Beyond Burnout
Physicians, health professionals, attorneys, and leaders in every sector have endured years of unrelenting toxic stress and uncertainty that has overloaded even the most well-resourced among us, leading to the inevitable and ubiquitous list of harm: Disengagement, Disillusionment, Distrust - and a sense of betrayal that increasingly strains once robust and reliable systems.
Lodestar helps restore individuals - and the systems in which they work - through highly tailored programming led by our team of physicians, psychologists and attorneys. We do the genuine and hard work with our clients. They walk away more able to move beyond the toxic stress of these times with restored connections and trust.
The result? Increased hope and connection in our careers, higher career satisfaction, team engagement, and restored trusting interactions. We begin with this fundamental truth: Connection Mitigates Trauma.
What We Do
Who We Help
Physicians and Public Health Workers have reached a tipping point in the US. Consulting firm "optimization" squeezed the profession, while years of profound uncertainty and organizational stress have pushed so many to examine pathways out of healthcare. 60% of our Faculty are physicians or public health workers. We are the professionals we help, and - like you - have a deeply endemic understand of the stress, trauma, and moral injury that can result from the work we do. Like you, we are physicians, nurses, medical educators and healthcare professionals who have experienced the pain and strain.
Attorneys spend their careers safeguarding clients who are often experiencing the worst moments of their lives. Exposure to secondary traumatic stress is the inevitatble result of the work. Unscaffolded and unaddressed, the pace of burnout and harm is untenable. Lodestar faculty provide deliberately cultivated spaces where Attorneys, Court Interpreters, Advocates, and those in the Judiciary can unburden and recover from the endemic harms of their profession.
Those tasked with governmental leadership in America have faced years of unprecedented toxic stress and trauma, enduring intense criticism and threats all while navigating uncertainty, profound organizational stress, and significantly increased workloads. The result? Depleted mental and emotional reserves and frayed internal resources
Even incredibly well-resourced organizations are struggling and failing on prime indicators of employee satisfaction and engagement. Very few leaders are adequately scaffolded, trained, or even aware of how to start addressing and reversing the past several years of cumulative and compounding toxic stress. Data from our clients (born out in national polls) indicate incidents of leadership distress, dissatisfaction, burnout, and moral injury are still rising post pandemic. Why? The previous knowledge and training under which Leaders have been operating - and our knowledge of resiliency - are no longer sufficient. What we once knew to be true about leading our teams and our people (i.e. the leadership lens we have collectively and successfully held for decades) no longer encompasses the full story.
Over 40 Physicians, Attorneys, PhDs and trauma-responsive professionals
Lodestar faculty are nationally recognized experts in the disruption of toxic stress.
Our highly experienced and skilled professionals bring decades of experience from multiple industries, as well as a track record of coaching leaders and helping organizations successfully plan and create sustainable, human-centered engagement and cultures.
We are doctors, lawyers, professionals - we've been where you are.
Help That Actually Helps
We know that meaningful, intentional connection and cultivation of habits allows for successful navigation through and beyond the toxic stress of these times. Lodestar methods are particularly effective for disrupting the burnout triad, and the compounding challenges of individual, collective, and organizational trauma, and the traumas of moral injury.
Trauma-responsive cultures are restorative, relational, and strengthen both institutions and individuals.
"Genuinely the best money I've ever spent for my organization"
Director of Public Health
Before Lodestar:
"... another government training. What box are we checking this time? I appreciate that someone is spending money on us ... But I don't have time to spend away, and the work will pile up while I am gone."
"I was "voluntold" to take this 3-day workshop with my team. Three days with people I don't trust. At least I get a free work trip."
"We don't interact at work. Why bother? Screen off. Head down. Retire In Place."
"Our leadership is the problem. It's like they are so removed from actual work that they don't even care about the impact on our workload and mental health. Insane. "
"My team needs something. I didn't sign up to lead chaos and deal with everyone's perpetually hurt feelings - but our mission suffering and at this point I'll try anything to stop the constant sniping..
After Lodestar
100% worth it. Worth the time and effort. I've never been in something like this. It was intense and I didn't want it to end. I never had the words for everything I was going through. It was a shock to learn I was not alone. This was unexpected and powerful."
"The 3 days in Washington, DC, really bonded us. Our whole team felt it. We haven't communicated this well in years, and the effect hasn't worn off yet."
"I haven't felt this good in a long time. It's like some part of me just cracked open again."
"... and our Leadership has been deeply harmed, too. These past years were terrible, and now I get it - we've all been paying the price. They cared enough to get us this help, I'm grateful for that."
"I'm sending my entire leadership team to this, and bringing in your staff to do deeper engagement with two specific teams. My small group has kept in close touch, and it feels great having other men to talk through leadership issues with."