About Me
Life can be a juggling act with relationships at home and at work, teams to manage, deadlines to meet, and physical health to maintain to ensure you’re ‘fit for purpose’. The demands of life nowadays seem endless and with it a recognition that we must manage the stress that this generates in order to live well.
With a variety of workshops, Ghitta delivers insights, initiatives, and tools to counter the pressures of everyday living.
Ghitta Basson has over 12 years’ experience as a qualified therapist and over 6 years working as a Mental Health Consultant.
Her Story:
One of her first jobs in London as a Sales Consultant turned out to be not such a pretty story. Ghitta was sexually harassed by the General Manager of the company. She complained and after months of stress, anxiety, and being made to feel as if she was the perpetrator, her company booted her out the back door because she was young, naiive and replaceable and it would have had a larger impact on the manager if she continued with a case.
In her next job, she was the Sales and Event Manager of a blank canvas venue. Here she worked 5 days a week for 12-18 hours a day. Sleep deprivation, anxiety, and near burnout drove her to almost become an alcoholic. The turning point was spending a night in A&E due to liver problems.
Following this, she helped out a friend temporarily in a Construction role, but this turned into an 8-year full-time role. Her last 2 years working in Construction were hell. She had a manager who was 99% opposite of her (confirmed by a personality test at work) and because of that, Ghitta felt the need to change everything about herself. She worked long hours, became a perfectionist, and tried, again and again, to impress her manager just so she wouldn’t be scolded again. All to no avail. Her stress and anxiety levels were sky-high. She changed as a person, both at work and at home to the point where her husband didn’t even recognise her. It was affecting her entire life. To make matters worse, the environment she worked in was a highly toxic office.
Everyone there was burnt-out, short of fused, high anxiety, and severely depressed. No one wanted to be moved to this office and the staff turnover was high.
At this point in time, Ghitta was working part-time as a therapist and recognised the warning signs within herself as well as those around her.
She decided to make a change and started delivering deep relaxation and stress management workshops in the office during her lunch breaks. At first it was a slow uptake, but soon there were 25-30 people per session and she had to increase these sessions to 2 or 3 times per week.
Fast forward a year, Ghitta finally decided to make the leap. To jump ship from working IN construction to working WITH construction to help their employees. It didn’t end with construction though as other industries started showing interest too, which is why she now works with a variety of corporations wanting to put wellbeing on top of the agenda.
Ultimately, it was because of the construction industry, that she saw the absolute need for Mental Health knowledge and support that was required with too many people struggling to keep their heads above water, but not asking for help due to the stigma around Mental Health.
She now delivers a variety of workshops and a wellbeing plan to corporate clients. Some of her workshops include Stress Management & Coping Strategies, Safety in Mind, Mindfulness, Deep Relaxation, Mental Health Awareness, Sleep Improvement, and more.
Conclusion:
Ghitta isn’t just someone who got training to deliver a workshop or presentation. She is a trained therapist who can spot early on when someone is struggling. She creates her own workshops based on her knowledge and experience and she has some real-life trauma she has gone through, so absolutely speaks from experience and is passionate about mental health and wellbeing and ensuring people get the help thy need.
