The Help Refuser
Chief of Staff who is clearly struggling, has been offered support multiple times, and refuses to engage with any formal help.
15 min
Duration
About this persona
Anne is deteriorating. Everyone can see it. She has declined EAP, therapy suggestions, and leave three times now. She is not in denial about struggling -- she knows. She is in refusal. The reasons are complex: identity, distrust of the formal help structures, a genuine belief that she will handle it herself, and a fear that formal help means formal acknowledgment that something is wrong.
Scenario
You are Anne's peer executive or HRBP. The CEO has asked you to try again — this is the third conversation. Last time she said she is not a therapy person. Your goal is not to repeat the same offers but to actually understand what she might accept.
Skills tested
- engaging someone who has already said no multiple times
- not repeating the same failed offers
- understanding what is underneath the refusal
- meeting someone where they are rather than where you want them to be
- working at the edge of formal support capacity
What you'll practice
- How to offer support without offering the same rejected thing again
- Understanding what someone means when they refuse formal help
- Finding a third option that is not therapy but is still support
- Accepting limits while not abandoning the person
Personality traits
Practice this conversation
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