In advance of May as Mental Health Awareness Month, CMF and SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management, are continuing our workplace training programs with a series focused on improving “life in Congress” and the well-being of congressional staff.
If you or your colleagues are wondering how to:
- process and cope with the events of the past year and particularly January 6
- raise sensitive topics and have difficult, emotional conversations with your office
- feel safe coming back into the office or accompanying the Member/Senator to events
- stop feeling exhausted and overwhelmed with your workload and like you “can’t turn off”
We and our special guest speakers are here for you. These programs are open to ALL congressional staff AND interns:
- Managing Trauma & Stress – If you missed it, our first program was on April 7 with former Congressman and clinical psychologist, Brian Baird, Ph.D. We HIGHLY encourage you and your staff to watch the recording, hear the moving stories and powerful questions from staff, and review the slides here. Dr. Baird is unique in his experience and perspective, blending the worlds of psychology and congressional operations.
- Personal Safety & Preparedness – Congressman Baird will join us again on April 28 from 3-4:30pm Eastern to share his expertise on recognizing and managing potential risks that could affect your professional and personal well-being and safety. He will be joined by self-defense expert Derrek Hofrichter who has trained and educated multiple congressional offices on prevention and avoidance mentality through situational awareness and education, and will show how you can take measures to protect yourself at any age or physical ability.
- Preventing Burnout: Using the Science of Stress & Energy Management to Reset and Recover – We are ecstatic to welcome Dr. Sahar Yousef and Professor Lucas Miller from the Becoming Superhuman Lab to discuss burnout and stress management on May 5 from 2-3:30pm Eastern. Remote work has blurred work and home lives and resulted in longer workdays with more meetings. Using their data-driven methods and **exclusive access to their simple, 3-minute assessment**, you will learn whether you have a burnout problem (and to what extent), address the root causes contributing to it, and install new practices to more easily manage the new and stressful demands in our lives.
We hope you will join us for these sessions and share this information with your friends and colleagues!
More Information
The “Life in Congress” project is a partnership between CMF and SHRM that seeks to identify human resource challenges in Congress and provide recommendations for overcoming them in order to make Congress a better place for both Members and staffers to work.
The Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) is a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to building trust and effectiveness in Congress. Learn more at CongressFoundation.org and on Twitter @CongressFdn.
SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management, creates better workplaces where employers and employees thrive together. As the voice of all things work, workers and the workplace, SHRM is the foremost expert, convener and thought leader on issues impacting today’s evolving workplaces. With 300,000+ HR and business executive members in 165 countries, SHRM impacts the lives of more than 115 million workers and families globally. Learn more at SHRM.org and on Twitter @SHRM.
