Are You Coping?
Or Thriving?
You can only do your best work when you feel at your best.
Let’s look at strategies that can help you transition from surviving, to THRIVING!
Racial or Neurodiversity Discrimination Grievance Or Formal Procedure?
You have the right to work without discrimination, bullying, or any type of injustice. However, we all know, it happens! I’ve even experienced it myself, from ‘aggressions’, hair violations to being subjected to ‘angry black woman’ stereotypes and explicit racism.
Finding the courage to have these conversations or raise a complaint can be emotional and highly triggering.
Sometimes, you cannot separate the emotion from the facts to present a clear picture and represent yourself in meetings. If you’ve been there, you know that even making sense of ‘what you want or what you need’ can feel like an impossible task and for the most part, your friends and family may not have the training to help you create a clear and concise picture. But I want to tell you that you don’t have to go through it alone and you also don’t need to let everything slide and accept less than you deserve.
If you are in a situation and would like to have a courageous conversation with me to discuss how to obtain support, hit the button below and book a clarity call.
History has shown us, that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.
Michelle Obama
As an adult, dyslexia can lead to behaviours and feelings like:
- Going to great lengths to avoid reading and writing, especially reading aloud in public or when your feel your written ability doesn’t line up with your verbal articulation, thus can almost decide your career path by default or cause you to play small in your business.
- Extreme feelings of frustration and intense pressure if things take longer to complete for them in comparison to the expectations of others, causing you to procrastinate or self-sabotage which can be devastating to your wellbeing.
- Feelings of low self-esteem and lack of confidence. When you are unaware of having dyslexia or lack the understanding of what it is, frustration quickly turns into a belief that you are less intelligent and can lead you to live a small life to avoid feeling shame, disappointment, or feeling inferior to others.
But you don’t need to go through this alone.
Getting a diagnosis can be scary but it could also give you a sense of relief and help to point you in the direction to get the support you need, which could literally change your life.
With solution-focused support, wellbeing practices, mindfulness exercises, structured goal setting, and strategic planning and routine resetting, there are ways to turn your fears and differences into your strengths and superpowers. Putting workplace coping strategies in place coupled with DI impact training you can fully understand how your differences impact you and how to use it to your advantage. This practical support when integrated to your career or business development, will elevate you out of overwhelm and into your most proactive and confident self.
This is what I help my clients to do and this is how I can help you too. Are you ready for a Clarity Call?
Coping Strategies & Study Skills For Adults in the Workplace With Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a common learning difference that affects the way someone reads, writes, and processes information. It can affect many different areas of your personal and professional life including your mental health, however, the good news is, there are coping strategies that can help you manage your day-to-day tasks in a way that aligns with your strengths.
This requires you to understand what your differences are, but once you have identified your differences, you can create a unique strategy to cope and there is nothing stopping you from enjoying a fulfilling life where you can thrive both personally and professionally.
Dyslexia is considered a learning disorder or disability, however, many of my clients have been negatively impacted by how the phrasing of disability or disorder impacts their lives and levels of confidence. It can lead to people thinking negatively about themselves but also the ignorance of other can lead to discrimination and exclusion. People with learning differences do not suffer from less or lack of intelligence, just a different way of learning and receiving and processing information. This is why I prefer to use the terminology of learning differences and not learning disability.
Dyslexia can affect your reading, writing, and your short-term or working memory. You have a different style of learning. The way the brain processes sounds, phonetics, and words, can cause people with dyslexia to have challenges with certain word games, puzzles, acronyms, or breaking down words.
Adults with dyslexia often have:
- Memory problems
- Struggles if they don’t have a clear routine
- Difficulty spelling and writing
- Challenges with productivity and timekeeping
It’s important to remember, despite the challenge, there are multiple ways of learning, and so many opportunities to explore and see what works for each individual. Being Neurodivergent often leads you to develop your own strategies to get through school and work without even knowing you have a learning difference.
Dyslexia is known as an “invisible disability.” This is why many people are not diagnosed in the earliest stages of life, and why many adults over the last 10 years are recognising the impact of dyslexia on their careers and businesses. But when they get the diagnosis, it answers many questions for them.
Racial Trauma has a detrimental impact and is held in our mental body, emotional body, physical body and spiritual body. After experiencing trauma, a holistic response, release, renewal and re-engaging process is necessary to bring yourself back to a place of resilience and healthy coping before you can step into your THRIVE mode.
Racial Trauma THRIVE Kit
So, you’ve experienced racial trauma at work, but you still work there. Or maybe you’ve left that job, but everywhere you look are reminders, so what do you do to heal? And what exactly does healing look like? What part of you even needs to heal?
Racial trauma is not like a physical injury, a graze on the knee. The hurt is deep inside, how do you get to it? And knowing you are likely to still be underrepresented and face the same racial stressors and triggers in other jobs, how do you escape it?
Truth is, you cannot escape what you cannot control. But there are mindset shifts, tools and techniques that will enable you to heal and thrive, regardless. As Maya Angelou said… Still I Rise. And YOU will rise.
Firstly you should know, is racial trauma has a negative impact on the mind, therefore attention is needed for the ‘mental body’. This is where mindset work is needed to help.
This part of the Thrive Kit is Phase One, The Mindset-Reset. I have partnered with a BABCP Accredited Licensed Psychotherapist and Mindfulness practitioner. A Black woman with exceptional expertise and a depth of experience. Phase one is where therapy sessions are provided, a healing space for you to release and ease your mind and anxious thought patterns to help reset your mental body.
*In Partnership with MindMatters
Available for 1:1 and group bookings with organisation and self-funding options.
Workshop options are available highlighting the impact of racial trauma in the workplace, and the importance of creating psychologically safe environments and promoting healing from racial trauma.
This programme is also a restorative option to provide employees who have experienced racial trauma and completed a grievance process.
After phase one of the Thrive Kit is complete, I step back in to provide support that attends to your emotional state. This is Phase two called, Emotional Restoration and it connects with your mental body. The release of trauma takes place differently in this phase.
Followed by phase three, the Physical Realignment. This phase is a Power down phase which guides you through a series of physical activities that help you to release and shed trauma tension and experience progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) through movement and massage. Yes, working with a PMR specialist, this is a part of your Thrive Kit where you will have time to really power down and give your body the attention it needs to release muscle tightness which is brought on by triggers in the workplace and the muscle memory that holds trauma and tightness. You will also be shown how to look after your body by learning and using these techniques.
Finally we connect spiritually in the fourth phase called, Spiritual re-empowerment. You will enjoy mindfulness with the Licensed Practitioner and power proclamation exercises to replenish or create a spiritual practice. This phase is to power back up as you reground yourself, and re-immerse in your cultural identity, recognising and reconnecting with your higher self on a deeper level and re-engage with your sense of empowerment.
This programme beings with a consultation, followed by a minimum of 10 Sessions. It also includes weekly Voxer check-ins in between set sessions.
Ready To Thrive?
The quote that outlines why you cannot have one, without the other.
Diversity without inclusion is EXCLUSION.
UNKNOWN
Hear From My Clients
what My clients have to say
I didn't ever believe this would be possible for me, but the power of coaching has shown me so much and helped me change my life despite neurodiversity previously holding me back.
With my coach, JJ, I see that I have super powers and I just needed to understand how to use it. I am incredibly grateful to Ability BG. JJ, you were always there when I needed you. When I almost quit you worked with me until I found the confidence within to continue. I am so proud of myself and I feel like a role model for my daughter. I will show her that she can do and be whatever she wants in life. My journey isn’t over yet, it has just begun but I know Ability is there when I need the extra support. Thank you for your patience and perseverance JJ.
