When Wellness Becomes Another Assignment
Take care of yourself.
It sounds sensible enough. For professionals carrying demanding caseloads, emotional responsibilities, and the needs of other people every day, however, the advice can become one more task added to an already crowded list.
Staci Vanzant sees a problem in that.
The licensed therapist, board certified health and wellness coach, and founder of Living Mindfully, LLC is expanding her work into keynote speaking, workshops, retreats, and corporate wellness programming. Her focus is increasingly on healthcare professionals, therapists, educators, and others who make caring for people their profession.
Vanzant has spent more than 20 years in the mental health field. That experience has shaped a view of burnout that goes beyond telling individuals to become better at handling stress.
Self Care Is Only Part of the Conversation
Helping professionals often work in environments where other people’s needs carry genuine urgency. A patient needs attention. A student is struggling. A client arrives in crisis.
Personal needs are easier to postpone.
“Those who spend their lives caring for others often become the last people they care for,” Vanzant says. “My mission is to help the helpers help themselves by making self care a professional strength rather than a personal luxury. When caregivers are supported, everyone benefits.”
Her approach focuses on practical ways to recognize chronic stress, restore energy, strengthen resilience, and reconnect with priorities outside work.
But there is another audience for that message: the organizations employing those professionals.
Wellness programs can provide useful resources, yet Vanzant’s work raises a more fundamental question. Are workplaces creating conditions in which people can actually use what they are being taught?
Bringing Wellness Into the Room
Living Mindfully began with counseling and coaching services centered on emotional and physical well being. Its current offerings include individual therapy, couples counseling, coaching, groups, and mindfulness based resources.
Now Vanzant is taking those conversations into larger professional settings.
Her participation in Speakpreneur’s speaker development event coincides with that expansion. Living Mindfully has also completed its second retreat and is taking reservations for future experiences.
The direction reflects a broader ambition for her work. Vanzant wants professionals to have practical tools they can use before exhaustion becomes their normal state.
For leaders, there is a lesson here too.
An organization cannot control every source of stress in an employee’s life. It can decide whether well being is treated as a slogan, an individual obligation, or something worthy of serious attention within the workplace.
For professions built around caring for people, that distinction can matter considerably.
Learn More
Learn more about Staci Vanzant and Living Mindfully, LLC at livingmindfullyllc.com.
