Mental Health in the Workplace:A Systems Approach to Human-Centered Culture
The Future of Work is Human
In the evolving landscape of work, mental health is no longer just an individual concern—it’s an organizational responsibility. As artificial intelligence continues to transform industries and automate tasks, one thing becomes increasingly clear: human relationships will be essential for meaningful, adaptive, and resilient workplaces. Not just to maintain a competitive edge, but to preserve a degree of humanity we’ve perhaps never valued as deeply as we must now. Often we recognize the true worth of something in the wake of a significant loss.
Mental Health as Organizational Culture
Organizations have often addressed mental health at a surface level—primarily to meet regulatory requirements. But workplace mental health is not limited to stress reduction, sexual harassment training, or burnout prevention. It’s a broader, more integrated practice—rooted in kindness, transparency, alignment between values and actions, awareness of power dynamics, and respect for individual autonomy. It’s reflected in how we relate to one another, how decisions are made, and how we shape cultures where people feel genuinely seen, heard, and valued.
What Therapy Has Taught Me About Systems
As a therapist trained in a systems model, I see the profound potential our field holds to contribute meaningfully to organizations. While individual therapy remains a space for healing—offering a container to process past experiences, shift relational patterns, and respond to life’s demands—our skills are equally relevant in boardrooms, team meetings, and leadership development programs. J.L. Moreno, the founder of psychodrama, created a model that emphasized both individual transformation and systemic change, recognizing that neither occurs in isolation.
The Family as a Model for Organizational Change
When I work with families, I don’t stand on the outside giving advice—I join parents and children as a trusted collaborator and guide throughout their journey.
While I often work directly with children and adolescents, the work takes place within a relational framework—one that recognizes the central role parents play in shaping and shifting family dynamics. As the leaders of the family system, it is the parents who are called to step up and lead the transformation. This is often the more demanding part of the work, requiring courage, consistency, and a deep willingness to look inward.
Children often challenge the family system—not because they are "the problem," but because their behavior reflects unmet needs, unspoken emotions, or a call for change. Their pushback is a signal that something in the environment needs to shift. Parents, in turn, are responsible for tuning into what those behaviors are communicating and responding not with control or fear, but with curiosity, reflection, and accountability.
In that process, parents begin to recognize how their own life experiences—often carried unconsciously—have shaped relational patterns that no longer serve them in their parental role. They dig deep. They examine beliefs, behaviors, and emotional reactions that were inherited or protective but now limit their connection with their children. And as they do the work, they change. They become more intentional, grounded, and effective leaders within their family system.
By helping parents understand their role as the emotional and structural leaders of the family—and equipping them with the insight and tools to meet their children where they are—we begin to change the culture of the family itself.
(Read more about this approach to family therapy through a relational framework.)
This same relational framework applies beyond the family. Leaders within organizations are also responsible for setting the tone, responding with emotional attunement, and creating environments that foster safety, accountability, and growth. Just as parents must reflect on how their own stories influence their leadership at home, organizational leaders must do the inner work to lead with clarity, humility, and intention. When leaders take responsibility for their impact and invest in relational repair and growth, they too become catalysts for systemic change.
Change in One Area Translates to Others
The funny thing is—when we make real, embodied changes in one area of our lives, those changes naturally ripple into other areas. Many parents I’ve worked with began noticing that the relational shifts they were making at home—listening more deeply, setting firmer boundaries with compassion, leading with clarity—started to influence how they showed up at work. The workplace became a space where they brought more of their true self, communicated more effectively, and related more openly. And of course, it works the other way around too. The growth leaders experience professionally can have a profound impact on how they relate at home.
Inside-Out Change: Leadership Begins with Inner Work
This type of transformational work—whether within families or organizations—follows what developmental psychologists Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey describe in their research on adult development and organizational life. They emphasize that adults continue to grow throughout their lives, especially when they are in environments that support ongoing self-examination, emotional awareness, and relational learning.
Kegan and Lahey in their book Immunity to Change, call for organizations to become deliberately developmental cultures, where growth is not only encouraged but embedded in the way teams interact and leaders operate. In their model, adults move from being shaped by external expectations (what they call the Socialized Mind) toward becoming more self-authoring—able to define their own values, purpose, and vision—and, for some, even toward the self-transforming mind, where they can hold multiple perspectives, embrace complexity, and grow through systemic awareness.
When I work with parents or leaders, this framework deeply resonates: change begins from the inside out. Whether in a family system or a company, the individuals in leadership roles shape the climate and culture through who they are and how they engage. The more self-aware and grounded they become, the more the system around them shifts. Growth in one area often flows into others—the personal and the professional aren't separate; they're intertwined.
If you are a parent, entrepreneur, manager, or leader and you're curious about how this kind of growth work can support you—at home or at work—I invite you to contact me. Let’s start a conversation about what kind of change is possible for you.
Supporting Individual and Systemic Well-Being
Whether you’re navigating anxiety, stress, or workplace challenges—or you’re simply seeking a deeper understanding of how therapy can benefit your personal and professional life—change is possible. You can read more about the broader benefits of therapy here.
If you’re an entrepreneur, leader, or manager and you're curious about how this approach could support you or your team, reach out to start a conversation about what’s possible when we work from the inside out.
