Empowering People. Transforming Workplaces. Elevating Education.
Helping individuals heal and thrive, knowledge grow, and humans connect.
The Heart Behind My Work
Everything changed for me when I began asking a simple but profound question: “What creates health?” Inspired by the vibrant energy and boundless possibility of New York City—and fueled by a deep belief in human potential and healing—I’ve spent over 25 years in corporate NYC and beyond, seeking answers that now shape my practice. With a PhD in Depth Psychology (emphasizing Integrative Therapy and Healing), advanced training as a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner, credentials as a Holistic and Health Counselor, a BA in Business, and experience as an international speaker and lecturer, I am dedicated to helping individuals and organizations restore well-being and uplift human potential. Let’s leap forward.
How Workplaces Shape Our Health
The quality of our relationships is the single most important factor shaping our health, as demonstrated by the 80-year Harvard Study of Adult Development. Social relationships—from birth to death—fundamentally shape how our brains develop, the way minds construct reality, and how we adapt to psychological stressors. With individuals spending 1,800 hours a year at work, relationships at work are crucial to well-being, either enhancing or undermining it.
Yet, 32% of U.S. workers—52 million people—reported being directly bullied (Namie, 2024). In Germany, 2.8% have experienced severe and ongoing bullying (“Mobbing”), and up to 17.1% encounter it occasionally (BMAS, 2025). Antagonistic workplace relationships, group dynamics, and the responses of bystanders and the organization present some of the most pressing—and least understood—challenges in today’s work environments.
The impact of workplace hostility is far-reaching and severe. Targeted employees have a 62% risk of job loss (Namie, 2024) and suffer profound mental and physical health consequences, including insomnia, cognitive impairments, heart palpitations, anxiety, panic attacks, chronic illness, and trauma (Nielsen & Einarsen, 2012; Sansone & Sansone, 2015). The destructive ripple extends beyond the individual, negatively affecting the health of families and coworkers.
Healthy workplaces are not just an ideal—they are essential for our collective well-being.
LEARN HOW TO Navigate and address workplace hostility with Dr. Hecker.
Individuals: Reclaim Your Well-being After Workplace HOSTILITY
Do you experience antagonism, hostility, exclusion, or feel anxious going to work?
Hostile relationships can have a devastating impact on physical and mental well-being. If you encounter ongoing and escalating hostility at work, know you can get support here.
Dr. Kerstin Hecker offers a safe and supportive space to process your experiences and reclaim your sense of self. Through counseling, Depth Psychology, Somatic Experiencing, and psychoeducation, you can understand the dynamics of workplace abuse, heal from emotional wounds, and develop effective coping strategies.
Start your journey toward healing, resilience, and a renewed sense of well-being.
Organizations: foster a culture of psychological safety
Are you receiving complaints about leadership, bullying, or your culture?
Workplace bullying leads to high employee turnover, loss of skilled professionals, reduced productivity, and damage to your company's reputation.
With 25+ years of corporate experience and extensive research on group dynamics and human behavior, Dr. Kerstin Hecker provides a holistic approach to addressing hostility in the workplace. Her organizational consulting services help you foster a culture of psychological safety, improve employee engagement, and build stronger, more resilient teams.
Let's collaborate to create a healthier, more productive, and bully-free workplace.
Educators: EQUIP STUDENTS TO ADDRESS HOSTILITY AT WORK
Do you want to empower students to respond to hostility or abuse of power?
Dr. Kerstin Hecker is a passionate educator and researcher dedicated to understanding the complexities of workplace hostility and bullying.
Her work, including in-depth interviews and presentations at the International Association on Workplace Bullying & Harassment conference, provides valuable insights into the individual, interpersonal, and psychosocial aspects of workplace abuse. She also lectures as part of university executive and psychology programs.
Equip today's and tomorrow's leaders with the knowledge and skills they need to create positive and respectful work environments.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT
Reclaim your self!
DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY
Depth Psychology offers insight into emotional conflicts and helps individuals understand inner and interpersonal processes. It supports the recovery of gifts—dormant or suppressed parts of the Self—leading to a profound alignment with one's deepest values. It is ideal for those facing oppression or anyone seeking personal growth to align with their innermost potential.
Somatic Experiencing®
Somatic Experiencing® is a body-oriented therapeutic model that helps to process shock, trauma, and emotional stress by focusing on physical sensations and thwarted defense responses to restore equilibrium. Developed by Dr. Peter A. Levine and clinically applied for four decades, Somatic Experiencing® is an effective approach for recovering from the wounds of relational abuse.
PSYCHOEDUCATION
Psychoeducation equips people with the knowledge necessary to make sense of and cope with hostile relationships and work dynamics and tactics such as controlling behavior, devaluation, manipulation of relationships and reality, blame-shifting, coercion, and social isolation. Our sessions provide you with the resources to navigate the disorganizing effects of such malice.
ORGANIZATIONAL CONSULTING
Create a positive, productive WORKPLACE by addressing bullying dynamics and prioritizing employee well-being.
In today’s competitive workplace, it is essential to ensure a secure and supportive environment for all employees and to take decisive action if that is not the case. Workplaces prioritizing psychological safety and diversity of thought foster strong employee relationships, creativity, engagement, and collaboration. They also help identify issues that may threaten the organization’s overall well-being.
Formulating strategies to eradicate workplace bullying and abusive structures is of paramount importance.
Attending such issues begins with assessment. By uncovering your unique challenges, we pave the way for meaningful change. Just as in the therapeutic alliance, the quality of our relationship is essential to our impact. Trust-based partnerships empower thriving. Furthermore, lasting change is fostered internally, not imposed externally. Dr. Kerstin Hecker collaborates closely with your organization and teams. A collaborative approach ensures that sustainable change emerges organically within your business context.
Transformation is not without its hurdles. Sometimes, we must confront uncomfortable truths, including that we are part of the problem through omissions, acts, or procedures. I am committed to providing candid, constructive feedback that elevates your leadership, culture, and performance. Let's connect to ignite meaningful change within your organization. Together, we’ll embark on a journey of curiosity, trust, insight, and collaboration.
WORKPLACE BULLYING RESEARCH
HARROWING STATISTICS
74.8 million U.S. workers ARE affected by bullying at WORK (Namie, 2024, WBI US Survey).
Workplace bullying is the deliberate or unconscious, persistent, and long-term display of negative behavior and infliction of psychological distress in a setting that involves a power imbalance so that targeted individuals have difficulty defending themselves (Einarsen et al., 2003).
Bullying can be verbal, nonverbal, or social, such as persistent criticism, withholding resources or information, micromanaging work/breaks, spreading false rumors, planning social exclusion, turning coworkers against the target, publicly discrediting/humiliating targets, intimidation, intentionally ignoring emails, sabotaging work, dismissing contributions, and nonverbal behavior signaling contempt. The acts are escalating in nature, designed to harm and leave the target feeling trapped, isolated, and void of self-worth (Einarsen et al., 2009; SHRM, n.d.).
A recent U.S. survey revealed that most workplace bullying is top-down. 55% of perpetrators of bullying were bosses (Namie, 2024). The same survey showed that 71% of workplace bullies were men, while 55% of their targets were men. Meanwhile, 29% of workplace bullies were women, and 67% of their targets were women (Namie, 2024).
There is no federal law or health or safety regulation in the U.S. that protects all workers from such abuse. CA, TN, UT, and PR have enacted legislation related to workplace bullying (Healthy Workplace Bill, 2024).
Exposure to bullying has significant life- and personality-altering health implications, including the onset of anticipatory anxiety, intrusive thoughts, insomnia, cognitive impairments, migraines, mood swings, high blood pressure, heart palpitations, pervasive sadness, panic attacks, generalized anxiety disorder, dissociative disorders, PTSD, and other forms of trauma (Namie, 2012; Nielsen & Einarsen, 2012; Sansone & Sansone, 2015).