In preparation for our annual team outdoor meeting a colleague came up with the idea of including a session on mindfulness. At the time I was not sure about this. I felt this was not business related enough and that the team might not take it seriously. I was wrong!! Ela’s session was inspiring and big success. People liked it very much and have even enquired about possible follow up sessions. For some of them it was their first experience of building healthy awareness and consciousness, thereby helping to maintain attention and balance. For others it was a good moment for their own personal reflection and focus. In particular, for our organization, it was an opportunity to learn about an additional key skill in effectiveness and efficiency in the workplace.
In the fall of 2013 we had the pleasure and opportunity to run an MBSR course with Ela Amarie at our clinic in Bern. The eight weekly sessions and the one-day retreat gave me and my colleagues (chiropractors, medical massage therapists and staff) a chance to take a look at ourselves and each other from a different vantage point. It gave us a better feeling for our surroundings and an appreciation for ourselves and how our perception affects our daily life in every way. Wisely led by Ela we got to discover ourselves through simple and fun exercises that has led to a much needed change in our normally stressed out and sometimes unconscious lives. The increase in stress related chronic pain and disability is no less than an epidemic in our society. This is the kind of change needed. We will now recommend MBSR to our patients.
We invited Ela to our regional Learning & Development meeting at the beginning of the year. Ela demonstrated to be a very flexible and customer oriented partner, adapting to our meeting purpose, audience and timings. Despite the fact Mindfulness topic was new for many of our participants, we received very good feedback about the experience; it was a nice start for our busy agenda afterwards.
In May 2013 I've organized a Customer Event with a group of leaders from international companies and corporations. With this occasion I've invited Ela to run a 3h introductory workshop on Mindfulness. The event was well received and highly appreciated.
In my role as Global HR Business Partner for Group Informatics at F. Hoffmann - La Roche, I had the pleasure to work with Ela Amarie twice. First as an attendee of one her mindfulness programs and secondly we organized together a leadership team workshop that included mindfulness and unconscious bias topics. I extremely appreciate her professional approach and flexibly to address individual needs of a team - she's never just applying a standard procedure. She always finds the right balance between understanding the mindset of super busy professionals and creating an environment that allows reflection and discussions on mindfulness. I can absolutely recommend a collaboration with Ela Amarie - it's very worthwhile an investment!