Content

This course is a six-week self-help program for mental health in IT.

For the best experience, its chapters should be read in order, at a rate of one per week, so you can fully digest and implement what you learn over that week.

Chapters

1. The first chapter on stress discusses the neurobiology of our stress reflex and what that teaches us about the optimal tools for stress management.

2. The next chapter talks about the influence of anxiety and fear in our day to day lives, and the road to unlearning and erasing fear from our minds and bodies.

3. The third chapter completes the discussion of our so-called our negative emotional systems, by looking at anger and the way it can help us anger overcome fear and anxiety.

4. The fourth chapter is about fatigue and other physical ailments (illness, chronic pain, indigestion, ...) that tend to go hand in hand with mental health issues.

5. The penultimate chapter deals with conflict and interpersonal relations in general, offering insights for both those who avoid conflict and those who usually find themselves in the midst of it.

6. The last chapter is about burnout — an umbrella term that offers the opportunity to talk about motivation, statisfaction and inspiration.

Approach

All chapters follow the same approach:

1. What
2. Why
3. How
4. Exercise
5. Inspiration

After a definition of the topic and a discussion of its neurobiological and emotional background (What?), the course talks about the therapeutic importance of dealing with this specific issue (Why?).

The next section offers practical tools and techniques to accomplish this (How?), followed by an assignment that will help you change your thought patterns and break bad habits (Exercise).

Each chapter is concluded by a list of podcasts, YouTube videos, books or websites for further learning and awareness (Inspiration).

Self-help

This course is designed as a tool for self-help.

I am a firm believer in the power of change, but I also believe that only you are capable of making that change and sustaining it. In this way, a self-help program stimulates a sense of accountability. Fundamentally, we are responsible for guarding our mental health at the workplace, not our employers.

Background

Personal experience

This course is written by me, Tom — a software engineer with a strong interest in neuroscience and emotional therapy, married (with two kids) to a fantastic wife, who just so happens to be a psychotherapist...

I developed this interest after a long history of lack of self-esteem, impostor syndrome and anxiety. All of which, I can honestly say, are now well and truly in the past. I've done systemic therapy, Gestalt , body-oriented therapy, group sessions, and so on — so I know my way around.

If you want to know more about my story, you can read about it in this blog post:

The important thing for you to know is that I've been there. I know what you are going through and I know the business you're working in. And even though mental health issues can seem insurmountable, I'm here to tell you that things can change for you too!

Evidence-based

Apart from my personal, trial-and-error, experience, this course is firmly based in science and discusses evidence-based tools and techniques.

It is especially rooted in affective neuroscience as developed by Jaak Panksepp, and put into therapeutic practice by Dr. Tom Herregodts, whose handbook on emotional therapy and brain management is also available for free as PDF or EPUB.

Another point of reference is the work of neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, Ph.D..