My best course - Looking after your well-being

Wellbeing and fitness incentives have long been popular with big city employers, and are now increasingly on the to-do-list for smaller businesses. One such employer is Bright Kids' Northfield nursery, in south Birmingham, which enrolled staff on a wellbeing course. The course, managed by Sam Mulhall, the wellbeing, coaching and development executive who is responsible for staff training and wellbeing, offers one-on-one coaching sessions to staff struggling with day-to-day issues.

The course, Moodmaster, was established in 2008 for members of the public and is provided by the Association of Psychological Therapies, which also provides courses for qualified mental health professionals.

It is based on cognitive behavioural therapy and incorporates elements of compassion-focused thinking and acceptance and commitment therapy.

It is aimed broadly at NHS workers, schools and the corporate sector.

Jodie Shafi, senior nursery nurse at Bright Kids Northfield, was one of those participating. She says one of the first parts of the course was to write down what had been negative and positive each week, and reflect on how she could have dealt with things better, as well as what was successful.

The course, which was held over six weekly two-hour sessions, explored themes such as understanding emotion, describing stressful situations, problem solving, how to stop worrying, aiding sleep and resolving conflict.

A group leader would present a theme at each session and provide information sheets on that theme to take home, as well as setting a project for each participant to undertake before the next session.

Shafi says: 'I loved it. I learned a lot, especially how to look at things differently. I've suffered with anxiety and using these techniques helped me.

'We shared a lot of our own personal stories. If you can find out what was going wrong, you can try to stop it happening again.'

- For more information go to www.moodmaster.co.uk.