Work shouldn’t hurt — but for too many people, it does. Between burnout, chronic stress and trauma, millions of employees silently carry emotional burdens into the workplace every day. Anita Roach wants to change that. Through her organization, the Safe & Sound Workplace Alliance, she’s helping employers create environments that give people permission to lead and work differently.
If you want to learn more about Anita’s work, be sure to watch our webinar recording, Trauma-informed Approaches for Employee & Employer Well-being.
Tell us about yourself!
I am the founder of the Safe & Sound Workplace Alliance and the author of Safe & Sound: Cultivating a Whole-Human, Trauma-Informed Approach to Employee and Employer Well-being. I have also been a consultant for almost 30 years providing strategic planning, leadership development, marketing and branding to professional services companies. The work of the Safe & Sound Workplace Alliance and my book is to address trauma’s impact on our people and our profits. I have developed a trauma-informed change management approach to help mitigate the emotional and mental strain that most change creates as well as other tools and structures to help address this issue from a systemic standpoint.
What inspired you to start your business?
Ten years ago, I was diagnosed with Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after a particularly bad case of burnout. It left me physically, mentally and emotionally drained from a constantly activated nervous system response to an unhealthy and unsafe workplace environment. It wasn’t the first time it had happened. This led me to dig into why this was happening to me. Where had I seen it show up in my co-workers and clients? How had I solved it for them? But what we all needed–first and foremost, was awareness of how trauma was showing up – to create environments that promoted employee well-being and increased organizational success.
What’s your proudest business milestone so far?
Seeing how others are starting to engage in the conversation and the hope I feel that this work can really change things for people.
What excites you about your work?
My work shines a light on the power of our humanness by breaking the silence around a stigmatized subject.
How do you differentiate your company from other similar offerings?
The amount of resources, sharing my personal experiences so vulnerably, telling other people’s stories and, of course, not making anyone the bad guy. My work is about creating a 1+1=3 equation where the worker, the workplace and the world win.
What advice would you give to other female entrepreneurs?
Create a board of advisors. I have a couple of women I meet with individually each week to support each other’s ventures and this has been a game changer. They hold me accountable to my internal B.S., give me incredible ideas, support the premise of my work and more. I only hope they receive as much from me!
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