Consent and Choice: Important Implications for Workplace Health
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Speaker : SARAH O'BRIEN
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When : Thursday, April 03, 2025
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Time : 01 : 00 PM EST
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Sarah Fargo O’Brien (she/her) is a dynamic and innovative trauma-informed leader and strategist. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW, LCSW-C), and has been a practicing psychotherapist specializing in Anxiety Disorders, Substance Use Disorders, and Relational/Betrayal Trauma reactions & responses for over 15 years. She has had many diverse and enriching experiences as a therapist that inform her work as a Trauma-Informed Consultant. She has been pivoting her clinical skills into other areas to reach wider audiences for impacting social change. Sarah also writes, speaks, and creates audio & video media content in efforts to reduce the stigma around mental health disorders & treatment, and to increase understanding of and accessibility to trauma-informed practices for all people and all businesses, as trauma informed care is the way of the future.
Not only is Sarah the Founder/CEO of both her psychotherapy practice and coaching/consulting business, she is the creator of the groundbreaking tool: the Trauma-Informed Crisis Response Guide. This step-by-step guide can be easily used and followed by any person, in any setting, to navigate the steps to address a mental health crisis in action. She has been featured in numerous media outlets to include Today, PsychReg, Authority Magazine, and Canvas Rebel. She is an international bestselling author, certified trauma informed life coach and consultant, and a vetted Subject Matter Expert in mental health, substance use, and trauma disorders, responses, and trauma informed leadership practices. She strives to help folks wrap their minds around trauma-informed care in both clinical and non-clinical settings and work through their barriers to access transformational change, in life, in business, in self, in leadership.
Sarah lives out her beliefs in every aspect of her work, as she employs trauma informed principles to her business practices, marketing, design, content-creation, collaboration with other professionals or companies, and her work with clients. She has a contagious energy and uses it to empower every individual she works with to be their authentic selves…and wear it proudly. Her collaborative approach creates a synergy between herself and others that provides hype for motivation, follow-through on goals, and recognizable change. Neuroscience and evidenced-based practices are the driving forces behind Sarah’s approach to understanding how people create lasting and transformational change for themselves.
We will start with a working definition of Consent; working definition of Choice. We will outline the four (4) types of Consent: Verbal; Implied; Non-Verbal; Written. We will discuss four (4) areas of consideration when it comes to Consent: Responsibility; Safety; Leadership; Barriers to Consent. You will get examples of giving and not giving consent. We will review ways autonomous choice can be folded in to your work flow or workplace structure.
Promised outcomes:
- The audience will walk away with solid knowledge about Consent; how to define it; and the 4 types.
- The audience will walk away with clear examples of both giving and not giving proper Consent.
- The audience will learn 3 barriers to seeking proper Consent.
- The audience will learn important implications of Consent & Choice in leadership positions.
- The audience will walk away with clarity about Consent & Responsibility and Consent & Safety.
- The audience will learn ways to incorporate more choices into their workflow or workplace structure.
- They will be convicted on how they have been using their power or leadership to force behaviors, actions, or outcomes; and where seeking consent can improve performance and reach better outcomes.
- This talk should act as a catalyst for change through utilizing trauma informed principles and practices to create a workplace culture committed to increasing safety, and reducing harm, for every person in the organization.
Areas Covered
- Definition for Consent; Definition for Choice.
- The 4 types of Consent
- Importance of the word Enthusiastic
- How Consent interplays with responsibility and need for safety
- The barriers to seeking proper consent
- Ways to practice offering more opportunities for people to give consent in the workplace setting
- Ways to practice offering more opportunities for people to have choice in the workplace setting
- Why not allowing for consent and choice is a misuse of power and leadership
Learning Objectives
- You will learn definitions for Consent and Choice
- You will learn the 4 different types of consent
- You will learn about informed consent and the role of responsibility and safety
- You will be able to name at least 3 barriers to getting proper consent
- You will be able to name at least 1 way to increase opportunities for people to give consent at work
- You will be able to name at least 1 way to increase opportunities for people to make choices for themselves at wor
- You will learn why Consent & Choice are necessary for workplace health and workforce health
- You will consider your leadership style and practices at work and move towards increased self and other awareness to improve your ability to offer choices wherever possible
- As a leader, you will consider how your inability to seek proper consent, may be causing more harm to the people that work for you/under your supervision
- You will be able to see and understand the importance of increasing/improving choices and options for both a more harmonious workplace culture and increased productivity/performance from the workforce
Who Should Attend
Leaders, managers, supervisors, C-Suite Executives, directors, sales executives, IT managers, IT support, Customer service, Social media, Marketing, Human resources, team leads. Anyone in a Leadership position, Anyone in charge of making decisions that affect others, Anyone who assigns tasks or projects.
Why Should You Attend
Have you ever been sitting in a meeting and became physically uncomfortable? Like actual body discomfort or even pain? From sitting? From having to go to the bathroom but holding it? From needing a refreshment or nourishment? From something else, like an injury or medical condition?
Would you feel comfortable addressing whatever your personal need was in that moment in the meeting? What about if you are NOT the one leading, in charge, or at the top? Would you still feel comfortable taking care of your needs of your own volition?
Organizations and workplaces have people. People are often the most integral part of an organization’s success. Without people doing the work, producing, selling, earning, or finishing tasks, then likely the organization wouldn’t exist…or would be suffering greatly. The need for acknowledgement and acceptance that people are not mindless robots is long overdue.
Adopting trauma informed principles and practices demonstrates greater success all around for an organization. Communicating an understanding of humans, their finite capacity, and their desire to make their own choices, even at work, is vital in creating workplace environments where everyone can thrive.
When people are treated like the human beings that they are at work, instead of just another cog in the machine, they are healthier, happier, more satisfied at work and, therefore, more likely to stay at that workplace and perform well. And the workplace itself is healthy (not toxic).
Trauma Informed Leadership is the way of the future. Today’s workforce is more aware of their emotional and mental needs. Psychological safety is quickly becoming a non-negotiable for workers and employees of all kinds, in all industries.
Sarah encourages her audience to understand what Consent actually means and the importance of allowing folks at work to choose for themselves, as often as they can. She emphasizes the importance of understanding the 4 types of consent, of seeking consent, of giving consent and how this increases safety. Increased workplace safety = improved outcomes.
Topic Background
Leadership today often lacks understanding of the importance of considering others and their needs; and lacks understanding of the importance of allowing people to make some of their own decisions and/or consent to what is being asked of them.
As a Trauma Informed Leadership Strategist & Advocate, Sarah Fargo O’Brien both sees and understands the effects of poor leadership on the human condition. As she consults and trains on leadership strategy, she has found that many organizations are struggling to function well. The issue is that leaders lack the trauma informed skills needed to lead without causing more harm. Without these trauma informed principles and practices any organizational setting can be toxic and unsafe. We know psychological and emotional safety are what’s needed for everyone to perform at their best. Leaders without emotional literacy and the ability to apply trauma informed principles needed to meet the needs of today’s workforce, will, and do, cause more harm which further complicates and exacerbates any person’s ability to perform well at that organization.
In this webinar, Sarah Fargo O’Brien explains what Consent and Choice mean in terms of workplace environments. She will outline the four different kinds of consent and discuss the barriers to getting proper consent. Why leaders, managers, executives, supervisors should be seeking consent from the people that work with, for, and alongside them. When we can lead with trauma informed principles like consent and choice, it’s more likely we can create connection, trust and compassion, both for ourselves, as well as, for others. Creating this type of culture benefits everyone and ultimately improves outcomes.
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$160.00
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