, trauma, and the unexpected journey toward post-traumatic growth.
Have you ever gotten a text out of the blue? Just someone saying, thinking of you today, and you felt something shift? Turns out, that's not just a nice thing to do. The research says it can save a life. In this episode, Cheri Skelding from Rocky Mountain Crisis Partners breaks down the science of caring contacts and why the simplest outreach might be the most powerful tool your workplace is missing.
When a critical incident strikes a workplace — whether a natural disaster, an act of violence, a sudden death, or a large-scale social disruption — leaders are thrust into decisions that carry enormous human and organizational consequences.
In this episode of Headspace for the Workplace, I speak with Jeff Gorter, Vice President of Clinical Crisis Response at R3 Continuum, about what effective crisis response actually looks like on the ground.
Drawing from more than three decades of frontline crisis response, including responses to the September 11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina, the Las Vegas mass shooting, and other major disasters, Jeff shares practical insights on what helps people stabilize in the immediate aftermath of trauma and what organizations can do to support recovery over time.
The conversation emphasizes two essential truths about crisis response:
Crisis confirms culture.
Presence matters more than perfection.
This episode offers leaders, HR professionals, safety teams, and mental health practitioners a practical framework for responding to workplace crises in ways that protect people, restore stability, and build trust.
We say we are human beings, but most days at work, we live like human doings.
Meeting to meeting.
Task to task.
Crisis to crisis.
In this episode of Headspace for the Workplace, I sit down with “Dr. B,” a meaning-centered psychotherapist and logotherapist, to explore “A Void Dance,” the subtle but powerful ways individuals and organizations stay busy to avoid the uncomfortable truths at the center of our lives.
When we suppress authenticity, avoid hard conversations, or stay focused only on productivity, the cost shows up as burnout, disengagement, moral injury, and psychological unsafety.
This conversation invites workplace leaders to pause, reflect, and recenter work around meaning, not just motion.
With the Super Bowl lighting up screens this weekend, football metaphors are everywhere. But beneath the bright lights and highlight reels is a quieter truth every great team understands: games are won in the trenches, by a defensive line that protects, communicates, and does its job together.
In this timely episode of Headspace for the Workplace, Chris and Martha Thomas — parents, advocates, and founders of The Defensive Line — share how this metaphor was forged through both professional football and profound personal loss. Their son Solomon is an NFL defensive lineman, and their family also knows the devastating impact of suicide through the loss of their precious daughter and sister, Ella, who died at age 24.
Drawing from life on and off the field, Chris and Martha offer a powerful and practical framework for workplace suicide prevention and mental health leadership. This conversation is about game plans, getting reps in, and shared responsibility, because when pressure is high and the stakes are real, protection doesn’t happen by accident; it happens by design.
Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are among the most common workplace mental health benefits and among the most misunderstood.
In this episode of Headspace for the Workplace, I am joined by David Nix, a nationally respected EAP leader with more than two decades of experience supporting the oil & gas industry, working on military bases in Iraq, and supporting remote oil fields in Alaska.
Together, we explore the evolution of the EAP from quiet crisis hotlines for alcoholism into proactive, culture-shaping systems that support people, leaders, and whole organizations.
Drawing on emerging research, including recent findings on modern EAP models and their effectiveness, this conversation challenges leaders to rethink what “good” EAP support actually looks like and how to ensure it truly serves their people.
Fly-In Fly-Out (FIFO) work can quietly erode mental health, strain families, and elevate suicide risk if workplaces aren’t designed with human realities in mind.
In this special episode of Headspace for the Workplace, we relaunch a powerful conversation from the IASP Work-Related Suicide Series featuring Francisco “Fran” Valenzuela, CRSP, a safety leader, lived-experience advocate, and systems-level change agent in the oil and gas sector.
Fran shares how FIFO environments create a high-risk ecosystem shaped by isolation, long rotations, masculine norms, fatigue, and limited access to care—and how those same systems can be redesigned to protect lives, strengthen culture, and improve the bottom line.
When a suicide, overdose, or traumatic death happens in the workplace, the response in the first 48 hours can either stabilize the organization or unintentionally increase harm.
Yet most workplaces have no clear postvention plan.
In this Headspace for the Workplace conversation, Dr. John Gaal brings together lived experience, labor leadership, and research to explain why postvention is the missing leg of the three-legged stool of workplace mental health: prevention, intervention, and postvention.
Drawing from decades of workforce development, construction industry data, and peer-reviewed research, this episode explores:
What actually helps people in shock
Why EAPs are often underutilized in crisis
How trained peer supporters serve as “mental health first responders.”
Why partnerships — not silos — save lives
We talk about what leaders must do when the unthinkable happens.
In this special year-in-review episode of Headspace for the Workplace, I reflect on a year of advancing workplace mental health and suicide prevention across high-risk industries, global conferences, and organizational systems. The episode blends practical insights for leaders with candid reflections on burnout, leadership pressure, and what it takes to stay human while building cultures of care at work.
What if paid time off (PTO) isn’t a perk but essential health infrastructure?
In this episode of Headspace for the Workplace, I sit down with Daniel Oates, a longtime construction leader at Flintco, to unpack the psychological, neurobiological, and organizational benefits of structured, work-free time away from work.
Drawing from more than two decades in the construction industry and grounded in a robust body of mental health and neuroscience research, this conversation reframes time off as a strategic investment in worker resilience, safety, creativity, and long-term performance.
Together, Daniel and I explore why simply offering PTO isn’t enough, why psychological detachment is the missing ingredient, and how leaders can design systems that allow people to recover truly, without guilt, fear, or career penalty.
Silence around suicide and mental health in the workplace carries a steep price -- measured not only in human suffering, but also in productivity loss, legal exposure, reputational harm, and missed opportunities for early intervention.
In this episode of Headspace for the Workplace, I sit down with Canadian guest Tara Adams, a leading voice in workplace suicide prevention, to unpack the business case for proactive, skills-based suicide prevention at work. Drawing on research, lived experience, and real-world implementation, Tara explains why organizations that invest in connection, competence, and care build stronger, more resilient workplaces.
In this emotionally resonant episode of Headspace for the Workplace, Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas talks with Dr. Colleen Saringer, a psychologist, speaker, and spouse of a construction business owner, about one of the most overlooked realities of workplace mental health: the spillover of job stress into family life.
Most workplaces measure safety by one number: injuries. But what if some of the real drivers of safety are invisible?
In this episode, I sit down with Bill Sims Jr., one of the National Safety Council’s “Top 10 Global Keynote Speakers” and the author of the widely acclaimed book Green Beans & Ice Cream: The Remarkable Power of Positive Reinforcement.
