ABOUT THE COURSE
Stress is an unavoidable part of life in teams and organisations.
When we care about our work, our relationships, and the impact we hope to make, stress inevitably emerges at times.
Yet, when left unmanaged, stress not only wears us down personally – it subtly disrupts clarity, performance, and the quality of our connection with others. In the UK, 79% of employees report stress while signs of burnout are increasingly common (MHFA England).
In today’s fast-paced work environments, our collective energy is being drained by something we often feel we simply have to ‘push through’ until we come to a hard stop.
There is however another way.
This course offers you an alternative approach to understanding and managing stress: Not as a problem but a resource that can support wellbeing, adaptability, and performance.
It is the first course of the programme ‘Managing Stress and Resilience in Teams and Organisations’ and is especially designed to offer you the essential foundations for understanding stress and resilience, in human-centric, relational and very practical ways. It explores how stress emerges and becomes amplified, and how individuals and teams can work with it more effectively and sustainably.
In this course, we explore how we respond to pressure as people and professionals (cognitively, emotionally and in our embodied presence) and how our own experiences and perceptions shape our responses to it. Participants recognise early stress patterns, learn how to regulate the autonomic nervous system, and build greater choice in responding to stress. This, along with practical steps you can take to support resilience, including restorative routines, and regulation strategies.
The day offers theoretical and practical input, along with structured experiential exercises, reflective dialogue, and practical application of offered tools and methods.
The Gestalt humanistic and relational approach underpins the learning process, enabling participants to connect personal experience with broader team and organisational dynamics and practice.
Course groups are intentionally kept small to enhance the learning experience for participants. You are advised to book as soon as you can to ensure you secure your place. The course is run on various dates throughout the year. For more information, see the Dates and Fees section below.
WHO IS THE COURSE FOR
The course is designed for professionals who want a grounded, research informed, relational understanding of stress and how to work with it as a resource to support healthy dynamics and performance. It is suited to individuals navigating in complex or fast paced environments, those aiming to strengthen resilience, and those supporting others through change.
- Professionals experiencing sustained pressure who want a grounded understanding of how stress works in real contexts.
- Managers, team leaders, and emerging leaders seeking practical skills to support resilience in themselves and others.
- Teams that work in high demand, high complexity, or ambiguity heavy environments where psychological safety is critical.
- HR, wellbeing, and organisational development practitioners who want a research informed framework that links individual physiology, mindset, and organisational dynamics.
- Professionals who prefer experiential, applied learning rather than abstract theory.
No prior experience is necessary. Participants require curiosity to explore self-awareness and work with psychologically informed and relational approaches of this topic, in a supportive group setting.
At the Gestalt Centre we value equity and inclusion and welcome diversity and difference in all backgrounds, identities, cultures and voices. It is integral to who we are and how we work. If you have any accessibility requirements for this course, please let us know how we might be able to meet them.
COURSE OUTCOMES
- Understand how stress functions, and how cognitive, emotional, and physiological processes influence outcomes and workplace behaviour.
- Recognise how interpretations, predictions, and rapid judgements shape stress responses and influence behaviour.
- Understand stress as a dynamic relational and psychophysiological process rather than a fixed state and exploration of it with a coaching model integrating mindset, motivation, embodied presence, and wellbeing.
- Identify early physiological and emotional indicators of stress and connect with established patterns of behaviour to understand stress dynamics.
- Apply practical techniques for regulating the autonomic nervous system and increasing moment to moment choice.
- Clarify the role of motivation, values, and personal meaning in generating stress and resilience.
- Integrate restorative habits and recovery practices that strengthen long term wellbeing and performance.
- Analyse organisational stressors, including volatility, ambiguity, cultural expectations, and relational dynamics.
- Use awareness based and relational approaches to enhance communication and reduce avoidable friction in teams
ABOUT THE TRAINER
Carlo Draghi MA, is a UKCP accredited Gestalt psychotherapist, an EMCC accredited coach, and a consultant. Prior to this, Carlo worked for 18 years in the finance industry managing high-performing teams. Today, he integrates his corporate background, coaching and therapy training to support individuals, leaders, and teams unlock potential, enhance performance, and navigate personal and professional growth. Carlo also holds an MA in Gestalt Psychotherapy, an MSc in Organisational Psychology, and a BSc in Economics.