"We Care for those Who Care". This program is a self-care program for Counsellors, Therapists, Coaches etc. to re-energise and re-vitalise themselves in order to be well and offer their best for their clients.  Self-care is a continuous and highly important activity performed by any professional, or counsellor.

Self-care aims to ensure that both mental and physical health of the counsellor is in good shape. Counsellors often do not practice what they preach. Therefore they have unique challenges to their own wellness when regularly and intimately involved in the painful experiences of other peoples' lives. 

Our wellness program assists Counsellors etc. to re-gain their health and wellness. Self-care for all helping professionals is crucial so that they can continue to serve their respective clients with maximum effectiveness. 

Contact us for more information about this program.

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 Our Wellness Consulting involves the following:

 * Corporate Wellness: We consult with our clients about introducing and managing a corporate wellness program within their companies. This might be as part of the Employee Assistance Programs (EAP's) or a complete new corporate wellness solution.

* Implementing Wellness: We assist and help resorts, spa's and health centres to incorporate wellness services in their service offering, thereby increasing their clientele and broadening their services.

Our Consulting begins with a Corporate Wellness Assessment, which forms the basis of our wellness interventions and programs. This provides the company with a 'snapshot' overview of the present state of wellness of all the employees and their wellness readiness.

We work with companies in a number of different ways and our wellness programs and solutions are customised to the client’s specific needs and the cost is determined by the scope of the program that we develop together. 

Sanga Wellness offers an array of unique Wellness interventions and solutions, tailor-made according to the initial wellness assessment. We have developed a special and unique Wellness Model that we use when it comes to implementing corporate wellness.

Contact us and let us help you to achieve a comprehensive Corporate Wellness Solution.

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The Wellness-Illness Culture Wars
We are currently experiencing a wellness crisis in our culture, what some may call a wellness culture war. This crisis that has two faces. One face is a culture that approaches health through a focus on disease management rather than teaching the fundamentals of healthy living.

This culture has led to health care costs spiralling out of control as it glorifies and promotes unhealthy lifestyle practices, immediate gratification (the quick fix—a pill for every ill) and the consumption of chemical-laden foods and toxic products through slick media advertising; a rapidly deteriorating level of public health with epidemic levels of obesity, diabetes and heart disease is the result. Sadly, this culture has seemingly unlimited resources and controls our major media.

The other face is a smaller but growing culture that looks to the fundamental principles of healthy living to lead us to a higher level of personal health and well-being. This culture creates services which are rarely covered by our health insurance system; promotes consumption of organic foods grown without chemical fertilizers and pesticides and lifestyle products which do not contain harmful or carcinogenic chemical additives; displays a higher level of health and well-being; and suffers less from the epidemic lifestyle and stress engendered illnesses than the members of the “illness culture.” This culture has had limited financial resources and difficulties in getting their message out through our major media.The first culture is focused on illness.

The second culture is focused on maintaining wellness. The illness culture is a very modern phenomenon, growing rapidly since the advent of the pharmaceutical drug industry into our current “medical-industrial complex.” The roots of the wellness culture are very ancient. The systems of ancient Chinese, Ayurvedic, Greek, and Islamic medicine (Unani) viewed health as a state of balance and illness as the result of not living in accordance with natural laws—what I to refer to as “the human operating system.” In these systems good health and longevity were the primary focus of medicine, and the secondary focus was returning people to good health when they became ill.

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The Wellness Inventory for Coaches

There is a new wellness tool available in South Africa – The Wellness Inventory − designed to meet our society’s current wellness needs. Martin Combrinck looks at why it is a must for your Coaching toolbox.

The Wellness Inventory is a ‘whole person’ assessment and lifestyle programme designed to help you gain personal insight into your state of physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness. The programme offers guidance and tools to transform this new awareness into lasting changes in your life, and a renewed sense of health and wellbeing.

The programme revolves around assessment in the 12 dimensions of wellness according to Dr. Travis’ Wellness Energy System (see the diagram below). The assessment is educational in nature and helps to create awareness of how your lifestyle, attitudes and behaviour influence your state of health and wellbeing.

The programme focuses on the areas of your life you are most motivated to change (as revealed in the assessment), offering guidance, tools and resources to transform this new awareness into lasting changes in your life, including a renewed sense of health and wellbeing. The Wellness Inventory may be utilised by individuals, or it may be delivered in organisational settings.

Mission – to provide a wellness needs assessment and personalised opportunities for the improvement of an individual’s health and wellbeing.
Goal − full implementation and maximum utilisation of the Wellness Inventory in your practice, business or organisation.

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"The act of vigorous laughter energises our physiology in much the same way that aerobic exercise does, increasing heart and respiration rate and activating various muscle groups. After an episode of laughter, however, our bodies enjoy a relaxation effect," reports a US study on Workplace Laughter and Personal Efficacy by Beckman, Regier and Young. The study findings were published in The Journal of Primary Prevention.

It all sounds good and well, you might say, but in between deadlines, traffic jams, mortgage payments and escalating crime rates it’s not that easy to find something to laugh about.

Fake it ‘till you feel it.
There are, however, ways to reap the benefits of laughter without humour or comedy.

In 1995 Dr Madan Kataria, a physician from Mumbai, India, developed Laughing Yoga – a series of laughing techniques designed to imitate laughter through playful exercises. It quickly gained popularity, and today there are more than 5 000 laughter yoga centres around the world.

"Your body can’t tell the difference between pretend laughter and spontaneous laughter," says Martin Combrinck from Laughter for Africa.

"Anybody can laugh for 15 to 20 minutes without a sense of humour, jokes or comedy," says Combrinck. "In laughter yoga we use laughter as a tool, not an emotion. Simulated laughter soon becomes real when practised in a group."

How do they make you laugh?
It might be difficult to imagine what one might laugh at if there are no jokes, humour or comedy.

A laughing yoga session kicks off with childlike, almost silly, exercises – such as greeting one another with a laugh (even a fake one) rather than saying "hello". Another amusing exercise is fake laughter, where you "Ho-ho-ho-ha-ha-ha" like a hysterical Santa Claus. The fake laugh quickly turns in to real laughter when one person laughs at another, or at him/herself. You laugh because they laugh, they laugh back – and the next thing you know everyone’s hollering like a pack of hyenas.

The second part of laughter yoga is called "laughter meditation". The group members sit down in silence for a few minutes and then start faking laughter until it flows spontaneously. The session ends with some relaxation and breathing.

What is its purpose?
"We laugh as a way to improve health, increase wellbeing, and promote peace in the world through personal transformation," says Combrinck.

What’s more, a recent US study on the effect of laughter yoga on employees’ sense of self-efficacy in the workplace found that purposeful laughter actually enhances employees’ morale, resilience, and personal efficacy beliefs.

A study conducted in India, which measured the effect of laughter on stress levels in the workplace, showed a significant decrease in stress levels reflected in reduced heart rate and blood pressure, reduced cortisol levels and an 11% decrease in perceived stress levels.

Funny business
It seems laughter yoga is the trendy new thing to do at conferences and business meetings. "It’s very popular in the corporate environment," says Combrinck. Laughter for Africa also gives laughter yoga seminars and training. "It breaks down barriers and social hierarchy – bosses and employees connect in a new way," says Combrinck. "Laughter yoga boosts creativity as well as productivity in the workplace."

A word of wisdom
For once science and religion agrees that: "A merry heart does good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones," as it is written in the book of Proverbs.

- Health24.com

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Wellness Assessment/Audit Tool for Companies

The Wellness Inventory is a “whole person” assessment program designed to help employees gain personal insight into their state of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual wellness.  The program offers guidance and tools to transform this new awareness into lasting changes in their lives, and a renewed sense of health and wellbeing. And best of all, the program can be taken in the comfort of the employee’s own home or the office and you will have access to their scores. 

The Wellness Inventory can be used by companies to:

·           act as a cornerstone of their employee wellness or employee assistance programs,

·           to increase employee wellbeing and productivity,

·           to gather valuable data to assist in creating wellness and health education programs targeted to employee needs. 

Benefits to Your Employees

·           Assessing their current level of wellness in 12 key areas of lifestyle.

·           Promotes awareness and self-responsibility towards one’s lifestyle behaviours.

·           Enhanced self-understanding.

·           Helps determine the areas of their life they are most motivated to change.

·           Guidance in creating a personalized Wellness Action Plan to meet specific goals.

·           Optional coaching services to assist in developing their wellness action plan and achieving their wellness goals.

·           Access to resources, classes and programs to assist in meeting these goals.

·           Motivation to follow their Wellness Plan via permission-based email reminders. 

 Overall Benefits for Your Company

·           Improved employee health and wellbeing.

·           Improved employee performance.

·           Individual employee reports can be accessed by qualified coaches or consultants for one-on-one wellness coaching.

·           Current wellness resources offered by your company may be added to the 12 wellness resource centers to increase exposure of existing programs.

·           Custom group reports provide direct feedback on the needs of specific departments and demographic groups.

·           Assists the company in designing customised EAP programs for specific employee segments.  

Wellness Program Management Tools
The Wellness Inventory also provides corporate wellness programs or EAP’s with tools to empower you in working with your employees. You will have access to reporting, coaching and communication tools to facilitate group profiles by department, demographic groups or company wide, one-on-one coaching, follow up, and to strengthen the client-coach relationship.

Group Demographic Reports: Licensees can run aggregate reports on all employees who have taken the assessment, giving an overall wellness profile and change-readiness profile in 12 dimensions of wellness. The reports can also be run on 8-10 demographic variables, by both single and multiple variables. Customization options allow you to run reports by department, location and other desired demographics, in addition to the standard age, gender, marital status, etc.

Individual Employee Reports: (Optional Feature) Designated staff or wellness coaches will have access to individual employee assessment results, wellness plans and a test comparison feature. Employee privacy is protected. They can share their results only with their permission. These features facilitate 1-on-1 wellness coaching if that is part of your program.

Email Broadcast Feature: This feature allows you to broadcast supportive wellness information and resources to employees who have taken the Wellness Inventory, including weekly wellness tips, a wellness newsletter, and other information, as well as announcements from your employee wellness program. You are responsible for creating the content your send to your employees. (Premium feature)

Wellness Coaching
A wellness coach who is trained in use of the Wellness Inventory can help maximize the program’s effectiveness in helping your employees create desired lifestyle change and a higher level of health and wellbeing. Contact us for more information.

Certification Training
We offer a Wellness Inventory Certification Training to wellness coaches and wellness professionals via 12 week tele-classes. The Certification Training provides participants with an in-depth personal experience and practical knowledge of the Wellness Inventory assessment and personal growth process. It also provides a unique coaching skill-set to maximize the program’s effectiveness in creating change in your employees’ lives. The goal of the course is to create competence in delivering the program to individuals and in corporate settings.

You may prefer to have a member of your staff certified or to bring in a certified wellness coach to work with your employees.

For more information or for a Wellness Assessment/Audit presentation, please contact us.

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