Insights & Resources

Practical guidance on workforce functioning, leadership, human development, grief, trauma, overload, parenting, mental health and the changing world of work.

Explore by Topic

Choose the area most relevant to you. Explore research, practical guidance and STC insights by topic.

Burnout, morale, conflict, leadership strain, employee functioning and service delivery.

Understanding chronic stress, overload, recovery, boundaries and healthy functioning under pressure.

Exploring how artificial intelligence is changing work, leadership, decision-making, relationships and human functioning.

Developmentally informed guidance for parents, caregivers and educators on behavior, communication and emotional development.

Research-informed guidance on grief, traumatic stress, loss, disaster response, adaptation and recovery.

Practical guidance on emotional distress, crisis recognition, suicide prevention, help-seeking and early intervention.

Featured Insight

Start here with one of STC’s key perspectives on healthy workforce functioning.

What Organizations Should Do When Their People Are Under Strain

Learn how workforce stabilization helps organizations address burnout, conflict, absenteeism, leadership strain and declining performance.

Featured Articles

In-depth guidance and analysis from Sheltering Tree Consultants.

Resilience Employee Burnout Is Not Always a Resilience Problem

Burnout is not always caused by weak coping. Learn why leaders must address workload, management and workplace systems alongside employee resilience.

How Workforce Strain Affects Service Delivery

Workforce stress does not stay inside the workplace. Learn how burnout, conflict, low morale and leadership strain can affect customer and public service.

From Dr. Cherry’s Blog

Short reflections, practical guidance and conversations about the issues affecting how people live, work and function.

Five Signs You Are Carrying Childhood Trauma Into Adulthood

Childhood trauma does not disappear when you become an adult. It continues to influence how your nervous system responds to stress, relationships, and responsibility.

Your Employees May Not Be the Problem

What happens when the people responsible for delivering the service are no longer functioning at their best?

Short excerpt

When a Child Turns to AI for Emotional Support

Young people use it to complete schoolwork, answer questions, generate ideas, and solve everyday problems. Increasingly, however, some children and adolescents are also turning to AI for something much more personal.

Free Resources

Practical tools, guides and downloadable resources to help individuals, families and organizations respond more effectively to real-life challenges.

This is More Than A Suicide Issue

This free guide explains how prolonged stress, grief, and emotional overload can contribute to suicidal crises. Written by Dr. Cherry, a developmental psychologist, it offers practical stabilization tools, reduces stigma, and helps individuals, families, and communities respond with greater understanding and compassion.

Understanding What is Really Happening To Our Children

This free downloadable guide explores how trauma, emotional distress, and adverse experiences can contribute to school violence. It helps parents, educators, and communities recognize warning signs, understand the needs behind challenging behaviors, and respond with practical, trauma-informed strategies that promote safety, prevention, and student well-being.

The Hidden Impact of Unresolved Trauma

This free downloadable guide explains how prolonged stress, grief, and instability can contribute to suicidal crises. Written by Dr. Cherry, a developmental psychologist, it offers practical stabilization tools to help individuals, families, and communities recognize emotional overload, reduce stigma, and respond with understanding and compassion.

Recommended Reading

Selected research, articles and outside perspectives that add evidence, context and useful insight to the topics STC explores.

Breaking Down the Infinite Workday

Work is increasingly spilling into early mornings, evenings and weekends. Microsoft examines how constant communication, interruptions and rising demands are creating an “infinite workday” and why organizations may need to redesign how work gets done.

How Can Leaders Improve Employee Engagement and Company Culture? 

Managers have an outsized influence on how employees experience work. Gallup looks at what leaders can do to strengthen engagement, culture and the conditions employees need to function well.

Talking the Long View in Parenting

This article offers an important reminder for parents navigating the pressures of the present moment. Rather than reacting to short-term challenges, it invites families to consider formation, faith, and development across time.

Talk, Trust, and Trade-Offs: How and Why Teens Use AI Companions

AI is becoming part of young people’s social and emotional lives, not just their schoolwork. This research explores why teens use AI companions, what they share with them and what parents and educators should understand about the risks and appeal.

Suicide

Clear, practical guidance on recognizing possible warning signs of suicide, starting a conversation and helping someone connect with appropriate support. It also addresses the common misconception that asking about suicide puts the idea into someone’s mind.

Coping with Bereavement and Grief

Grief can affect emotions, thinking, relationships, sleep and everyday functioning. This resource explains the varied ways people experience loss and outlines sources of support that can help people adjust over time. SAMHSA