What Can Our Interactive Offering Do For You?

At The Space Between Us, we believe relationships are as essential as oxygen for all of us and a healthy mental lifestyle requires strong relationships and being part of a community. All of our interactive offerings therefore combine teaching by an expert psychologist with engagement, sharing of insights and ongoing support between participants

Workshops

Young Professional Programme (YPP): Racial Identity Development: Managing Diversity and Inclusion

The Young Professional Programme (YPP) was created by African psychologists to empower young professionals with the mental health skills needed to thrive in their lives and careers.The YPP consists of the following five modules: Building Self-Esteem Beyond Performance and Dispelling the “Imposter Voice”Developing Interpersonal Effectiveness SkillsRacial Identity Development: Managing Diversity and InclusionDeveloping Resilience as a Core Muscle to SucceedDeveloping Integration Skills to Avoid Burnout The Racial Identity Development module of the YPP establishes an awareness of the dynamics and scope of diversity in and outside of the workplace; to highlight the internal and external factors that limit an appreciation of diversity and to provide the skills that facilitate inclusivity and that will leverage differences. After completing the workshop participants will:Have greater self-insight and awareness of own biases regarding race, gender, disability, culture, age, value systems and socio-economic statuses.Understand how identity develops in both marginalised and valued groups (mainstream or majority) in society.Understand their own identity development and how this enables or limits inclusivity.Have a greater awareness of how diversity manifests in the workplace and elsewhere.Be able to adapt to and accommodate profiles that differ from their own where race, gender, culture, age, value systems, socio-economic statuses etc. are concerned.Have an awareness of and be able to demonstrate attitudes and behaviours that convey an appreciation for diversity.

Young Professional Programme (YPP): Developing Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills

Signing up for the Young Professional Programme (YPP) will give young professionals insight into themselves and hand them the keys to take ownership of and manage their mental wellbeing, which - ultimately - will enable them to become more effective employees. The YPP consists of the following five modules: Building Self-Esteem Beyond Performance and Dispelling the “Imposter Voice”Developing Interpersonal Effectiveness SkillsRacial Identity Development: Managing Diversity and InclusionDeveloping Resilience as a Core Muscle to SucceedDeveloping Integration Skills to Avoid Burnout The Developing Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills module of the YPP builds insights, skills and appropriate empathy to enable participants to build, maintain and enhance interpersonal effectiveness and influence constructive change in others. After completing the workshop participants will:Have a better understanding of and be able to demonstrate the attitudes and behaviours which enable interpersonal effectiveness.Develop better interpersonal rapport.Understand and be able to manage differences in significant others.Understand and demonstrate relevant empathy.Show suitable assertiveness in relationships.Learn how to respond appropriately and with intention to undermining and limiting perceptions.Learn how to navigate having difficult conversations and giving feedback effectively.Be able to come up with constructive, conflict-handling solutions.

Young Professional Programme (YPP): Building Self esteem Beyond Performance and Dispelling the Imposter Voice

Building Self-esteem Beyond Performance and Dispelling the “Imposter Voice”The Young Professional Programme (YPP) assists participants to understand and develop a sense of self, self-esteem and boundaries as key psychological tools to build healthy relationships with themselves and others. The YPP consists of the following five modules: Building Self-Esteem Beyond Performance and Dispelling the “Imposter Voice”Developing Interpersonal Effectiveness SkillsRacial Identity Development: Managing Diversity and InclusionDeveloping Resilience as a Core Muscle to SucceedDeveloping Integration Skills to Avoid Burnout The Building Self-Esteem module of the YPP helps participants build their genuine, authentic self and avoid common maladaptive traits of being perfectionists, over-achievers, obsessive doers, overly nice people, non-conformists, rebels or know-it-all’s and rather to substitute these with traits that help them form a good relationship with themselves and others. After completing the workshop participants will:Fully understand the development of their authentic selves.Possess the techniques to understand their legitimate personal core needs.Develop their own psychological boundary system to enable healthy relationships.Understand and own the impacts of these core concepts and how they impact relationships.Possess the tools to build a sense of self-worth that encourages healthy relationships and success at work.

Building Resilience

The Building Resilience workshop focuses on the relationship we have with ourselves. This relationship is vitally important in both our working lives and at work because it defines the way that we relate to the world around us. We have all coped with trauma and at present the Covid-19 experience has triggered hugely different trauma experiences. There are five steps to building resilience with a central feature focusing on finding hope within ourselves and in the world around us. These include, building self-worth; emotional self-regulation; self-soothing; finding nurturing relationships and searching for hope and meaning.This workshop develops skills to help people better understand themselves. It also looks at managing to cope and to develop coping skills. It focuses on managing anger and anxiety in times of trauma and finding healthy methods of self-comfort. It explores how to build supportive relationships and finding hope and meaning.For more information on this and other workshops, contact The Space Between Us.

Leading Virtual Teams

A challenge in business is the lack of skills and abilities to successfully motivate a team while driving business results in the new, more separated, and virtual world. Through a mix of practical expertise and mastering the art of working effectively and efficiently in our new reality, The Adaptive Leader workshop will help you to successfully raise your game as a leader.  You will get a practical leadership framework that can be adapted to any leadership situation. The practical component of the framework will enable participants to examine their approach to managing and leading a team and to identify areas where they can improve.Each module is personalised to address participants’ specific needs. The guarantee from each intervention is that attendees will be motivated and inspired to adopt new insights and techniques to equip them to become efficient leaders within not only their current environment, but within the changing future world. For more information on this and other workshops, contact The Space Between Us.

Dealing with Loss and Grief

Covid-19 is more than a global challenge. It presents challenges at an individual, family and social level.  Some of us have lost loved ones, jobs and more, making this time especially difficult. We may feel a sense of loss for the life we once knew or even uncertainty because there are so many critical unanswered questions about the pandemic’s impact. Loss and uncertainty are one of the biggest psychological challenges we face right now. The Dealing with Loss and Grief workshop explores how we can deal with changes of all kinds. It examines the emotions and processes we go through when we grieve to assist the participants make sense of what they are feeling. We explore what is happening in the brain when we lose a loved one, a way of life, and any change we deem as traumatic. Finally, we explore skills such as the optimism bridge and, emotional intelligence hacks that will help you cope. This workshop will improve your abilities to face challenging times one day at a time. It will assist you learn how to temper your need for mastery and provide you with skills to be more open, flexible, and gentle with yourselves. It is the first step in the journey which you may want to embark on for healing. For more information on this and other workshops, contact The Space Between Us.

Taking Control in the Covid New Normal

This workshop looks at shifting the paradigm from ‘can’t control’ to ‘can control’ and providing the tools and skills to support this process. The Taking Control in the Covid New Normal workshop empowers participants to take control in the new normal wrought upon the world by the Covid-19 pandemic. Included in this is a heightened awareness of what can undermine or enhance adaptability and resilience, and internalised skills to enable adaptability and resilience.The workshop addresses feelings of being overwhelmed or in a state of anxiety and trauma – resulting in unhelpful, reactive responses like avoidance, fear and freeze responses. These responses can also include a lack of boundaries at work or home and the absence of social and cultural rituals while juggling several roles including as parent, teacher and caregivers.At the heart of it, the workshop looks at shifting the paradigm from ‘can’t control’ to ‘can control’ and providing the tools and skills to support this process. Among these are: What we lose with change, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.Trauma impacts.Self-insight and personal priorities.Shifting paradigms and limiting beliefs.Empowering communication.Reframing and taking control. Deepening skills to manage the new normal.For more information on this and other workshops, contact The Space Between Us.

Cultivating Self Care

This workshop helps assess how well one is practicing self-care and to assist attendees to develop a personal self-care plan.We often face difficult situations in the different roles that we fill, where we need to present the best part of ourselves, whether it be in our families, at work, or in our social networks. To present our best, it is necessary that we are intentional about how we look after ourselves, as it is often said that “you cannot give out of an empty cup”. The Cultivating Self Care workshop is designed to help participants understand the various aspects of caring for the self, i.e. filling your own cup; to assess oneself with regards to how well one is practicing self-care and finally to assist attendees to develop a personal self-care plan. It is participatory, and everyone will share their own stories and experiences of what they are facing as challenges and what they are doing to achieve success in areas where they may be doing well. We cover topics, including the importance of self-care as well as:Physical: Physical, diet, rest, medical general hygieneMental: Cognitive, emotional and behaviouralRelational self-careSpiritualFinancialProfessional The workshop raises an awareness of self-care aspects and helps participants to develop an attitude of accountability for one’s wellness. Some of the take-aways are understanding emotional intelligence; drawing boundaries; the practice of mindfulness and a personal self-care plan. For more information on this and other workshops, contact The Space Between Us.

Building Healthy Relationships to Thrive

This workshop assists individuals gain insight into their relational styles, their response styles, and how to build and maintain different kinds of relationships. This workshop looks at shifting the paradigm from ‘can’t control’ to ‘can control’ and providing the tools and skills to support this process. Everyone has relationships - whether at home with family, romantic, friendships, or at work - but not all of them are healthy. Some relationships are self-serving, others are conflictual, others can be toxic and not helpful at all. At times, relationships can be demanding and strenuous. The Building Healthy Relationships to Thrive workshop assists individuals gain insight into their relational styles, their response styles, and how to build and maintain different kinds of relationships. This workshop will also assist with understanding and investigate the underlying reasons for how you relate to others. What motivates you in relationships, and most importantly, how self-aware are you? It explores the questions around:What happens to you when you go through distress and how does this affect your relationships?How do you build a relationship with yourself – mainly looking at self-awareness, self-compassion, how to pay attention to your feelings, and why you are so critical on yourself and how you can avoid that?How to relate with others - romantic, friendships, colleagues, parental?How to relate with your kids of different ages?Now that you have identified where you are at and what affects your relationships, how can you reset and build healthy relationships?For more information on this and other workshops, contact The Space Between Us.

Young Professional Programme (YPP): Developing Skills and Burnout Proofing

The Young Professional Programme (YPP) was created by African psychologists to empower young professionals with the mental health skills needed to thrive in their lives and careers.The YPP consists of the following five modules:  Building Self-Esteem Beyond Performance and Dispelling the “Imposter Voice” Developing Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills Racial Identity Development: Managing Diversity and Inclusion Developing Resilience as a Core Muscle to Succeed Developing Integration Skills to Avoid Burnout  The Developing Skills and Burnout-Proofing module of the YPP provides tools and techniques that prevent participants from feeling overwhelmed, emotionally drained and unable to meet constant demands.After completing the workshop participants will: Be able to identify the signs and symptoms of “burnout” (a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress) and why they may or may not be at risk. Be able to build a system that integrates their work, home and social life, in a way to help them avoid burnout. Be equipped to create practical workplace strategies on how to avoid reaching a point of burnout. Learn how to use the relationship with the self and others as a key to alleviating burnout. Learn how to implement self-care strategies to alleviate stress.

Integrating Home, Work, and Play Series

This workshop addresses the challenges parents are experiencing right now, providing tips on how to parent young children and teens. Parents have come face-to-face with the need to acknowledge their own fears around the changing skills needed to parent during difficult times.  They may have little or no time to support children with schoolwork while working full-time within a remote workplace, not know how to keep younger children busy and teenagers motivated. Single parents may also worry about finances and whether their child will cope when with Covid-19 protocols. Additional pressures including bullying, in group out group playground dynamics and others could lead to the parent’s self-esteem being challenged. They may even find that they are not able to manage their emotions given all these conflicting thoughts and worries. The Integrating Home, Work, and Play Series addresses the challenges parents are experiencing in a Covid-19 world, including ambiguous loss which is the pervasive sense of loss tied to changes in daily life. It also provides tips on how to parent young children and teens. Finally, the workshop details the resources available to participants.It explores some of the real challenges of parenting during tough times, how to find support in the right places and which resources to avoid. It also develops skills to deepen connection and quality time with children and how to build a support network of like-minded parents.For more information on this and other workshops, contact The Space Between Us.

Thriving in the new virtual workplace

This workshop addresses how our working world has changed. We also talk through the practical tools we need to flourish as employees.At the beginning of 2020, South Africa and the world faced the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic that led to a radical change in the way people work. What has shifted is that what began as a response to something (that is a reactive state), has evolved into the world of work having shifted. So now we ask how we can proactively embrace this.As people who work, one needs to reflect on the changes experienced and most importantly the transformation needed as an employee that is transforming the skills honed in by years of doing things the way that they have been done to something radically different.The Thriving in the New Virtual Workplace workshop begins with an acknowledgement of what has changed, why it changed and whether it should continue to change. We will also talk through the practical tools we have to have in our personal toolkits to flourish as employees.Lastly this workshop will take a hard look at some of the simple mechanisms needed for work and how they have evolved, and what the change means for you. The key is not to survive work, but to thrive whilst doing work and this workshop will demonstrate how.For more information on this and other workshops, contact The Space Between Us.