Jana Söderberg's Mental Health Workout for Middle Managers

Therapist Jana Söderberg leads a mental workout session for middle managers in her summer talk. Anna Gullberg wonders when the book will be released.

What is this? Has a fever dream taken me hostage at a kickoff for stressed public sector managers? And if so, where is the three o'clock coffee with cake?

The therapist, self-help author, and lecturer Jana Söderberg conducts a "workout session" in mental health. Or is it mental illness?

This isn't her first rodeo; she first appeared on Sommar i P1 in 2008, and now she's hosting a mental workout.

All of Sweden's middle managers obediently take out their notebooks and pens to jot down notes. So do I.

I write "mental squats every day," and "circuit training – each station is a MENTAL MUSCLE." I underline the last part.

Twenty minutes later, I've forgotten why. While Söderberg "is passionate about mental development and a more sustainable life," I zone out. I think this is her next book, her next successful lecture series. Smart! Talk about knowing how to "stretch the thought pattern" and practice "neuroleadership." Or is this a particularly well-orchestrated Grotesco sketch?

Then I feel it. That fatigue towards the end of the kickoff.

Isn't it almost three o'clock here at the conference?

At least we'll get coffee then.