You may feel your career has reached a standstill, but you can get back on the right track during a weekend designed to get it rolling again, as Nicole Holgate reports
What is it?
Mark Pearce set up A Life at Work after transitioning from a corporate HR career to creating his own business and studying psychotherapy. He found that one of the main reasons people avoid making career changes was the lack of time available to think about their vocations. Pearce wanted to capture all that he had learnt and experienced within his own year of transition.
He partnered with experienced psychologist Dr Julie Bullen, who specialises in personal development, and A Life at Work was born. Over a long weekend in a secluded destination, they work together with a small group to encourage them to maintain a work-life balance.
The programme encompasses a mix of group discussions and activities specifically designed to help participants understand what their skills, talents and gifts are, what they value the most and what inspires them. Dr Bullen works closely with attendees to remove any blocks that prevent them from doing what they truly want to do. After the retreat, participants have follow-up phone coaching with Pearce or Dr Bullen to ensure that the benefits have stuck.
?There is a lot to consider when you are making a life choice,? states Mark, ?and the retreats are designed to tap the aspirations you may have hidden. Our aim is to help set you up to make those changes, [and discover] the best way forward.?
Tried & tested
Jeanette Fornwalt attended a recent A Life at Work weekend. As an executive PA at a FTSE 100 company, she was made redundant and taking some time out from her career. The four-day sanctuary in a secluded Devon cottage was, she confides, a real treat. She and seven others began the weekend by exploring their career history.
They also underwent a series of psychometric and personality tests, allowing her to understand how she interacts with others and improve her response to situations by adapting to different personalities. Dr Bullen uses elements of cognitive behavioural therapy to help attendees work around perceived ?blocks? in their personality ? Jeanette admits this can be scary, but there is no pressure, and participants can engage as openly as they want to. She adds that being with a small group of strangers actually helps openness and sharing, because a degree of anonymity is preserved.
As the group is small and each individual is looking for something different, Pearce and Dr Bullen act as support for each person?s needs, and the structure of the weekend is very fluid. Jeanette describes the atmosphere as comfortable and safe ? the ideal space to simply think about her career. Aside from group workshops and one-on-one sessions with Pearce and Dr Bullen, participants are also given a couple of hours? down time each day to do what they want.
However, it?s far from a weekend sat on sofas talking through feelings. While not wanting to spoil any surprises, they were constantly out and about in the Devon countryside, or taking part in creative activities in their cosy cottage.
She felt that it was a great investment and has inspired her to take the next step in her career, but comments that others at the weekend were from all walks of life, trying to gain more insight or simply assess their needs at work. At the end of the weekend, each participant puts together a plan of what they will do next based on their discoveries about themselves. Jeanette?s group also have plans to meet up and check that they are all finding a ?life at work?.
A Life at Work packages include three nights full board in a UK destination, dependant on where attendees are based. For more information, visit alifeatwork.co.uk
