Why this course, why now?
Leadership has a ripple effect. Healthy leaders create healthier teams. Healthy teams create healthier workplaces.
Every day, decisions such as how a leader responds to a mistake, whether they notice someone struggling, how they handle a hard conversation influence whether a team feels safe and able to do their best work. Most leaders were never taught this.
This course was built to close that gap, grounded in over 35 years of Platfform’s trauma-informed experience.
This is an open group course for up to 25 people. Leaders from different sectors and workplaces learn side by side, bringing a genuine mix of perspective and real-world experience into the room.
What this course covers
An expert-led programme sharing evidence-based insights to help leaders develop and maintain compassion, even under pressure, focusing on:
- Relational leadership skills for emerging and existing leaders.
- Open communication and safe feedback cultures
- Deepening self-awareness through reflective practice
- Leading through discomfort and complex situations
- Coaching skills to empower your staff
- Building a shared foundation for stronger team cultures and organisational performance
Why does this matter?
76%
of Employees with empathetic senior leaders report much higher engagement (76%) than those without (32%)
£85bn
UK employers face an estimated £85bn a year linked to sickness absence and staff turnover
70%
of Managers influence whether their teams are highly engaged - or disengaged from work.
20%
One in five employees who left their last role said it was down to unhappiness with senior leadership.
Why sign up your leaders and managers?
Your managers already shape how your people feel at work, every day.
If teams don’t feel supported, good people quietly disengage before they hand in their notice. Sick days that often trace back to problems nobody felt safe raising early. When they are supported, it can look different:
- Catch problems early: before they turn into good people leaving
- Build trust: so teams can flag issues while they are still small
- Boost productivity: teams do their best work when they feel safe
- Protect your organisation: fewer costs replacing people
Training timetable
6 sessions · one per month · November to April · in-person, Cardiff. Plus 3 one-hour facilitated reflective practice sessions, online
- 4th November: Why traditional leadership models fall short, and what compassionate leadership offers instead
- 2nd December: Building psychological safety, and identifying what gets in the way
- 13th January: Communicating in a way that genuinely builds connection
- 3rd February: Leading through discomfort and navigating difficult moments
- 3rd March: Coaching skills for leaders
- 14th April: Facilitating reflective practice within your own team
Why six-sessions and what it costs
A single day rarely changes how someone lead day to day. Six months gives your managers time to actually practice this with their own teams between sessions.
Spacing the sessions gives you time to practice, reflect, and bring real examples from your own team back into the room, so each session builds on the last, not just a slide deck you half-remember.
The cost is £1,200 + VAT per person.
Save 10% when you book before September 2026. Includes 3 one-hour facilitated reflective practice sessions online, in addition to the 6 in-person teaching days including lunch. Limited spaces available.
Who's teaching it?
Each session is led by a different facilitator from Platfform’s team of psychologists and workplace wellbeing experts, so you’re learning from specialists across each topic area, not one generalist trainer.
How has this training helped others?
"Allows personal reflection Encourages us to approach team issues with open and honest discussions"
"Really enjoyed the course, great delivery, great tutor and facilitators, all very knowledgeable. Learning lots which is empowering"
"We really had some deep conversations about sitting with discomfort. Really liked the case studies and bringing together learnings from before"
"Found the coaching session really engaging and useful. At first I thought I knew what coaching was, then for confused with overlap between mentoring. But after practicing it became really clear"
Why us?
We are part of Platfform, a mental health and social change charity. Our approach is trauma-informed and relational. Rather than viewing mental health through a medicalised lens that focuses on individual problems or “disorders,” we look at the wider context — people’s experiences, environments, and circumstances.
We don’t ask, “What’s wrong with you?” but rather, “What’s happened to you?”
This course recognises the strong link between mental health and the workplace. We focus on having meaningful conversations at work and humanising systems that are healthier, more relational, and better connected.
Frequently asked questions
Platfform Wellbeing is a social enterprise, and this fee covers paying our associates and facilitators fairly for their time and expertise, alongside the running costs of delivering a high-quality, expert-led programme over six months. As part of Platfform, a mental health and social change charity, income from this course also supports Platfform’s wider work.
Because this is an open course, it’s also often more cost-effective than commissioning Platfform to deliver bespoke training at your workplace. Sending a few leaders to join this course can work out cheaper per person than an in-house programme, while still giving them the same expert-led training with lunch included on each in-person day.
Get in touch. We offer discounts for charities and group bookings, and we’re happy to talk through what might work for your organisation.
All six in-person sessions are held in Cardiff. The three reflective practice sessions are online, so no travel needed for those.
Each session is led by a different facilitator from Platfform’s team of psychologists and workplace wellbeing experts, so you’re learning from specialists across each topic area, not one generalist trainer.
No. The course is designed for both emerging and existing leaders, whatever sector you work in.
Yes. In fact, the course works well with several leaders from the same organisation attending, since it gives you a shared language and approach to bring back to your teams. Get in touch about group discounts.
No. It’s for anyone in a leadership or management role, across commercial, charity, and public sector organisations.
Up to 25 people per course, with leaders from different sectors and workplaces learning side by side.
Register your interest below and Mary will be in touch with more information.
Interested in this training?
Complete the below form and Mary will be in touch with more information about this course.
Research sources:
- Empathic leaders drive employee engagement
- Managers Account for 70% of Variance in Employee Engagement
- UK employers face an estimated £85bn a year linked to sickness absence and staff turnover
- One in five employees who left their last role said it was down to unhappiness with senior leadership.