Fostering Psychological Safety in the Workplace and in Life: an interview with Susanna Harkonen, organizational mental health expert

Susanna Harkonen is an entrepreneur, and licensed psychological counselor with global business experience. She specializes in individual and organizational well-being and psychological safety and serves as a subject matter expert in the WHO’s Pan-European Coalition on workplace mental health.Susanna shared that money was "very yin-yang" in her family of origin. On one side of her family, people were very focused on material goods, and measured others by what they earned and what they owned. The other side of her family was more spiritually oriented, and money was very seldom talked about.Her early upbringing led to her interest in the psychology of money, including issues of shame and, as a trauma therapist, money trauma. As she notes, money is quite a difficult topic for many of us.  It's often easier to deal with childhood trauma or neglect or abuse; financial Issues, however, are often the hardest ones to tackle. “By and large, people are more comfortable talking about their sex lives in public than they are talking about their money and what they have in their own account, and what are the shameful areas they have in their lives around money.” - Susanna HarkonenKey takeaways:- When it’s time to make a change, you’ll know. Susanna transitioned from a career in business to counseling psychology. Although it may sound like a big leap, Susanna recalls that there was a clear point when she knew that she could no longer work in the business world, that she felt like she was selling her soul. She didn’t feel like she had an option. If she didn’t make the change, she was going to have health problems and burn out.- Choose a career that reflects your interests. As a lifelong learner, Susanna enjoys the field of psychology, which is always evolving. As she shared, humans are a fascinating species and though things are not as complex as we think they are, being a human is not that simple!- Though it’s not easy, it is possible to change our conditioned behaviors, around money, around relationships and other areas of our life. Susanna has seen in her own life , as well as in the lives of family and clients, that when you’re willing to face the areas of discomfort rather than turning away, change can happen. She believes in holistic, trauma-informed practices that work with the body, mind and spirit to bring healing, and is especially interested in practices that help to create nervous system safetyAbout the guest:Susanna Harkonen is an entrepreneur, and licensed psychological counselor with global business experience. She specializes in individual and organizational well-being and psychological safety and serves as a subject matter expert in the WHO’s Pan-European Coalition on workplace mental health. Susanna combines her hands-on business knowledge with her expertise on mindset, nervous system safety, trauma, relationship patterns, resilience, and grit in her work with organizations and individuals. She delivers training programs on nervous system safety and financial psychology to start-ups, international organizations, and academic institutions. Company: Inner Work World LLCLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanna-harkonenFree resource: Reach out for Susanna's whitepaper, The Wisdom of Our Nervous System Interested in booking a free consultation? Schedule a call.Stay connected:Connect with Laura on LinkedIn@Rotters5 on TwitterConnect with Laura on FacebookSubscribe to my YouTube c