In this timely and compassionate episode of The Workplace Therapy Podcast, Scott Arrieta and co-host Dr. Sarah Gould sit down with Anna Pinkerton, a world-renowned trauma specialist and founder of Kindness Informed Leadership. With over 30 years of clinical experience, Anna brings deep insight into the psychological toll of chronic stress, burnout, and trauma in leadership—and how kindness isn’t a weakness but a revolutionary act of resilience.

Together, they explore:

• How untreated trauma shows up in leadership

• The signs of chronic stress and early-stage burnout

• Why traditional productivity-driven cultures are breaking people

• The false dichotomy between kindness and accountability

• Practical frameworks for healing and supporting ourselves and our teams

• The power of vulnerability, presence, and emotional regulation in high-stakes environments

Anna’s message is clear: Kindness is not about being nice—it’s about being brave, present, and connected. This episode is a must-listen for anyone in leadership who wants to build a culture that sustains people, not just profits.

In this heartfelt and thought-provoking episode of The Workplace Therapy Podcast, host Scott Arrieta sits down with Marcia Donziger, founder and CEO of Vital Biz Consulting, to explore how workplace culture can be both a healing force and a strategic driver of business results.

Marcia shares her personal journey—from being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in her 20s to founding MyLifeLine, a nonprofit that helped cancer patients stay connected with their support networks. She later transitioned into organizational consulting, driven by her belief that care, connection, and trust are essential for people and companies to thrive.

Together, Scott and Marcia unpack:

• The Culture CARES framework (Commitment, Appreciation, Respect, Engagement, and Safety)

• Why psychological safety and trust are the foundation of high-performing teams

• How to transform culture one business unit at a time, even without executive buy-in

• The emotional and strategic impacts of mass layoffs—and how to navigate them with humanity

• Why employee experience is not a soft skill—but a business driver

• The role of leaders as culture carriers and examples of real-world impact

Listeners will walk away with a renewed sense of what's possible when organizations make care a cornerstone of their leadership strategy.

The most valuable lessons about business and leadership are not learned in the classroom. When it comes to developing the next generation of high-impact leaders, there is simply no substitute for experience and mentorship. On this week's episode of The Workplace Therapy Podcast, our guest Candice Seiger gives us a healthy dose of both.

Candice is a seasoned strategy and operations executive who has worked for major brands like Carnival, Hyatt and AAA. She currently sits on the board for American Public Television and holds an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. In this week's episode, Candice shares the four essential ingredients to her success as a leader and offers advice to deveoping leaders on how to scale their impact by focusing on what matters most - the people.

The promotion process at most companies can be frustratingly opaque. In this week's episode of the Workplace Therapy Podcast, Annie Brown - Head of People at Fi gives us an insider's peek behind the veil of performance reviews and promotion decisions and gives some invaluable advice to employees and managers navigating the process.

We expect a lot of things from leaders in the modern workplace and perhaps chief among them is the expectations that leaders maintain resilience, composure and stability during times of uncertainty and change. That can sometimes be a tall order as today's workplace experiences a volume and velocity of change that is often times overwhelming.

In this week's episode of The Workplace Therapy Podcast, certified somatic coaches Scott and Monica Arrieta from Unity & Company interview Dr. Susan Bernstein, CEO of Shift Beyond Strategies. Dr. Bernseitn holds a Ph.D. in Somatic Psychology and an MBA from UC Berkley. She leverages her unique blend of business acumen and deep expertise in somatic psychology to work with organizations to produce more adaptable and self-aware leaders who in turn serve as catalysts for organizational growth.

We’re starting a new series here on The Workplace Therapy Podcast called Weaponized Words, where we examine the lexicon we use in the workplace and try to unpack how certain words and phrases might have and unintended impact in our organizations. This week, my co-host Skylar Lewandowski and I take a look at the often-weaponized word, “productivity.” We discuss what productivity is, what it isn’t, where leaders commonly trip up when evaluating productivity and what we can learn to do differently.