THRIVE: The Group Wellness Program for People-in-Tech

the content would apply to employees of any gender especially in a career/personal transition. Topics like imposter syndrome, stress management, closing the stress cycle, nutrition, and physical fitness are gender agnostic and applicable to most employees.

Similar to one of the concepts presented in the class, I found it to be a “time multiplier”. I was overall more efficient/productive than I would have been and so got a good return on my time and effort investment. Also, the assignments were effective in reinforcing the concepts rather than feeling like an overhead. Even on my busiest days, by week 3 of the program, I would look forward to the group and 1:1 sessions.

For me the highlight of the class was the section on Stress management – closing the stress cycle. The realization that I could “actively” close my stress and discovering the tools that worked for me was empowering. We all recognize that being stressed is not good, I just always assumed that it was inevitable in our jobs or required balancing with rest/vacations etc. I expect that the tools I learned and practiced in this course, will (with regular practice) be effective in both short-term and long-term stress management.

Sakshi’s data-based approach of answering the why something was important before telling us the what/how to fix it was very effective in getting us invested in the proposed solutions. The 1:1 sessions were truly tailored to meet our needs and help us as individuals overcome the roadblocks we were facing. Sakshi also did a great job of resonating themes with the audience with examples that were relevant to us. I also liked how she set up the exercise and stress-closing challenges to grow in scope but still be manageable over the course of the challenge.

What I loved most about this class is that I came out with specific lifestyle habits/tools that work for me to live a healthier life and most importantly mitigate and manage my stress better. I truly believe I am bringing a better version of myself to my family and work as a result of what I have learned in this class.”

Kirti Ahmad, Engineering Manager, Apple Inc. 

Program is well structured and the topics are presented with scientific background and tied to how it applies on our day to day practices. Her strategy on having sit down topics and incorporating activities (ie challenges, pantry audit, etc) was really good.

She covered overall wellness as opposed to just targeting weight loss etc. She touched on exercise,mediataion, sugar, neurotoxins (which I’ve never heard before), sleep, relationship with food, work life balance, self care and many more random things that participants ask her about. Very much willing to spend time researching more to support the needs of the group. Towards the end the group became a tribe supporting each other’s back on wellness with Sakshi as our glue c,”). Attending her program have improved not just my overall wellness but the family as well.”

Margaret Salvado, Engineering Manager, Apple Inc.