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Workplace injuries can have a profound impact on an individual’s mental health. As people learn more about worker’s compensation, it becomes evident that the toll on mental well-being is part of the fallout from a workplace injury.

There are many challenges individuals face as they navigate what to do next.
Shock
Following a workplace injury, shock and trauma may lead to a range of emotional responses. Anxiety and fear about the severity of the injury, financial concerns and worries…
Continue Reading How can mental health change after a workplace injury?

Behavior activation is a branch of psychology focusing on how one’s environment shapes their actions and their mental health. By deliberately practicing certain behaviors, you can activate an emotional state. Go for one of the positive ones because that can lead to virtuous cycles. The opposite leads to vicious cycles, and ain’t nobody got time for that. By simply acting, you actually start finding yourself in the situation that leads to the desired feeling – including one of feeling…
Continue Reading Do; be. Do; be. Do.

Goals on highway road of empty asphalt road at beautiful sunset.
Goals on highway road of empty asphalt road at beautiful sunset.

First, read my article about goals published by the State Bar of Wisconsin. Back already? Great! I’ve convinced you that goals matter. They help guide priorities. They provide freedom, catalysts, and momentum. So, let’s get started.

What makes a good goal? I’m sure you’ve heard of SMART goals, but I encourage you to take SMARTIES.

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Actionable
R – Relevant
T – Time Bound
I – Intrinsic
E – Extra
S –…
Continue Reading Go Goals, Go! 

A big lie is that we just need more discipline. “If you really wanted to get stuff done, you would. You simply have to be (more) disciplined. No pain, no gain. Just do it!” We’ve all heard it from all sides, including our inner voices. Yeah, and if it were that easy, we’d all have our to-do lists done, be at our goal weight, and have all sorts of medals and trophies displayed to be admired.

But the truth…
Continue Reading Be Disciplined About Not Needing Discipline 

It’s easy to take for granted that the documents and accounts we use every day reflect our true conception of ourselves – knowing that we’ll see the right name or gender identity listed on things like our driver’s license, birth certificates, Social Security information, and passports – and all of the many, many other things that flow from one or more of those documents: voter registration, insurance information, bank accounts, credit cards, and more.

For a growing number of…
Continue Reading No More ‘Deadnames:’ Petitioning for Name and Gender Marker ID Changes in Wisconsin

Multitasking Businesswoman In Office
Smiling Young Businesswoman Doing Multitasking Work At Workplace

[Continuing our theme from last week.]

Another lie is that we can multitask. We’ve all done it; we’ve tried to do two things at once. Reading email while on a phone call, filing documents during a webinar, direct messaging while writing a memo. We think “Look how busy I am! And I got two things done at once!” But what we forget is that it comes at a cost. Studies have shown that found it takes 23 minutes…
Continue Reading Hidden Stress of Multitasking

It may come as a surprise that many services we classify as “wellness services” do not require a state-issued license, either for the practitioner delivering the service or the business offering the service. Some practitioners believe that a certification from a wellness education provider, such as for health coaches, reiki practitioners, mindfulness practitioners, personal trainers, yoga instructors, nutrition consultants, energy healers, just to name a few, is the same as a state-issued license.

It is not.

Having a certification…
Continue Reading What are the Legal Risks of Delivering Wellness Services without a License, and What Qualifies as Wellness Services Anyway?

Yoga class
A diverse group of adults follows their instructor in a yoga pose.

As a wellness lawyer, I hear all kinds of complaints from all kinds of different stakeholders in the wellness industry. Lately, I have been hearing from people wronged by health and business coaches. These individuals have been hurt emotionally and financially by unethical coaches. This emotional or financial injury may occur because the coach oversteps their scope of practice, or because their business policies, such as refunds or payment policies, are inequitable and unethical.

As I write my next…
Continue Reading Who Will Lead the Ethical Wellness Movement?

As a lawyer who practices in both the health care and wellness worlds, I have the advantage of witnessing strategies to try to improve health outcomes in both worlds. One issue that is dominating the health care policy literature is implementing strategies to address Social Determinants of Health (“SDOH”). SDOH includes issues like:

  • family relationships,
  • housing
  • education levels
  • income and employment concerns,
  • cultural values
  • legal status (such as immigration, criminal or credit history status)

These issues can have an…
Continue Reading Tackling the Social Determinants of Health through Wellness-Legal Partnerships