This document discusses the impact of technology on mental health and well-being, and the challenges of coaching in the digital age. It covers several topics: - How technology and automation may affect jobs and people's sense of self-worth, raising questions around public policy. - New mental health issues that have emerged from overuse of technology, such as FOMO and addiction to social media and devices. - How constant distraction and multitasking online can undermine people's ability to focus and be present. - The relationship between digital distraction and mental health issues like anxiety. Technology may damage brain regions involved in attention, decision-making, and emotional control. - Potential solutions like digital well-

1. The future of Work and the new
challenges facing Coaching with
Technology related behaviours and
automatization on Mental Health in
performance, self-worth and
leadership.
Salema Veliu
• Digital Mental Health and Well-Being Consultant for
Organisational & Academic Development and Leadership
• Coaching Psychology Dip HE
• Experimental Cognitive Psychology BS CertHE
• University of Cambridge

2. Session 1
Objectives
Our current reality with
technology.
To explore and clarify
our understanding of
Mental Health + Well-
Being from a non-digital
and digital perspective.
Engagement vs
Distraction : Definitions
and possible
Implications
The mental health
disorders that are arising
out of technology.
The future of Work,
Performance and
deliveries of self-
development

3. How
digitally
distracted
are WE?
• Distractions in the mind translate to micro
movements in the eyes or eyelids, and vice-
versa.
• Stillness of eyes brings stillness of mind, and
vice-versa.
• The intensive use of computer and smartphones
is training us to be ever more restless with our
eyes creating a restless and distracted mind.
• One of the reasons why our attention span
keeps getting shorter.
• Mini exercise

4. Effects of
Technology on
Mental Health
and Well-Being
• The relationship between automation and human work
as well as the impact of Technology on Mental Health and
Well-Being has and is a longstanding area of concern.
• It raises complex questions around public policy that
have technical, social and ethical implications.
• The way we communicate and interact in every
domain of our lives is changing due to the
constantly evolving technology.
• It is effecting our social intelligence and skills in how
we interact human to human.
• Will the rise of technology gradually change our
values and in the process change our own feelings
of self-worth?

5. DATA AND WELL-
BEING
Algorithms have
powerful implications
for how we live.
• INFLUENCES:
• Algorithms are decision-making bits of code.
• They have become an important presence in our lives.
They make decisions about us, and for us, all the time
and they influence our choices and behaviours.

6. Mental Health +
Well-Being
non-digital
• Are these the same thing?
• How would you define each of
these?
• Do you feel that you have a good
awareness of your mental health +
well-being and if so how do you
manage both?

7. DEFINING WELL-BEING AND MENTAL
HEALTH the differences
(Non-Digital)
• Are related but should be considered as 2 different concepts.
• Mental Well-Being:
• Having a sense of self and the ability to be adaptable to live our lives as
closely as possible to the way we want to.
• To have positive relationships, promote healthy living and feel life
satisfaction.
• Our sense of wellbeing is affected by how we might feel about something
we do or the relationships we have.
• Frameworks in Positive Psychology are known to reflect the various
elements of wellbeing.
• Mental Health: Persistent and specific markers for certain symptoms,
such as depression, anxiety, psychosis, eating disorders.That cause mental
and emotional distress and anxiety that stop us from living the life we
want.

8. What is Digital
Well-Being ?
• Is often defined in terms of the capabilities and skills
that an individual requires to successfully make use
of digital technologies.
• Some of the elements mentioned in the JISC
Elements of Digital digital well-being are:
• “The capacity to look after personal health, safety,
relationships and work-life balance in digital
settings”.
• Using digital tools to pursue personal goals for health
and fitness and to participate in social and
community activities mindfully.
• To act safely and responsibly in digital environments.
• To manage digital workload, overload and
distraction.
• Act with concern for the human and natural
environment when using digital tools. Awareness to
your digital footprint.

9. Cultivating
Digital Resilience,
Distraction & Regulation
• Digital resilience is part of your personality that
develops from spending time online and facing the
challenges out there. It means you recognize when
you're at risk online and what to do.
• Digital distraction & regulation is how you monitor
and manage your time effectively online.

10. What is Distractibility and why is
it a problem?
• Distraction surprisingly has nothing to do with
what you’re doing but it effects everything you
do, when you’re distracted it looks like it comes
from the situation you’re in.
• Distraction is a function of the mind in the
moment and not a reflection of what is going
on in the physical world.
• Whether you’re engaged or distractible it effects
your productivity your creativity how well you do,
problem solve, how you handle people and how
you respond.
• When your distracted you can do everything
badly personally or professionally, problem
solving hard, responding to people becomes
hard, productivity goes way down.

11. Distraction
One of the most common habits in people is our ability to be easily distracted in
life.
Yet the power to be distracted or engaged in life lies 100% within each of us.
Most people don't appreciate how much of a difference this one factor can make
across every area of our lives, and how much we give up when we're distracted.

12. The 4D’s of a wandering mind
Distractibility,
Disengagement,
Disconnection,
Dissociation
All cause deficits
in our ability to
narrow focus,
broaden focus,
sustain focus,
and shift focus.

13. Distraction vs
Engagement
Distraction = a thing that
prevents someone from
concentrating on something
else.
Engagement= presence,
focus, adaptability,
awareness

14. What are some of key possible indicators of being chronically
distracted?
• ?
• The implications:
• Being in fight and flight response constantly and being over stimulated.
• Non–awareness of your environment.
• Resulting in unbalanced sleep patterns.
• An increase in addictive behaviour; drugs, drink, sex, food.
• Possible isolation and difficulty in communicating your needs and
communication in general to others.

15. Digital
Distraction +
Behaviour
• Is our fear of missing out changing our
behaviour in other ways?
• Has the culture of instant access
undermined our capacity for patience
and our ability to concentrate?
• Whilst multitasking can be a desirable
skill, the switching between activities,
and the potential interruption of
repeated checking of devices, may be
eroding our ability to focus on a single
activity.

16. Digital Mental Health +
Distractibility
• An inability to sustain one's
attention or attentiveness, which is
rapidly diverted from one topic to
another.
• Can become a symptom of a variety
of mental disorders, as manic
disorder, schizophrenia, or anxiety
states.

17. The possible dangers of digital
distraction on Mental Health
Wellbeing
Our connection with
social media throws up
some very important
questions:
Why do we feel the need
to increase our frequency
of looking at social
media?
Is this reflecting a lack of
connection we’re feeling in
real life? By constantly adding
images for example of
instagram? (Unless it’s
educational in some way)
Are we searching for
meaning to lead a more
fulfilling life?
Are we getting lost in the
virtual reality which makes
our human connections more
difficult?
Are we losing who we are
in the process?

18. The Pro’s and Con’s of Digital media
(Instagram & Facebook)
How it might effect your clients:
Positively:
Can inspire change towards the life we want to life.
It can be used to inform and educate.
Negatively:
Can damage our self-esteem by constant comparing to others.
It can sometimes give us a false sense of reality.

20. Some of the
new mental
health
disorders that
are arising out
of technology
• FOMO (fear of missing out) a ‘technoference
syndrome’ both feeds, and is fed by, a speeding
up of life that is being driven by digital technology
(Digital distraction).
• Waiting and fearing not seeing an email or news
story (or not seeing it promptly enough), and
missing out (even briefly) on some bit of latest
information.
• Compels an increased tendency of checking of
digital devices in the process triggering low self-
esteem, addiction, obsession, anxiety, obsessive
comparison disorder.

21. Data + Behaviour
• Is our fear of missing out changing our behaviour in
other ways?
• Has the culture of instant access undermined our
capacity for patience and our ability to concentrate?
• Whilst multitasking can be a desirable skill, the
switching between activities, and the potential
interruption of repeated checking of devices, may be
eroding our ability to focus on a single activity.
• This is where the act of noticing practices ACT along
with educational neuroscience can help provide deeper
insights into the areas of the brain responsible for
motivation, performance, reward, concentration and
wellbeing.

22. How data drives our behaviour
• This culture of instant access has both positive
and negative attributes.
• Whilst being able to check work emails remotely
can ease working from home, it can also push
towards workaholic attitudes and disrupt a healthy
work-life balance.
• The need to keep checking for updates can be
seen across both our social and our working lives.
• The capability of digital technologies to connect
us together can paradoxically lead to
disconnection in the physical world: the urge to
keep checking in on online interactions and
relationships can mean we’re distracted from real
world interactions.

23. A new set of
technology
related disorders/
behaviors that we
are facing in the
Millennials’
Generation (18-
34yr olds)
Video Game addiction +
Depression
https://www.psychguides
.com/guides/video-game-
addiction-symptoms-
causes-and-effects/
Millennials’ Biggest
Problem: Obsessive
Comparison Disorder
https://relevantmagazine.
com/life/millennials-
biggest-problem-
obsessive-comparison-
disorder
Social Media and Suicide:
A Public Health
Perspective
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih
.gov/pmc/articles/PMC34
77910/

24. A new set of technological related behaviours
relative to automatism
37 percent of participants fit the definition of a "technophobe" -
- someone who is either afraid or very afraid of such automation
as robots in the workforce, decision-making robots, technology
they don't understand, artificial intelligence and people who
trust artificial intelligence to do work.
More than a third of those in the study fit its definition of
"technophobe" and are more fearful of automation that could
lead to job displacement than they are of potentially threatening
or dangerous circumstances such as romantic rejection, public
speaking and police brutality, according to the study.

25. Addressing
changing
needs: AI,
Mental Health
and the new
set of
challenges
A recent study by Baylor University (Social Science Computer Review,
22nd March 2017) revealed the following:
• "Technophobes" - people who fear robots, artificial intelligence and
new technology that they don't understand - are much more likely to
be afraid of losing their jobs to technology and to suffer anxiety-
related mental health issues.
• In it, 1,541 respondents were asked about their fears and worries
about politics, crime, natural and man-made disasters, technology,
mental health and unemployment.
• Revealing Technophobes have 95 percent greater odds of not being
able to stop or control worrying when compared to others, and 76
percent greater odds of feeling as if something awful might happen.

26. A new set of technology
related behaviors
McClure's study also found that:
Those in historically marginalized
groups -- women, non-whites and
the less educated -- report being
most fearful of technology.
Technophobes are three times
more likely to be fearful of
unemployment when compared
to others, and nearly three times
more likely to fear not having
enough money in the future.
Technophobes have 95 percent
greater odds of not being able to
stop or control worrying when
compared to others, and 76
percent greater odds of feeling as
if something awful might happen.

27. Other
FINDINGS
Regardless of whether technology might lead to certain people's jobs
becoming obsolete, the fear itself is real.
Anticipating the individual and social outcomes is a matter worth pursuing,"
he said. "If these fears are misplaced, more research needs to be done to
dispel technophobia as a legitimate social concern.
* Could this lead to more antisocial behaviour?
While a transformation would most likely be gradual, it could trigger a major social unrest
among those who are displaced from their jobs, McClure said.
People in certain occupations may legitimately fear losing their jobs to robots and
software that can work for cheaper and for longer hours than any human.

28. Some statistics + facts
on Digital
dependency,
addiction and
WHY WE NEED TO
LOG OFF TO
PARTICIPATE IN LIFE!
• How many times a day do we tap, swipe and click
on our devices?
• On a daily basis what’s the average amount of
hours that UK adults spend on screens?
• What’s the % of people checking facebook every
10 minutes?
• What % of UK children say that their parents spend
too much time on their mobile devices?
• How many hours do UK children spend a day on
screens?
• What’s the % of UK adults admitting their spend
too much time online?
• Who are more likely to create a smartphone
addiction men or women?

29. Impact of distraction on focus + concentration at
work
As our tech habits deny our brains important downtime, our ability for deep-
thinking and maintained focus is reducing.
Skills in critical thinking and analysis have declined as our use of technology
has increased.
Many argue that a decrease in attention span is made up by our increased
ability to multi-task. However, Research from (MIT) and others proved that
multitasking doesn’t work – because the brain doesn’t work that way.

30. Some Key findings on the ‘always on culture’
• Almost half of 18-34 year olds said their social
media feeds made them feel unattractive.
• A study by the American Journal of Preventive
Medicine found that heavy social media users were
twice as likely to report experiencing social
isolation.
• In 2017, Instagram was rated as the worst social
media platform for its impact on the mental health
of young people.
• The act of just receiving a notification, even if you
don’t reply to it, is enough to severely distract you.

31. Other potential dangers
Digital eye strain + FF
• Have you noticed any changes in your sight?
• Blurred vision, dry or sore red eyes maybe even
getting more headaches?
• If so you could be affected by ”digital
eyestrain”.
• Caused by focusing on harsh/bright light from
screens for too long and not blinking frequently
enough (can be worse if you wear contact
lenses).
• Mini Exercise for “Focusing fatigue”.

32. SCREENS in
bed
• 47% of adults miss out on sleep due to internet
usage.
• 95% of adults in a US study admitted to using some
type of screen in the hour leading up to bed*.
• (*Artificial blue light emitting from screens
increase alertness and suppresses the hormone
melatonin by up to 22% which negatively impacts
sleep).
• 32% of adults who have binge-watched a series at
least once in the last month have missed out on
sleep as a result.

33. Digital
Dependency +
damage to the
brain
• Neuroimaging research has shown that
excessive screen time actually damages the
brain.
• With structural and functional changes
found in brain regions involving emotional
processes, impulse control, executive
attention, decision making and cognitive
control.
• According to research by University College
London, media-multitasking and rapidly
switching from task to task can weaken
your brain’s anterior cingulate cortex,
which is involved in high-level information
and emotion processing.

34. Digital Wellbeing &
Regulation?
Some Possible solutions
• One possible solution is already
available On apple smart phones
where you can monitor your
online screen time.
• Cultivate and re-learn time
management strategies using
effective time management tables
which can also been seen as a
behavioral analysis (ACT).
• YOGA,MINDFULLNESS,
MEDITATION
Dahl, J (2008) The Art and Science of Valuing in Psychotherapy: Helping Clients Discover, Explore, and Commit to Valued Action Using Acceptance and
Commitment Therapy
Why do I do what I do?
Day / Time Activity
Function
Avoidance of
something negative
Short-term fix with
something positive
Pliance (Self-Governing
rule of judgement)
Genuine Positive
Reinforcement
(Values-based)
E.g. Wed 8pm
Look at Facebook
Feeling restless and
irritable from the day
Feel excited about
seeing what others are
up to
If I sit down to relax, I’ll
only feel worse. Better
to do something
Provides a way to
connect with my friends

35. How engaged and how distracted are you?
Small discussion groups of 4 and then key
person to feed back key findings.
Revert back to the Screen sheets that were
completed, what were the findings.

36. Tips to manage Digital dependency and
distraction at home + work?
So how you could implement your own Digital Detox daily
or at the weekends?
What’s your commitment? How can you be accountable and
supported in your commitment, who’s in your group?
Decide on one thing each person could do as a committed ACTION
and a key person within your group or department that could help
you be accountable by reporting back to you.

37. Creating your
own digital
detox
intentions
Our current reality with technology.
To explore and clarify our understanding of Mental Health +
Well-Being from a non-digital and digital perspective.
Engagement vs Distraction : Definitions and possible
Implications
The mental health disorders that are arising out of
technology.
Reviewed your own distraction and behaviours.
Actions to reduce your digital distraction + dependency to
improve your mental health and Well-Being.

38. What is Digital
Resilience and
how can we
cultivate
professionally
and personally
• Digital technology has become a vital
infrastructure underpinning the functioning
of every aspect of human society,
increasingly interwoven with decision making
and business processes.
• We are approaching near total reliance.
When a human, however capable, is unable
to substitute for a digital process, it can be
said to be fully digitally dependent and its
business resilience is now an issue of digital
resilience.

39. Establishing active digital resilience programmes within Organisations
• Research from the Institute for Strategy Resilience & Security &
University College on ‘London Digital Resilience – Understanding the
challenges of resilience in digital environments’ (July 2018).
• Highlighted an assessment framework of key questions for leaders to
identify and address digital resilience issues within their organizations
with some of the following questions:
• Do we have an active programme to build and embed digital
resilience thinking and practice throughout our organization?
• Are we actively building resilience for both business process, existing
digital infrastructure and new infrastructure?
• Are we putting in place processes to encourage adaptive behaviour,
continual evolution and learning environment?

40. Establishing an active digital resilience
programme within Organisations
• Some valuable key takeaways in regards to
safeguarding employees as well as the
Company itself within Digital Organizational
change from this report include:
• The importance of establishing an holistic
approach to digital resilience that
encompasses the complex graph of
interactions between employees,
customers and digital services.
• Employers putting in place processes to
encourage adaptive behaviour, continual
evolution and learning environment.
Promoting good mental health and
wellbeing to their employees.

41. What is Digital
Resilience and
how can we
cultivate
professionally
and personally
• Digital technology has become a vital
infrastructure underpinning the functioning
of every aspect of human society,
increasingly interwoven with decision making
and business processes.
• We are approaching near total reliance.
When a human, however capable, is unable
to substitute for a digital process, it can be
said to be fully digitally dependent and its
business resilience is now an issue of digital
resilience.

42. Digital Distraction and
regulation
New Coping
Mechanisms for
Psychological Flexibility
& Emotional Agility
• Steven Hayes and Russ Harris describe psychological
flexibility as “The ability to contact the present moment
fully as a conscious human being, and based on what the
situation affords, changing or persisting in behaviour in the
service of chosen values.”
• ACT provides the structural model for balancing between
eastern and western paradigms.
• Noticing skills – to help with Digital Distraction and
regulation.
• Value based exercises – to re-evaluate and regulate thought
processes Fusion vs Defusion.
• Fusion= Seeing the world through your thoughts, rather
than seeing the thoughts as part of your world.
• When you see the thoughts as realities, which can create
frustration, stuckness.
• Defusion= Treating thoughts as thoughts and not realities
which creates more mobility in emotions and cognition
(thinking).

43. Consciousness &
Psychological flexibility
• The ability to move in a direction
that matters to you, even if the
presence of unwanted
experiences (thoughts, feelings,
physical sensations), and in
changing circumstances.
• Psychological flexibility is the
ability to contact the present
moment more fully as a conscious
human being and to either
change behavior or persist, if
doing so serves valued end’
(Wilson & Murrell, 2005).
• Knowing what is important and
taking steps to connect with this.
• Making changes to our reaction/s
allows us to achieve the outcome
that we want to see.

44. Cultivating
Human
Connection &
Trust
in the workplace
• Additionally, six in 10 employees say they’d
feel more motivated and more likely to
recommend their company as a good place
to work if their employer took action to
support mental wellbeing, according to a
survey by mental health charity Mind.

45. Nurturing the
next
generation of
leaders from a
mental health
perspective
• Why is 2018 a time to see emotional
intelligence, mindfulness and mental health take
center stage in business?
• UK millennials have the some of the poorest
mental wellbeing in the world.
• According to a 2017 survey, commissioned by
the Varkey Foundation, of more than 20,000 15
to 21-year-olds in 20 countries.
• And, for business leaders, it’s in their interest to
create a nurturing working environment for
millennials, who will make up 75 per cent of the
workforce by 2025.
• https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/its-time-
talk-about-mental-health-work

46. How digital technologies and different
deliveries can be helpful
• In alignment with our changing societal,
economical and technological culture.
• Provides accessibility, affordability and
connection to match supply and demand.
• Provides services when needed, as it happens, in
conversations usually via video chats and mobile
applications.
• Can reduce waiting times: *On average in the UK
for example in Scotland and Surrey the average
waiting time is 18 weeks (just over 3 months).

47. AI the next frontier in Mental
Health
• A team of MIT researchers is claiming that
its latest AI can accurately predict
depression in a person by processing raw
text and speech data.
• Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to
have a major impact on medical diagnosis
in the years and decades to come.
• One example is DeepMind’s latest system,
which can spot more than 50 eye diseases
by searching through scanned images of a
patient’s eyes.

48. AI the next frontier and possible
push out deliveries to monitor
Mental Health
• The researchers hope that this system will allow
AI developers to create tools to detect signs of
depression in natural conversation.
• One suggestion the team made would be that in
the future, mobile apps could monitor a person’s
text and voice conversations for mental distress,
and send alerts.
• Tuka Alhanai, first author of the research, said
that it is through a person’s speech that we get
our first hint of someone’s emotional state.
• https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/predi
ct-depression-ai

49. The Future of Mental Health, Well-Being
AI, Robots and Meditation the new face of therapeutic interventions?
• McCann Worldwide Japan has debuted what it claims to be the world’s first
mindfulness meditation robot that will help guide meditation.
• The robot will guide the mindfulness meditation demonstration for an experience
of looking inward and conversing with oneself.
• Research results have shown that meditation improves ability to learn and inspire
along with reducing anxiety and stress.
• The Innovation Lab at IONS is working with OpenCog and HansonRobotics to
create LOVing INtelligent General AIs or LOVING AIs — open-source artificial
general intelligences that behave as if they have unconditional love for themselves
and others.

50. AI the next frontier in Mental Health
and Coaching?
• MIT researchers have revealed a neural
network model that they claim can take raw
text and audio data compiled from
interviews of people to discover speech
patterns indicative of depression.
• The team said that as a result, when
presented with a new subject, it can
accurately predict if that person is
depressed, without needing to be asked any
questions.

51. What does this all
mean?
Some interesting questions to ponder on?
Will AI and apps gradually replace
Psychologists, Therapists and Coaches
altogether?
Will AI help Life flourish as never before,
meaning will we all have more leisure time
and be less stressed?
Will machines eventually outsmart at all
tasks, and even, perhaps, replace us
altogether?

52. THANK YOU