The Mental Health Advantage
Welcome to The Mental Health Advantage—the podcast dedicated to transforming workplace mental health from reactive to proactive! I’m Stephen Sokoler, founder of Journey and author of The Mental Health Advantage. Building on insights from my book, this podcast dives deeper into proactive mental health care in the workplace—something I know so many of you are passionate about. Each episode, I sit down with top HR leaders, mental health experts, and industry innovators to explore how organizations can move beyond crisis management and build cultures that truly support well-being, engagement, and performance. We’ll break down the most pressing challenges, share actionable strategies, and highlight real-world success stories from companies leading the way. Our conversations are designed to be engaging, insightful, and practical—so whether you’re a benefits leader, HR executive, or a business owner looking to drive meaningful change, you’ll find something valuable here. Episodes are about 30 minutes long and released bi-weekly, so be sure to subscribe and follow on your favorite podcast platform. Let’s redefine workplace mental health—together.
Episodes
In this episode of The Mental Health Advantage, Stephen Sokoler, Founder & CEO of Journey, sits down with Laura Butler, Chief People Officer at TTEC.
TTEC operates at global scale - with thousands of employees working in dynamic, high-demand environments. To better understand what truly drives stress, burnout, and attrition, TTEC developed a proprietary Job Complexity & Stress Index: a structured way to evaluate how element...
In this episode of The Mental Health Advantage, Stephen Sokoler, Founder & CEO of Journey, sits down with Marissa Andrada, Board Director and former Chief People Officer at some of the world’s most iconic and fast-growing brands - including Chipotle, Starbucks, Red Bull, Kate Spade, and GameStop.
With three decades of experience scaling businesses by scaling people, Marissa brings a refreshingly human - and deeply practical - p...
In this episode of The Mental Health Advantage, Stephen Sokoler, Founder & CEO of Journey, sits down with Dr. Sue Zbikowski, Chief Clinical Officer at Journey.
With more than two decades of experience as a healthcare executive, behavioral scientist, and clinical strategist, Dr. Sue has worked across healthcare systems, digital health innovation, and workplace wellbeing to design mental health programs that are both evidence-bas...
In this episode of The Mental Health Advantage, Stephen Sokoler, Founder & CEO of Journey, sits down with Wendy Poirier, Managing Director at Willis Towers Watson and leader of WTW’s Canadian Health Management Practice.
For over 30 years, Wendy has been helping organizations reimagine health and wellbeing strategies, introducing Canada’s first pharmacy coalition, pioneering benefit marketplaces, and leading the shift toward inc...
In this episode of The Mental Health Advantage, Stephen Sokoler, Founder & CEO of Journey, sits down with Nicole Stec, Vice President at Lockton and the firm’s Wellbeing Consulting Leader. Nicole brings over 15 years of experience helping employers design and implement holistic health strategies that put employees’ full lives , mental health, caregiving responsibilities, and financial pressures, at the center.
Stephen and Nicol...
In this episode of The Mental Health Advantage, Stephen Sokoler, Founder & CEO of Journey, is joined by Abinue Fortingo, MPH — a globally experienced strategist in employee wellbeing and population health management.
Abinue brings a rare cross-industry perspective to the conversation, having advised Fortune-listed companies, multi-nationals, and emerging organizations on how to create sustainable, high-impact strategies that ti...
In this episode of “The Mental Health Advantage,“ Stephen Sokoler, Founder & CEO of Journey, sits down with KJ Payette, Partner at Revelares and former Chief People Officer at Panera Bread, CHRO at Cumberland Farms, and HR executive at CVS.
With decades of experience leading people teams at household-name brands, KJ now devotes her work to helping individuals and organizations embrace healthier, more human-centered ways of work...
In this episode of The Mental Health Advantage, Stephen Sokoler is joined by Neil Hunter, Partner and Chief Learning Officer at Deloitte Canada. With a rich background in strategic leadership, human capital development, and operational oversight across sectors, Neil brings a uniquely people-centered perspective to the power of continuous learning in the workplace.
Together, they explore how development and education programs can go...
In this episode of The Mental Health Advantage, Journey's founder Stephen Sokoler sits down with Nathan Counts, a nationally recognized Total Rewards executive with experience at AT&T and Amtrak.
Nathan reveals how to build benefits programs that not only look good on paper but get used — by everyone, including frontline and deskless employees. He explains how simplicity, trust, and transparency are the foundations of engagemen...
In this episode of The Mental Health Advantage, Stephen Sokoler sits down with Kaleen Love, Chief People & Culture Officer for PMI U.S., to explore how culture can be engineered as rigorously as any transformation program. With experience at Oxford, McKinsey, and Capital One, Kaleen unpacks how data, empathy, and storytelling combine to build a workplace where joy, belonging, and performance are possible — even in times of chan...
In this episode of The Mental Health Advantage, Stephen Sokoler sits down with Randy Martin, Ph.D., Clinical Director of the CopeNYP Employee Assistance Program at Weill Cornell Medicine, to explore how mental health has shifted from reactive crisis care to an essential part of organizational culture.
A contributor to The Mental Health Advantage book and a pioneer in both corporate and community mental health, Martin shares how the...
In this episode of The Mental Health Advantage, Journey's founder Stephen Sokoler sits down with Amy Reichanadter, Chief People Officer at Databricks, to explore what it takes to embed meaningful mental health strategies inside one of the fastest-growing tech companies in the world.
With a background in clinical psychology and over 25 years of HR leadership experience, Amy shares how Databricks supports 8,000+ employees across doze...
In this episode, Journey founder Stephen Sokoler sits down with Dominic Cole-Morgan, Group Reward Director at WPP, to explore how mental health and total rewards intersect on a global scale—and what companies can do to support employees across diverse cultures, systems, and needs.
With a background in psychology and a career spanning multinationals like Goldman Sachs, Prudential, and Scotiabank, Dominic shares a compelling perspect...
In this episode, Journey founder Stephen Sokoler sits down with Elisha Engelen, VP of Aon’s U.S. Health Transformation Team, to unpack how HR leaders can drive lasting change by prioritizing mental health — from the top down.
With a unique blend of clinical mental health expertise and corporate well-being strategy, Elisha offers a thoughtful perspective on how leadership behavior shapes culture, why systemic support matters, and wh...
In this episode, Journey founder Stephen Sokoler sits down with Erin Young, Director of Health, Equity & Wellbeing at WTW, to explore what the future of workplace mental health looks like — and how companies can start building toward it today.
With a background in clinical social work and years of experience guiding large employers on behavioral health strategy, Erin shares powerful insights on where current programs fall short...
This episode of "The Mental Health Advantage" explores how organizations can take a data-driven, proactive approach to mental health, embedding well-being into workplace culture beyond traditional reactive measures. Stephen Sokoler, founder and CEO of Journey, is joined by Dr. Wolfgang Seidi, Partner and Workplace Health Consulting Leader at Mercer.
Wolfgang has been a global thought leader in mental health, shaping strategies that...
This episode highlights how US Foods has extended mental health support beyond employees to include their families and loved ones, creating a more inclusive and proactive mental health culture. Stephen Sokoler is joined by Joe Toniolo, Senior Director of Health and Welfare Plans at US Foods, to discuss their innovative approach, the impact on employees, and lessons for other organizations.
In this episode of The Mental Health Advantage, Stephen Sokoler, Founder & CEO of Journey, sits down with Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer at VaynerMedia. As the first-ever Chief Heart Officer in the advertising industry, Claude has redefined what it means to build a people-first culture, focusing on empathy, inclusivity, and personal development.
Together, they discuss how organizations can create safe and inclusive workplac...
This episode explores Google’s innovative gPause program, how it scales mindfulness to support mental health and resilience across a global workforce, and its lessons for organizations seeking sustainable success.
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