Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)
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Yoland Higgs

Contractor

Yoland is a Senior Social Worker who consults in behavioural wellbeing. She works with adults facing life issues that challenge their mental health, at a point prior to them becoming unwell and needing clinical treatment.

Yoland uses practical, solution and strengths-based practice approaches. She assists individuals understand how their behaviours, mindset and choices affect their wellbeing and how they can make desired changes to achieve goals and a better quality of life.

Yoland is experienced in the provision of workplace-based counselling for individuals and leadership groups who have experienced traumatic events and chronic workplace stress. She backs this up with complementary experience in developing and implementing, well-researched strategies to improve the wellbeing of individuals and organisations.

Yoland’s particular practice interests are:

  • Increasing resilience in those facing change and demands in their workplace or personal lives, by assisting them manage stress, burnout and uncertainty
  • Helping people build more effective interpersonal skills and manage relationships, especially those in the workplace
  • Improving health and wellbeing outcomes by assisting people identify their strengths and abilities and learn new strategies for managing in difficult times
  • Supporting and coaching individuals to elicit clear, achievable, well-defined and motivating goals that empower them to find new ways to improve and do better
  • Assisting individuals make sound decisions and manage associated discomfort
  • Working with loss and grief
  • Facilitating individuals to build self-confidence and self-efficacy and to overcome ‘imposter syndrome’
  • Assisting employees to plan and take charge of their working future

Yoland also brings to COGNITION well-rounded experience across the life span, having worked for over 11 years in the Youth Justice area, in a range of roles (Assessment Social Worker, Senior Practitioner, Program Coordinator). During this time, she developed comprehensive skills in working with adolescents with complex needs and in collaborating with parents and other significant adults to assist these young people meet their full potential.

Yoland has extensive and diverse experience in human services over the course of 26 years. She holds a Degree of Bachelor of Social Administration, from Flinders University and is a member of the Australian Association of Social Workers. Yoland has joined the COGNITION team, as an Associate, specifically to focus on the provision of Employee Assistance Program services (she does not accept referrals for work injury claims or see people using private health or Medicare referrals). She is available for counselling and also to conduct workplace interventions related to her areas of expertise.