Have you noticed a usually productive employee starting to slip in the quality of their work? Perhaps they are not as punctual as they were or their appearance may seem a bit disheveled. Chances are your employee is struggling with the burden of caregiving at home as well as holding down their job. This has serious implications for organizations through lost productivity and employee attrition. Our guest Laura van Riper speaks about how we can notice these signs and some of the ways to open up lines of communication with employees to find out what’s happening at home that might be impacting their work performance.  

In this episode you will hear:

• The stresses of being a caregiver that can impact an employee’s performance at work
• Some of the signs for employers to look for in employees who may be struggling with caregiving at home
• Why it’s key for managers to understand the corporate culture around supporting caregivers
• When someone should seek help from a professional therapist
• The costs to organizations that lose workers who have caregiving responsibilities
• Strategies that can be put in place now to alleviate stress and anxiety

About Laura:

Laura works as a talk and somatic therapist in private practice in Westport, CT. 

Laura uses an integrative approach in her work, combining insight-oriented psychotherapy with mind-body strategies to help clients find more ease in their lives.  Her practice focus is on supporting survivors of interpersonal violence, women’s health and the treatment of anxiety and depression.  Because the roots of psychological symptoms are often due to trauma, Laura has extensive training in trauma treatment for children and adults, including Somatic Experiencing®, a treatment for resolving trauma symptoms and relieving chronic stress.  The SE approach can help transform PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma.

Laura also studied with the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, where she learned the science and skills of meditation, guided imagery, biofeedback, and self-expression in words, drawings, and movement. She is "fluent" in CBT, DBT, 12 step work and play therapy and incorporates these techniques into her work.

Laura earned her Masters Degree from Columbia University in Clinical Social Work, and received her B.A. in Psychology from Boston College. Her post-graduate clinical training was completed at a busy outpatient center where she gained experience working with a wide variety of client and family challenges.

In her first professional life, Laura managed, recruited, counseled, coached and trained executives in a variety of Corporate Human Resources positions, including serving as VP of Human Resources for Bread and Circus in Boston. Later, as the founding director of Parent Awareness of the YWCA of Darien-Norwalk, Laura designed their risk prevention program and worked with school administrators, parents and volunteers to help families raise resilient children.

A member of the National Association of Social Workers, and a volunteer with the Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants, Laura is a proud activist for multiple social justice causes. 

Connect with Laura:

Website: https://www.lauravanripertherapy.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-van-riper-lcsw-sep-7a463016/ 

Links mentioned in this episode:

Alcoholic Anonymous: https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US 

Al-Anon: