Workshop Review | Wellbeing After Organizational Change

July 2025, Xiaojie Qin, director of CandleX, was invited by a diplomatic organization in Chongqing to lead a bilingual (Chinese and English) mental health workshop for employees after organizational restructuring. The group—primarily Chinese professionals—required a culturally attuned approach. Instead of deep emotional processing, the focus was on gentle awareness, emotional literacy, and collective forward movement.

A Framework for Subtle yet Impactful Growth

Drawing from Xiaojie’s experiences in improv comedy and therapeutic frameworks like Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), we designed exercises that:

• Normalized emotions without pressure to "open up" (e.g., "emotional literacy games both in Chinese and in English for both language groups").

• Built trust gradually through light, reflective activities (e.g., resourcing exercises that guide the group to answer the questions listed at the beginning of the workshop).

• Focused on team cohesion, using improv games such as mirror games, and ball games like "reflection on collaboration, and personal role at a workplace" to frame resilience as a shared effort.

Our Approach:

• Safety in structure: Reserved groups often engage more when given clear, low-pressure prompts.

• Small steps toward awareness: It’s common that Chinese employees had never discussed emotions at work—simply naming feelings (e.g., "stress," "uncertainty") was progress.

• Forward momentum: We prioritized practical tools (e.g., grounding techniques, reframing thoughts) over revisiting the restricting itself.

Key Insight for Organizations

In cross-cultural or reserved settings, meeting people where they are is transformative. This workshop proved that even modest shifts—like acknowledging emotions or aligning on team strengths—can lay the groundwork for post-restructuring repair and growth.