What areas do you cover?

In-person sessions run across Exeter and Devon — in your own workplace, or at a venue you use. Sessions further afield in the South West can often be arranged, so do ask. Everything can also be delivered online, which works well for teams spread across sites or working from home.

How much does it cost?

Organisational work is quoted per programme rather than per person, because a lunchtime talk for twelve people and a twelve-week block for three teams are very different pieces of work. Tell us roughly what you have in mind and you'll get a clear written quote — see the [fees page](/fees) for how pricing works across all services.

Isn't resilience training just telling staff to cope better?

It shouldn't be, and this isn't. Sessions are explicit that resilience is shaped by working conditions as much as by individual skills, and the manager-facing content is about what an organisation can change. Teams tend to engage far better when that's acknowledged honestly at the start.

How do we know if our team is burning out?

Common early signs are exhaustion that a weekend doesn't fix, rising cynicism or detachment about work that used to matter, more short-notice absence, irritability between colleagues, and a drop in people's own sense that they're doing the job well. Recognising the pattern early is a large part of what these sessions teach.

Is this therapy for our staff?

No, and it's important to be clear about that. Workplace sessions are educational and preventative — they teach skills and understanding, and they're not individual psychological therapy. Nobody is asked to disclose anything personal. If someone needs individual support, they'll be pointed towards appropriate routes, including their GP, an employee assistance programme, or [private therapy](/online-clinical-psychology).

Will you tell us what individual staff said?

No. What individuals share in a session stays in the room, and no individual feedback is passed to managers. Where it's useful, general themes can be fed back at a group level — but only with the group's knowledge, and never in a way that identifies anyone. The exception, as in any professional setting, is a serious risk or safeguarding concern.

How big can a group be?

It depends on the format. Talks work well with larger audiences; workshops and reflective practice groups are better kept smaller — typically six to twelve people — so that everyone can take part and ask questions.

Can you deliver during the working day?

Yes. Lunchtime and in-hours sessions are the most common request, and they're often the most successful because staff don't have to give up their own time. Sessions can also run at the start or end of the day, or as part of away days, wellbeing weeks and staff conferences.

Can this be combined with yoga sessions?

Yes, and it often is. Body-based practice sits naturally alongside the psychology, and many organisations pair a wellbeing or resilience programme with [clinically-informed yoga for their team](/yoga-for-organisations) so that staff practise what they've learned rather than only hearing it.

Who actually delivers the sessions?

Dr Kayleigh Darch, every time. She is an HCPC-registered Clinical Psychologist (registration PYL30133) trained to doctoral level, an Experienced Yoga Teacher registered with Yoga Pros, and an Accredited Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher. [Read more about her background and training](/about).

For Organisations

Wellbeing and resilience for teams across Devon

Staff wellbeing that goes beyond a poster in the staff room. Workshops, resilience and burnout sessions, and reflective practice for staff teams — all designed and delivered by Dr Kayleigh Darch, an HCPC-registered Clinical Psychologist with NHS experience since 2009. In your workplace across Exeter and Devon, or online.

Talk about your team Yoga for organisations

Why this is different

A Clinical Psychologist, not a wellbeing package

Most workplace wellbeing is delivered by trainers working from a set programme. Here, the person designing the session is the person delivering it — a Clinical Psychologist trained to doctoral level (DClinPsy), registered with the HCPC, who has worked in NHS and private settings since 2009.

That means the content is grounded in the same evidence base used in clinical practice — cognitive behavioural therapy, compassion-focused therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and mindfulness-based approaches — translated into plain English and made genuinely useful on a Tuesday afternoon.

It also means the sessions are trauma-informed throughout. Nobody is put on the spot, nothing is compulsory, and everything is invitational. That matters in any workplace, and it matters a great deal in organisations whose staff support people in distress.

Where a team would benefit from something more embodied, this work sits alongside clinically-informed yoga for organisations — the same practitioner, one coherent approach, rather than a separate supplier bolted on.

What's on offer

Three strands of support

Each can stand alone or be combined into a longer programme. Everything is shaped around your organisation rather than taken off the shelf.

Staff wellbeing workshops & talks

Psychologist-led sessions on stress, anxiety, sleep, self-criticism and thinking habits — as a lunchtime talk, a half-day workshop, or part of a wellbeing week or away day.

Resilience & burnout sessions

A structured programme on what actually protects people under sustained pressure — recognising burnout early, recovering from it, and building resilience that doesn't rely on individuals simply coping harder.

Reflective practice & staff support

For teams whose work brings them alongside distress, trauma and risk: facilitated reflective practice, trauma-informed care training, and support for the people doing the supporting.

Not sure which fits? Start with a conversation — there's no obligation, and I'm happy to advise on what tends to work well for a team like yours.

Workshops & talks

Staff wellbeing sessions your team can choose from

These are not motivational talks. Each takes a piece of well-evidenced psychology — how anxiety works, why sleep unravels under stress, what self-criticism costs us — and turns it into something a team can understand and use. Topics are regularly combined and adapted; if what you need isn't listed, ask.

Stress, pressure and overwhelm

What stress does to the body and the mind, why it builds, and what genuinely helps — including the difference between pressures a person can change and pressures they can only carry differently.

Understanding anxiety and worry

How anxiety works, why it escalates, and the practical tools that quieten it. Useful for staff, and useful for anyone managing people who are struggling.

Sleep and recovery

Why sleep is often the first thing to go under pressure, what the evidence says about repairing it, and how rest and recovery actually work — including for shift workers and on-call staff.

Self-criticism and self-compassion

The internal voice that drives many high performers, what it costs over time, and how compassion-focused approaches build a steadier, more sustainable way of working.

Thinking habits

The patterns of thinking that quietly shape mood and decisions — how to notice them, and how cognitive behavioural approaches help people step back from them.

Supporting a colleague who's struggling

For managers and team leads: how to start the conversation, what helps, what to avoid, where the limits of your role sit, and how to point someone towards proper support.

Sessions are interactive where a group wants that, and comfortably passive where it doesn't. Nobody is made to speak, role-play or share anything personal.

Resilience & burnout

Resilience is not the same as putting up with it

Resilience training has a bad name in some workplaces, and often deservedly so. Too much of it quietly puts the problem back on the individual: if you were more resilient, you'd cope. That isn't what the evidence says, and it isn't what's taught here.

Psychological resilience is the capacity to meet difficulty, recover from it, and keep functioning — and it is built as much by conditions as by character. Workload, control over your own work, clarity about what's expected, the quality of relationships in a team, and whether recovery is genuinely possible all shape it.

So these sessions do two things at once. They give individuals real, usable psychological skills. And they help teams and managers see the conditions that either build resilience or quietly erode it — because a team where nobody takes a proper break cannot be trained into resilience.

Burnout is treated as what it is: a recognised occupational phenomenon with a predictable shape — exhaustion, growing cynicism or detachment, and a fading sense of doing the job well. Recognised early, it is far easier to turn around.

Preventing burnout, cultivating resilience

The ground a resilience programme covers

A full programme covers all of these; a shorter session takes the parts most relevant to your team.

What sustained pressure does to the body and the mind
Spotting burnout early, in yourself and in colleagues
Evidence-based tools that hold up on a difficult day
Recovery that actually restores, including sleep
Breathwork and the nervous system as practical regulation
What managers can change: workload, control and psychological safety

Reflective practice & staff support

A space to think, not a space to be assessed

Teams who work alongside distress, trauma and risk carry something home with them. Facilitated reflective practice gives that work a proper place to be thought about — the case that stayed with someone, the call that went badly, the slow weight of hearing difficult things week after week.

It is deliberately not a case management meeting, a supervision check, or a performance conversation. Nothing individuals share is fed back to managers, no notes are kept about what people say, and nobody is assessed. The exceptions are the ones every practitioner works to: a risk of serious harm or a safeguarding concern has to be acted on, and that is said openly to the group at the start.

Groups are held in a trauma-informed way, with predictable structure, clear boundaries and choice about what anyone shares. Monthly is the most common pattern, fortnightly for teams under heavier load, with six to twelve people so that everyone could speak if they wanted to.

Alongside the groups, this strand includes trauma-informed care training for services, and facilitated sessions for a team after a serious incident or a period that has shaken people. It suits NHS teams, charity and third-sector support workers, domestic abuse and sexual violence services, housing and advice services, social care, and education and pastoral staff.

The purpose is practical as well as humane. Staff who have somewhere to process difficult work are less likely to burn out, less likely to become detached from the people they support, and more likely to stay.

Formats

Ways these are usually delivered

Every format runs in your workplace, at a venue you use, or online.

Lunchtime talk

45 to 60 minutes

One topic, clearly explained, with time for questions. The easiest way to bring psychology into a workplace without asking much of anyone's diary — and a good first step if wellbeing sessions are new to your team.

Half-day workshop

Two to three hours

One topic in real depth, with practical exercises and discussion. Suits wellbeing weeks, team development days, and groups who want to leave with skills rather than information.

Away days & wellbeing weeks

A session within your programme

A talk, workshop or restorative session that fits alongside everything else you have planned. Often paired with a yoga or breathwork session to close the day.

A block of sessions

6 or 12 weeks

A themed series that builds week by week, so that skills are practised rather than heard once. This format has worked well with NHS teams, university departments and charity staff groups.

Programmes are quoted per programme, not per head — see fees or get in touch for a quote.

For HR teams and people managers

If you're the person arranging this

You'll know that wellbeing initiatives only work when people actually feel comfortable taking part. Sessions here are designed with that in mind: invitational language, no one singled out, no requirement to share anything personal, and complete beginners genuinely welcome.

Sessions can run in your own building, at a venue you use, or online. They fit lunchtimes, team meetings, away days, wellbeing weeks, induction programmes, and longer blocks across a term or a quarter.

You'll deal with Kayleigh directly from the first email to the final session — no account managers, no associate trainers sent in her place. She'll ask what's actually going on for your team before proposing anything, and will say honestly if something other than a wellbeing session would serve you better.

Her relevant training includes trauma-focused CBT, trauma-informed care for mental health services and third-sector organisations, compassionate leadership, and essential supervision skills, alongside doctoral-level training in assessment, formulation and evidence-based therapies. Read more about her background.

If it would help to share this with colleagues or take it to a budget conversation, there is a short brochure covering all of the above as a PDF.

Download the brochure (PDF)Talk about your team

Track record

Organisations BAM Therapy has worked with

Previous and ongoing partnerships across the public, private and charity sectors in Exeter, Devon and beyond.

NHS primary care and general practice services
NHS secondary care mental health teams
Staff groups across various departments at the University of Exeter
Local staff at the John Lewis store in Exeter
Staff groups working at CoLab, Exeter
Staff teams working in local law firms and legal settings
Clients accessing support from Devon Rape Crisis
Student groups and societies at the University of Exeter

These partnerships are formed collaboratively and have included weekly sessions, one-off workshops, away-day activities, and 6-week and 12-week blocks. Read more about the yoga side of this work.

How it works

From first email to first session

A conversation

A free, no-obligation call to talk about your team — what the pressures are, what's been tried, what you're hoping for, and any practical constraints on time, space and budget.

A proposal shaped around you

A written outline of what would be delivered, in what format, over what period, and what it costs. Nothing generic, and nothing you haven't seen and agreed first.

Delivery and review

Sessions are delivered by Kayleigh herself, in your workplace or online. Longer programmes include a review so the content can adapt to what the group actually needs.

Questions

Common questions from organisations

What areas do you cover?: In-person sessions run across Exeter and Devon — in your own workplace, or at a venue you use. Sessions further afield in the South West can often be arranged, so do ask. Everything can also be delivered online, which works well for teams spread across sites or working from home.
How much does it cost?: Organisational work is quoted per programme rather than per person, because a lunchtime talk for twelve people and a twelve-week block for three teams are very different pieces of work. Tell us roughly what you have in mind and you'll get a clear written quote — see the fees page for how pricing works across all services.
Isn't resilience training just telling staff to cope better?: It shouldn't be, and this isn't. Sessions are explicit that resilience is shaped by working conditions as much as by individual skills, and the manager-facing content is about what an organisation can change. Teams tend to engage far better when that's acknowledged honestly at the start.
How do we know if our team is burning out?: Common early signs are exhaustion that a weekend doesn't fix, rising cynicism or detachment about work that used to matter, more short-notice absence, irritability between colleagues, and a drop in people's own sense that they're doing the job well. Recognising the pattern early is a large part of what these sessions teach.
Is this therapy for our staff?: No, and it's important to be clear about that. Workplace sessions are educational and preventative — they teach skills and understanding, and they're not individual psychological therapy. Nobody is asked to disclose anything personal. If someone needs individual support, they'll be pointed towards appropriate routes, including their GP, an employee assistance programme, or private therapy.
Will you tell us what individual staff said?: No. What individuals share in a session stays in the room, and no individual feedback is passed to managers. Where it's useful, general themes can be fed back at a group level — but only with the group's knowledge, and never in a way that identifies anyone. The exception, as in any professional setting, is a serious risk or safeguarding concern.
How big can a group be?: It depends on the format. Talks work well with larger audiences; workshops and reflective practice groups are better kept smaller — typically six to twelve people — so that everyone can take part and ask questions.
Can you deliver during the working day?: Yes. Lunchtime and in-hours sessions are the most common request, and they're often the most successful because staff don't have to give up their own time. Sessions can also run at the start or end of the day, or as part of away days, wellbeing weeks and staff conferences.
Can this be combined with yoga sessions?: Yes, and it often is. Body-based practice sits naturally alongside the psychology, and many organisations pair a wellbeing or resilience programme with clinically-informed yoga for their team so that staff practise what they've learned rather than only hearing it.
Who actually delivers the sessions?: Dr Kayleigh Darch, every time. She is an HCPC-registered Clinical Psychologist (registration PYL30133) trained to doctoral level, an Experienced Yoga Teacher registered with Yoga Pros, and an Accredited Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher. Read more about her background and training.

Let's talk

Tell Kayleigh about your team

A short message is all it takes to start. Tell Kayleigh who your team are and what's going on for them, and you'll get an honest view on what would help — with no obligation to book anything.

Get in touch Email Kayleigh