Nyamwathi Gichau

Presentation & practices

The Cost of Carrying It All: Stress & the Female Body

Wednesday, April 8 @8am EDT / 2pm CET / 3pm EAT

A powerful and insightful exploration for women working in high-stress environments. It explores the often invisible burden women carry—balancing professional responsibilities, emotional labour, and personal caregiving roles—and how this cumulative load is held within the body.

What you can expect:

• A nervous system and somatic lens on stress (beyond just mental health)

• Insight into how chronic stress impacts the female body (hormones, emotions, physical health)

• Exploration of lived experiences: burnout, fatigue, anxiety, and chronic tension

• A grounded, relatable approach that integrates science with real-world context

What you will leave with:

• Increased awareness of how stress shows up in your body

• Simple, practical tools for nervous system regulation (breathwork, grounding, somatic resets)

• Micro-practices you can integrate into daily life, even in high-pressure environments

• A reframed understanding of strength as regulation, support, and sustainability

This session also invites organisations to reflect on their role in supporting women’s wellbeing, reinforcing that sustainable impact in humanitarian work begins with the health of those delivering it.

Presentation

Leading Well: The ROI of Wellness Centered Leadership, Culture & Performance

Saturday, April 11 @6am EDT / 12pm CET / 1pm EAT

Leading Well explores the critical link between leadership, wellbeing, and sustainable organisational impact in high-stress humanitarian environments. It challenges traditional notions of performance by positioning wellness not as a luxury, but as a strategic driver of effectiveness, retention, and long-term success.

Grounded in a nervous system and leadership lens, this session highlights how leaders shape culture through their own regulation, decision-making, and presence. It brings awareness to the hidden costs of burnout, disengagement, and high turnover, while offering a practical and human-centered approach to building resilient teams and high-performing cultures.

What you can expect:

• A redefinition of ROI to include wellbeing, retention, and sustainable performance

• Insight into the link between nervous system regulation, leadership, and team culture

• Exploration of the hidden organisational costs of burnout and chronic stress

• A grounded, practical framework for wellness-centered leadership in high-pressure environments

What you will leave with:

• Clear, actionable shifts to lead with more intention, clarity, and sustainability

• Practical tools for nervous system regulation in leadership moments

• Strategies to embed wellness into team culture and organisational systems

• A reframed understanding of leadership as a driver of both human and organisational performance

This session ultimately positions leading well as not only a personal responsibility, but a powerful organisational strategy for sustained impact.