ABOUT
SUZANNE MATTHIESSEN
Professional Snapshot | Academic Education
Professional Certification Trainings
In my decade+ of adult work/life skills Learning and Development experience, I have crafted and taught courses to thousands of learners: corporate employees of Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, non-profit organizations, start-ups, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), community college continuing education programs, in public and private workshops, and for law officers and first responders. Whether I am teaching in person or via live online/interactive formats, I strive to create what I call “high touch” Learning Experiences for all attendees.
My long-time personal passion for holistic wellbeing merged with my education and consulting professional focus after I was contracted to teach mindfulness courses for healthy stress management. My corporate employee students confided to me privately back in 2011 that what is now referred to as toxic workplace leadership and culture was what was making them chronically unwell and unhappy, and I felt it was unethical to promise what I was teaching would counteract that. Unfortunately, the ethical component of traditional mindfulness is de-emphasized in its modern application, and I wasn't permitted to openly address concerns that many students communicated to me privately – and as a longtime advocate of a healthy and safe workplace “speak up” culture for all employees regardless of their position, that doesn't work for me. While I will always teach mindful awareness as a life skill, I chose to disengage from what I now refer to as "the modern mindfulness industry."
My experience during this time taught me that when a training is offered within an organization of any size or type, if it does not become part of their overall culture, and transparently reflected and continuously supported by leadership and managerial staff, it is unlikely to be adopted on a lasting, sustainable basis.
Being that I’m someone who wants to get to the “root cause” of any dis-ease and not just put band-aids over symptoms, I acquired a degree in Organizational Leadership to compliment the one I had in Psychology and dedicated my life’s work to teaching and advising about how to create a sustainably healthy, humane, and harmonious workplace. This also moved me to speak and write about the importance of living with unbroken integrity in both our personal and professional spheres of influence, which led me to obtain Leadership Professional in Ethics and Compliance certification, and my subsequent leadership advising work that centers upon what I refer to as Ethical Intelligence.
Life Smarts - Making Wise Choices at Any Age
Over the past couple of years I've extensively reflected upon and researched what elements of human behavior foster making wise choices in both their personal and professional lives - and what doesn't. There is considerable resistance by many people to look deeply at the ways they sabotage their own success and damage relationships by thinking and acting in ways that are harmful to both themselves and others. Words like "ethical" "integrity" "character" "trustworthiness" often prompt ego-driven reactivity and defensiveness as they don't want to admit they don't always embody them, regardless of whether they proclaim them as core values.
The problem is this is extremely damaging in the long run, and all the denial, lame excuses, and justifications they offer up are simply a waste of time and energy when they could instead a) take ownership for their impact and b) commit to choosing differently and create new behavioral habits of response that empower them to lead by contagiously inspiring example in whatever sphere of influence they have in any given situation, interaction or moment - and there are no unimportant situations, interactions or moments.
My own years of deep engagement in both personal and professional learning has earned me Subject Matter Expertise (SME) in a interdependent collection of human growth and change skillsets, and that is the foundation of all that I teach, advise, and write about. Continually evolving in my own awareness and knowledge that has led to embodied wisdom is my great joy and passion, and I approach teaching others with extreme reverence and responsibility with the impact of my influence upon them.
As a Learning and Development and Growth and Behavioral Ethics specialist, I have been committed to serve people in upgrading what I call our "Internal Operating System" away from their old, unproductive, status-quo driven one that impedes actualizing their aspirations to become the best and most honorable versions of themselves possible - and to in turn courageously lift up others through their contagiously humane and positive example.
All I have learned and experienced over the years has culminated into teaching what I describe as “Life Smarts” – the mindsets and skillsets so-called "soft skills" that can make us both wise and empower us to lead by inspiring example regardless of our age, formal education, or life circumstances, and build smart self-identity habits that can be learned by almost anyone - and by doing so make wise choices that will guide them throughout their entire life, and provide them with a legacy they can be both humble and proud of leaving behind when they are gone.
The synergy of my formal education, professional experiences, and hard-earned life lessons worked in tandem to create my Subject Matter Expertise (SME) in the following areas, including:
Workplace Behavioral Ethics and Code of Conduct; Psychological Safety; Holistic Individual and Organizational Wellbeing; Proactive Stress Responsiveness and Resiliency; DEIB Harmony Building: Emotional Intelligence; Social Mindfulness; Adaptive, Humane, and Ethically Intelligent Leadership: Individual Behavioral Habit Upgrades;
and Dynamic Interpersonal Communication.
I love to make learning fun, and my “secret sauce” for lasting knowledge retention and positive behavioral habit change includes infusing love, humor, empathy, compassion, curiosity, adventure, and humanity into every Learning Experience.
Academic Education | Professional Training
❖ B.A. in Organizational Leadership, Summa Cum Laude, Arizona State University
❖ B.A. in Psychology, Summa Cum Laude, Arizona State University
❖ Leadership Professional in Ethics and Compliance Certification (LPEC), ECI/Ethics and Compliance Initiative
❖ Certificate in Psychological First Aid, Johns Hopkins University
❖ Certificate in Inspiring Leadership through Emotional Intelligence, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
❖ Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training, Kaiser-Permanente, San Francisco Medical Center
❖ Mindful Eating for Health Care Professionals training created by Duke University's Integrative Medicine program
❖ Certificate in Nutrition for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, University of California, San Francisco, CA
❖ Basic certification in Transformative Conflict Mediation from The Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation, which is affiliated with the Maurice A. Dean School of Law at Hofstra University, Hempstead
❖ Diploma in Hypnotherapy from the nationally accredited college Hypnosis Motivation Institute, Los Angeles, California
❖ Certificate in Clinical Hypnotherapy, American Institute of Hypnotherapy (non-accredited), Irvine, California
❖ Certified Massage Therapist and professionally certified in Polarity Therapy, Touch for Health, reflexology, and Chinese acupressure
Additionally:
❖ Becoming a Certified Master Gardener through the University of Illinois Extension and working for many years as an organic garden designer provided a visceral understanding about Systems Thinking, natural cycles, and a reverent relationship with nature essential for holistic human wellbeing. Nature teaches us that change is a constant whether we like it or not, so it's wise to resist fighting it and reframe it as an opportunity and adventure.