4 minute read
Health and Wellbeing
Maureen Silver
After many years working as a Gynaecological Surgeon in the NHS Dr Hala founded “Dr Hala Medical Aesthetics” with the goal of bridging the gap between medicine and beauty. Since opening the clinic in 2017 she has launched her own skincare range and consistently acquired cutting-edge technology and treatments for her clients, with a recent focus on women’s intimate health.
‘I’m always learning about new therapies or technologies in medical aesthetics, through my own research or recommendations from clients’ Dr Hala smiles, ‘two things that caught my eye quite early on were FemiLift & Desirial Vaginal Rejuvenation.’ Dr Hala had seen first-hand the effect of the social stigma surrounding women’s intimate health during her time in the NHS and saw an opportunity to drive change.
‘It’s often seen as a taboo subject - because of the negative social stigma surrounding it, many women feel like they can’t talk about their intimate health concerns. So many of my patients were suffering in silence with issues such as urinary incontinence or dryness’, Dr Hala recalls, ‘I wanted to create a space where women could freely discuss their intimate health with me, while also providing them a solution, and I was able to do that with FemiLift & Desirial alongside my expertise.’
Since introducing these treatments in her London-based clinic in Fulham Dr Hala has treated hundreds of women’s intimate health issues and opened the door for discussion to so many more. Garnering recognition and attention along the way for her work, she was soon approached by Vivacy Laboratories (creators of Desirial) to become the Desirial trainer for the London region. ‘It was like a dream come true. To be able to train other medical professionals to provide such a needed service and enable more women to come forward about their intimate concerns, and have them treated, is invaluable to me.’
Charming, friendly, and professional, Dr Hala welcomes new clients to the clinic and creates bespoke treatment plans to suit their individual needs. ‘More work needs to be done to eradicate the negativity towards speaking on women’s intimate health. But I’m proud of how far we’ve come and the women we’ve treated, chipping away at the stigma bit by bit.’
The business benefits of laughter
Monday morning is hardly the most joyous time in any office or business. It’s a long haul to Friday evening so it’s hardly surprising that not everyone is smiling or laughing. But does it have to be that way? It makes sense that a happier staff would be more productive, communicate better and be more cohesive as a team. But what can be done to achieve this?
It’s probably too much to ask of a CEO but for a CHO (chief happiness officer), getting employees to smile and laugh at life, work and everything else is the very essence of the job!
This is not to throw pie in anybody’s face or pie in the sky. There’s a growing body of evidence that employing a CHO could be a smart move for any business. A study at the University of Warwick showed that happier employees are 12% more productive. Meanwhile, St Edwards University reports that “an Australian industry-wide study of 2,500 employees found that 81% believe that a fun working environment would make them more productive, and 93% said that laughing on the job helps to reduce work-related stress. A further 55% said they would take less pay to have more fun at work.” I look forward to future studies showing that happier employees take fewer days off due to illness.
Companies and corporations that have joined the trend to appoint CHOs include Amazon, Google and AirBnB. Usually, they recruit someone with a good sense of humour from the HR department and send them for specific CHO training courses. Small companies, while not being able to afford a full time CHO, can still employ laughter gurus or comedy coaches such as L. Vaughan Spencer, the spoof business coach and alter ego of top improvisational comedian, Neil Mullarkey, whose anthem for business success is: “don’t be needy, be succeedy!” This approach works on two levels. Everyone feels better when laughing at the comedy coach but when you laugh as you learn, you also tend to remember the lesson much better. As a medical doctor, it’s clear to me that while laughter is not always the best medicine, it has been scientifically proven to reduce stress, improve breathing, increase immunity and raises our endorphins, the natural high-making chemicals in the body. On a psychological level, it’s obviously good for us. Very few of us don’t enjoy a good laugh but humour and reverse psychology can also be used warmly and effectively to get people to laugh at the parts of themselves that are holding them back. The Almost Happy approach uses comedy and reverse psychology in the form of funny, wearable badges such as “Grim Executive”, “Dedicated Commuter”, “Creative Dictator” and many more to satirize aspects of employees that may be keeping them unhappy or only almost happy at work. When we’re encouraged to laugh at the parts of ourselves that are holding us back, we decrease the power of those parts over us and are happier, more congruent and more productive in the workplace.
Dr Brian Kaplan is the co-author of Almost Happy: Pushing Your Buttons With Reverse Psychology with Hephzibah Kaplan, out now, priced £16.00
