Stress management
As companies increasingly recognize the importance of employee wellbeing, investing in learning and development programs has become a crucial part of building a successful and sustainable business. By supporting the personal and professional growth of your employees, you can improve morale and productivity, reduce turnover and absenteeism, and ultimately boost the overall performance of your organization.
At ICAS Learning and Development, we specialize in providing training and support that helps employees thrive in the workplace. From stress management and communication skills to time management and leadership development, our programs are designed to enhance corporate wellbeing and support the unique needs of your organization.
In today’s fast-paced and demanding business environment, investing in the wellbeing of your employees has never been more important. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you create a happier, healthier, and more productive workforce or discover our packages here.
Training
Each topic is specifically customised towards an employee, entire team or leader within an organisation. Our focus within your organisation is on enabling employees to cope with continuous change in a healthy and sustainable way, coaching teams to manage in group work and alignment, and encouraging positive power to leaders to build and maintain sincere relationships.
Our training has a strategic focus on developing, enhancing and healthy living;
Topics
Work
Mental health
Hybrid teams that work
This workshop aims to highlight the typical risks and opportunities that characterise hybrid teams, and make recommendations for hybrid working models that support engaged, balanced and productive employee behaviour.
Diversity
These sessions provide an understanding and appreciation of diversity in the workplace to show support, growth and empowerment between groups and between individuals. This intervention also aims to encourage participants to understand their own conscious and unconscious biases and to engage in policies that reduce unfair discrimination and exclusionary practices.
- Diversity, inclusion and belonging at work (general awareness)
- Understanding LGBTQIA, gender identity and sexuality
- Gender equality: A conversation on diversity and inclusion for women and men
- Understanding neurodiversity
- Race, culture and racism at work (and beyond)
Emotional Intelligence
This session explores how an individual’s emotional intelligence (EQ), intelligence quotient (IQ) and spiritual/social intelligence (SQ) relate to each other. This ensures that there is congruence between what is thought, said and done in a company.
Learned optimism and goal setting
Looking at the challenges and changes that people all over the world face, it quickly becomes clear that creative ways of coping and thinking need to be explored. This training aims to encourage and retrain participants to focus on thinking patterns that take an optimistic approach to challenges and change, as an innovative way to improve individual coping and thriving. Furthermore, it aims to create a shift in perspective by equipping participants with a deeper appreciation of the value of concepts such as learned optimism and growth mindset. Finally, the lecture aims to provide practical tips for using these approaches to set and achieve goals.
Preventing stress and burnout
A major misconception prevalent in this society is that burnout is caused by working too hard and too much. But what is too hard and too much? We would like to eliminate this misconception. Many people work too hard and too much and yet are perfectly happy. Burnout, on the other hand, is more to do with an imbalance, an imbalance between three elements.
– Values, relational identity and self-worth
– Competencies, relational style and behaviour
– Context and control
Stress & burn-out recognition
Stress is part of the competitive world we live in. But that is no reason to just put up with it. Insights into what exactly stress is, how to deal with it and how to avoid it degenerating into something chronic (burnout) give employees the necessary tools to actively deal with stress in themselves and others.
Stress Theatre
At work, at home or in the shop, stress is something we all experience. Using the Ten Stress Commandments, we play on everyday life and the stress involved. The stress theatre makes participants aware of today’s stress problems in a playful and enjoyable way.
Assertive Communication
In this workshop, we will discuss the different communication styles, what their advantages and disadvantages are and how to move towards more assertive communication.
Communication Theatre
The Communication Theatre addresses all employees of the company (Blue Collar, White Collar, Management, C-level) and is ideal for large groups.
We can all communicate and in many different ways. In this theatre, we use playful skits to show where we sometimes go wrong and, above all, how we can make the fog lift for ourselves and for others.
Communication, these are all the ways we convey a message to another person. We do this for various reasons: to incite action, to express emotions, to inform, for pleasure,…
When we communicate a message, we do so not only in terms of content, but also with our voice and body. And once in a while, we commit a sin, a blunder against communication. A communication blunder, in other words.
What can you expect?
The exercises enable participants to better empathise with their colleagues’ thought patterns. This theatre is also a trigger for self-analysis and for recognising and acknowledging communication blunders in themselves and others.
‘Theoretical’ part: What is communication?
Using the ‘ten commandments’, we demonstrate the pitfalls and provide tips to avoid falling into that trap
Resilience, happiness and shared responsibility, an inspiring session
A good mindset is the key to more happiness time in an employee’s life, but also shapes personal development in the workplace. It ensures an accurate performance ratio in the working atmosphere and good connection with colleagues. Being active at an organisation is a shared responsibility, of both employee and employer. A good employer ensures collective wellbeing. The best methodology in this consists of the global psychodynamic – resilience model.
During an interactive workshop, participants will learn the difference between general mental resilience and the psychodynamic approach. Thus, they gain insight about the impact on the brain and nervous system due to long-term low mental resilience. Both for themselves and those around them. We translate the complexity of chronic stress complaints into simple structure lines and the consequences on our neuronal system will be explained in a playful way. Numerous practical tips contribute to an enriching session for each participant.
GRIT for employees
Helps employees understand their own reactions to change and offers them practical and emotional support, coping mechanisms and tools to build resilience.
GRIT for managers
Helps leaders and HR staff who are responsible for supporting others through the change process to empower and buffer their teams and personally cope with change and build resilience themselves too.
Stress & Work-life Balance
This experiential session helps employees understand how stress affects them as individuals and provides them with tools to deal with daily stressors as part of their personal and professional well-being.
Trauma Management
Trauma is an emotional issue and its experience varies greatly from person to person. Therefore, staff in charge of managing traumatic situations and those experiencing trauma must have the necessary knowledge and tools to deal with the situation effectively while controlling their own reaction.
Psychological safety
This training looks at the importance of Psychological Safety as a first step towards happy, productive and more effective teams. It clarifies why it is so important to foster a culture of psychological safety. We then look at what this looks like in practice in the behaviour of leaders, teams and within relationships, and provide guidance on the skills and practices needed to achieve this.
Mental health and mental disorders
This series of training courses aims to draw attention to the importance of mental health in the personal context and at work, and provides continuing education around ways to improve mental health.
Borders
Session overview:
– Understanding boundaries, respect and responsibility.
– Where does guilt come from
– Fighting guilt and fear
– Using self-care
– Applied examples and contexts
– EAP support
Loneliness
Session overview:
– Definition of loneliness and loneliness in relation to mental health
– What does research tell us about being lonely and isolated
– Understanding our innate need for connection and belonging
– Causes, risk factors and consequences of loneliness
– How to tackle loneliness in the interests of mental health and well-being
– EAP support
Working on guilt as a parent
Session overview:
– What is work parent debt?
– Where do these feelings come from?
– The harmful effects of excessive guilt
– Strategies to tackle guilt:
• Good Enough Parenting
– Tips to improve quality of parenting life through healthier use of time
Building personal agility: readiness for constant change in the future world of work and life
In this session, we aim to highlight the need for improved personal agility for those who want to survive and thrive in the future world of work and life, and provide meaningful insights into what attitudes, skills and habits need to be cultivated to grow and develop in this area.
Session overview:
– Change: where are we? And where are we going?
– Impact on mental health
– What is Personal Agility?
– Attitudes and beliefs
– Building agile habits
– Perfection obsession: The enemy of Agility
– Accepting human limitations: using psychosocial tools that help us
Imposter syndrome and performance anxiety
This lecture is about recognising Imposter Syndrome and Performance Anxiety in yourself and others, and how best to deal with it or even avoid getting sucked into its social traps.
(* indicates additional elements available in the 2-hour lecture)
Session overview:
– What is Imposter syndrome?
– Imposter syndrome and performance anxiety
– *Group sharing on experiences with Imposter Syndrome and Performance Anxiety
– How does Imposter Syndrome manifest itself at work?
– Risk factors of Imposter syndrome
– *How Imposter Syndrome affects your mental health
– How to recognise Imposter syndrome
– Types of Imposter syndrome
– You are not alone – Famous people with Imposter Syndrome
– Dealing with Imposter Syndrome
– *Turning Imposter Syndrome into a superpower
– Celebrating you
– *The 30-day self-love challenge
– ICAS support
Self-care: The key to work-life integration
In this session, ICAS will put forward ideas that link the adoption of a mindset that values self-care to a key element for successful work-life integration. We cannot sustain what we give ourselves to if we do not also take care of ourselves. We will also look at some practical tools for building habits that support this way of life, for greater peace of mind and less guilt.
Session overview:
– What is work-life integration and what do we aim for?
– What is self-care (and what is it not!)?
– Why is self-care “the key” to sustainable work-life integration?
– Addressing guilt and paying attention to self-talk
– Rethinking values, priorities and active time management for self-care
– Habits that support healthy self-care
– ICAS support
Growth mindset and learned optimism: Approaches that encourage development
This lecture aims to highlight the huge impact people’s attitudes and beliefs have on personal and professional development. Concepts like Growth Mindset and Learned Optimism are explained and contrasted with their more obstructive opposites – Fixed Mindset and Learned Helplessness – to highlight the vast differences these approaches can have on our future well-being, mental health and even success.
Session overview:
– Fire together, wire together – The neuroscience of how we learn
– Negative thinking as a survival instinct
– Learned helplessness versus learned optimism
– A mindset for optimism
• Growth mindset versus fixed mindset
– The benefits of the growth mindset
– Pathways to optimism – Strategies for learning and mastery
– The link between growth mindset, optimism and resilience
Courageous conversations in the workplace
In every workplace, there are topics we feel we cannot approach, often because we fear they will lead to conflict. However, we can take the fear out of these conversations by learning how to have Courageous Conversations. This training is designed to give participants tools on how to have these much-needed conversations in an appropriate way and make them understand why we need to have such conversations.
Learning opportunities:
– “Hot” hangers-on
– Being brave
– Psychological safety
– Impression control
– Trial area
– ICAS support
Prosilience: building resilience
Today, more than before, resilience has become one of the most important topics in the workplace.
Resilience is the ability to bounce back mentally after a disruptive event. The ability to bounce back after a crisis or chaotic period, without long-term consequences.
Resilience is not only a trait peculiar to an individual, but can also be applied to teams and organisations.
ICAS Belgium developed a series of workshops to increase resilience and the ability to bounce back. These workshops provide the necessary tools for individuals and teams to better cope with busy professional life.
The programme consists of 2 online workshops of 2 to 3 hours with exercises between the 2 workshops.
Corporate yoga
This contemporary approach to yoga is open to all ages and fitness levels.
It is hard to find a more complete way to relax than yoga. Yoga, originally an Indian way of meditating, has long since ceased to be used only in that religious context. Millions of people use yoga as a way to relax, and it works.
The combination of exercise and relaxation helps address stress, chronic pain and poor posture. The skills, taught in a down-to-earth manner, can be applied during both personal and professional life.
Desk yoga
Anyone who would like to feel better mentally and physically using a combination of exercise, stress-regulation and focus.
Bart, our trainer, combines his posture expertise, extensive yoga background and insight into the psychology of the body. His approach is practical and goes beyond stretching and relaxation. The focus is on developing physical awareness and self-regulatory capacity to better manage stress and increase your physical well-being. By improving your quality of movement and breathing, you will find more comfort and ease in your body and address the roots of chronic pain. Bart’s contemporary approach to yoga is open to different ages, fitness levels or previous or current injuries.
Energy Management
Anyone keen to learn how to set up healthy habits to go through life with more vitality
Improving your energy levels goes beyond drinking coffee to combat fatigue. This training provides an overview of different life habits that affect your vitality and how to optimise them. The training brings a holistic and practical approach to living and working healthier, more productive and with greater well-being.
Heart coherence
To maintain your resilience and cope with today’s increasing complexities and challenges, it is of utmost importance to incorporate regular moments of rest, just like in top-level sports. We call this ‘active rest’.
The Heart Coherence method is easy to apply, takes little time, is scientifically based and measurable with biofeedback. With specific rhythmic breathing that you only need to apply 3x6min a day, you have an immediate impact on your recovery, rest and balance. The effects are not only measurable, but also sustainable.
Heart coherence is an optimal state of the body where it is fully balanced physiologically, physically, emotionally and mentally. When you are heart coherence, your heart gets into a special state and then signals to the brain that we are in safe mode. We don’t have to shoot into fight-flight-starve mode or -what we too often do- stay in it. The body and mind are allowed to unwind. This has a positive impact on our thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
With a simple rhythmic breathing technique, you can bring your heart into that special state that allows you to create peace and balance.
Mindfullness
Mindfulness is a way of paying attention, non-judgementally and in the present moment. This attention allows you to enjoy small things more, experience less stress, fret less and come to more conscious decisions. You can cope better with challenges.
Mindfulness can be applied both at home and at work. Multiple scientific studies have shown that mindfulness results in improved attention functions, better stress management, increased collegiality and an increase in general well-being.
Psysical health
Life
Ergonomics
Finding an efficient working position (especially when working from home) can be challenging. With teleworking becoming more common, unsuitable workstations and harmful habits often lead to physical discomfort. We all work from a different set-up, and therefore a One Size Fits All approach does not work here.
In this workshop, participants learn basic principles of healthy movement, we provide individual tools and go beyond general ergonomic guidelines. By understanding how our bodies function, participants gain control over their own ergonomics. This session first teaches the basics of healthy posture through practical exercises. Then these principles can be applied to the personal workplace.
Let’s move
This session is suitable for people of all fitness levels. So you don’t need to be trained, but let this session be a motivation to bring more exercise into your daily life!
Exercise is the best way to improve your stamina, strength and mobility. The Romans already sang it: a healthy mind in a healthy body. Exercise is just very important if you want to feel good, both in your heart and in your head.
Not only do your muscles get stronger, but you also feel mentally stronger. We are not made to sit still for a whole day, our bodies need to move to feel good.
This is a very active session in which we learn to move correctly in a pleasant way and work on our mobility, fitness and strength. Besides numerous easy exercises, a short fitness test will determine your fitness level.
The benefits of exercise are not just physical: exercise also has a relaxing effect, relieves stress and can lead to new social contacts.
Life is movement!
· Brief introduction to why movement is so important.
· We start the session with body awareness and posture corrections
· Approachable fitness test to determine your fitness level.
· Mobility exercises that can easily be done at home. Optimal mobility is crucial for maintaining good posture and preventing incorrect postures and injuries during exercise. Improving mobility can also significantly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of various exercises.
· Strength and cardio are two other very important factors of exercise and a healthy body. We will do some simple strength exercises without any fitness equipment.
· At the end of the session, we will boost our cardiovascular system using a highly effective training method called ‘Tabata’.
Vitacheck
The vitacheck is there for everyone. To measure is to know and that is exactly what the vitacheck does.
The vitacheck is a collection of 5 tests performed in group and led by our exercise coaches. The combination of these results clearly shows the weaknesses and strengths of a person’s physical health.
The result is a test report in which the participant can view his result. If it has done so before, it can view its evolution.
The participant is also given a training schedule to work on his or her working points. These schedules can be taught at a separate workshop.
This diagnostic positively informs employees about their physical fitness and encourages them to move more. This is often the first step in a behavioural change process towards healthier lifestyles.
Chair massage
Are you looking for a simple but efficient way to give your employees a break from the daily workload? Then a massage at work is the ideal solution.
Our professional team is at your disposal for a massage@work. Because those who regularly take an efficient moment of relaxation are better equipped to deal with the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Too high a workload will cause a lot of effective energy to be lost with less ability to put things in perspective and take distance.
Massage is as old as mankind. When we are in pain, we intuitively rub the sensitive body part. Massage therapy can be used preventively or therapeutically. As a result, your body relaxes while at the same time problem areas are addressed. Your body tells you what it needs. You only have to (learn to) listen to it. Massage@work is an excellent tool for this.
Healthy food
Anyone who wants to change their diet and have more energy, but is unsure how to fit healthy eating into their lifestyle. Also suitable for those who want to lose weight without dieting.
Today, we receive information about healthy eating through many channels. Sometimes contradictory information… We no longer know what to believe. Thanks to this training/webinar, we learn to trust ourselves again and to be critical of all kinds of food trends. We also learn to listen to our body and our own needs
Our nutritionist motivates participants to eat healthier by demonstrating the positive effects of a healthy diet (health, weight loss, energy levels…). She focuses on the importance of a ‘step by step’ approach.
Healthy breakfasts & snacks
For anyone who wants to change their diet and have more energy, but is unsure how to fit healthy eating into their lifestyle. Also suitable for those who want to lose weight without dieting.
Thanks to this training/webinar, we will learn which breakfasts and snacks are best for us, how they affect our blood sugar and how to avoid unhealthy snacking during the day.
Our nutritionist motivates participants to eat healthier breakfasts and snacks by demonstrating their impact on our blood sugar levels. She focuses on the importance of a ‘step by step’ approach.
The importance of sleep
A crash-course in sleep physiology and how the brain is responsible for sleeping and waking. Participants will learn how sleep and wake are inextricably linked and that night and day continuously influence each other. We discuss some of the recuperative functions of sleep and the link with day-to-day tasks and skills. We then link sleep theory very concretely to practical tips to improve everyone’s sleep.
Sleep & shift work
For persons on day shift: if you feel you can still improve your sleep, this workshop is recommended. We have a lot in our own hands when it comes to sleep. Sleeping well can be learned!
Expand your knowledge on sleep and get the necessary tips to improve your sleep to bite into life every day, full of energy!
Sleep determines our resilience, vitality, mood, ability to concentrate and health.
It is one of the three pillars for a long and healthy life along with proper nutrition and exercise.
54% of active Belgians are not satisfied with their sleep.
If you are not satisfied with the quality of your sleep, come up with what you can do about it.
Smoking cessation
Research shows that the support of a tobaccoologist significantly increases the success rate of smoking cessation. For example, Tobacco Stop reported that at the end of personal counselling, 48% of participants were able to quit smoking. 25% of participants confirmed having quit for more than 6 months and 23% for more than 1 year. In comparison, the average long-term success rate without help: only 3-5%.
During the Smoking Stop Infosession, a recognised tobaccoologist informs your employees in an interactive way about the myths and facts surrounding tobacco and nicotine addiction.
The smoking cessation info session can be complemented by our more extensive group programme led by a recognised in-house tobaccoologist.
Participants learn about different effective cessation methods. Smokers who are motivated to quit smoking in a scientifically supported way are ready to start the group programme. Smokers who still want to wait and see or want to quit on their own will be given the necessary basic tips.
During the 8 sessions of the smoking cessation programme, under the guidance of the tobaccoologist, participants map their smoking profile and learn about their personal challenges to quitting. Using evidence-based techniques and methods, each participant shapes an individual smoking cessation plan. In close cooperation between the participants and the accompanying tobaccoologist, the group turns this plan into reality in order to achieve a definitive smoking cessation.
The priority outcome is to be smoke-free at the end of the eight sessions. Secondary, the programme ensures that each participant leaves with more (self-)knowledge about smoking behaviour and is thus better equipped to face future challenges or relapse.
Our group smoking cessation programme is supervised by a recognised tobaccoologist and consists of three phases:
- Preparation phase: three sessions take place before the collaboratively set smoking cessation date to best prepare for the challenge and potential pitfalls.
- Withdrawal phase: three sessions take place after the smoking cessation date to share experiences and share techniques and tips around persistence (relapse prevention).
- Perseverance phase: finally, two final sessions take place to finalise the process of embedding a smoke-free life into a new, healthier lifestyle.
The road to financial wellbeing
What do you want in life and how do you realise your goals? From a thoughtful strategy, you combine life planning with budget control, financial planning to realise your dreams and get down to concrete work to balance your life and financial life. Build your financial confidence and peace of mind by participating, gaining insights and getting started.
Boost your financial confidence in 5 steps
What do you want in life and how do you realise your goals? From a thoughtful strategy, you combine life planning with budget control, financial planning to realise your dreams and get down to concrete work to balance your life and financial life. Build your financial confidence and peace of mind by participating, gaining insights and getting started.
Budget coaching
Want to get a better grip on your financial household? Practical tips on how to make a good household budget, how to discuss money matters with your partner and how to organise them as a team. Choosing to save, perhaps learning to save and having the courage to build up and invest your assets, these are all things that are taught in this training.
Digital Balance
This info session clarifies why ‘always online’ is counterproductive and even the cause of much stress. We will walk you through how to take back control of technology and your digital life with the ultimate goal of finding a balance in our “tech/life balance”.
Learning everywhere
No matter where your employees are, we’ll be there. ICAS has a large portfolio of webinars and on-site trainings.
We provide:
Forms of Training
Webinar or inspirational session
(1 – 1,5 hours)
Webinars or inspirational sessions are informative presentations on specific topics. During the one-hour event, participants will learn the most important elements of each topic.
Our webinars provide you and your employees with focused information within a short period of time and at minimal cost. Experienced trainers guide through the topic and are available for discussions or individual questions after the event.
Workshop
(4 hour)
Workshops offer an indepth insight into a selected topic. A group of 10-15 people work on a topic with the aim of deepening their knowledge and developing suggestions for everyday life.
The two-hour workshops impart knowledge and motivate you and your employees to rethink existing behaviors and actions and to develop solutions in order to increase personal responsibility and health competence.
Series of training
(0,5 hours)
Some trainings can be booked as a series of several trainings. This could for example be weekly yoga sessions, an 8-week mindfulness course etc.
Target Audience
Employees
….
All employees of a company whose perception of and competence in dealing with a particular topic is to be improved. The ICAS Academy promotes early prevention and strengthens the personal performance prerequisites of your employees.
Human
Resources
Increase the resilience of your HR managers. HR managers often conduct challenging and stressful interviews. But what about their own resource management?
Executives / Management
In complex management tasks such as dealing with stress and burnout, (mis)communication … it is essential for executives to strengthen their own expertise and improve their own resource management.
Languages
We offer our courses in Dutch, French and English. Other languages on request.
Infrastructure
The training courses take place online or in suitable training rooms at your premises.
Trainers
Our trainers are specialists in occupational health management or psychologists with many years of professional experience as occupational and organizational psychologists.
Our know-how is based on our practical experience, which we gain through the daily consulting and support of our customers.
Topics
If you would like a training course on a topic not listed, please contact us.
ICAS is a proud member of
