Carole Anita Spiers MBE is a British entrepreneur, public speaker and author best known for her work in the field of stress management, counselling and employee wellbeing. The National. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
Career Spiers is the founder and CEO of the Carole Spiers Group, an international stress management employee counselling consultancy working mainly in the contrasting cultures of UK and the Middle East."Coventry & Warwickshire CIPD AGM" Core News. Retrieved 2014-10-6."Carole Spiers To Deliver Keynote Address At The Big Idea Start-up Challenge 2010" Zawya. Retrieved 17 February 2014. She is a RELATE trained counsellor and post-trauma debriefer, and a former Expert Witness before the UK courts.
Spiers is Chair of The International Stress Management Association (UK), a registered charity and the lead professional body for workplace and personal Stress Management, Wellbeing and Performance."Who We Are" ISMA. Retrieved 24 July 2016. On their behalf, in 1999, she launched National Stress Awareness Day, which 20 years later, evolved into International Stress Awareness Week."National Stress Awareness Day today (6th Nov)" HR Review. Retrieved 17 February 2014."Workplace stress takes its toll" Personnel Today. Retrieved 2014-10-6. She was also a member of the committee for the UK Government initiative 'Securing the Health of the Nation'.
Being an international motivational speaker"Imdaad hosts leadership workshop in Dubai" ArabianIndustry. Retrieved 3 June 2014. Spiers delivers keynote addresses to conferences and seminars."Big Idea Startup Challenge Final" Dubai Chronicle. Retrieved 2014-10-6. From 2006 to 2008, she was the President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speaking Association, and is currently a Fellow of the Association.
In 2014, she was appointed Communications Partner for Mosaic, a charity founded by HRH Prince of Wales in 2007, who through its mentoring programmes, inspire young people from deprived communities, worldwide, to realise their talents and potential."Carole Spiers Group" Mosaic Network. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
Spiers supports the UK Government Older Worker's Campaign whose remit is to provide help and support for older people who want to get back in, or stay in, work and employers who could benefit by employing older people.
She is chair and a Trustee of HGS U3A (Hampstead Garden Suburb University of the Third Age), a learning co-operative for people no longer in full-time work. Since taking up the role in 2022, she has launched several new interest groups and established an outreach programme to engage with the wider local community.
In 2022, Carole was appointed an Ambassador for the Age Irrelevance campaign, which challenges stereotypes around ageing and promotes active, purposeful living at any age.
Spiers was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by the King in the 2025 Birthday Honours list for her contribution to stress management and mental health.
Media work Being the author of Tolley's Managing Stress in the Workplace and Show Stress Who's Boss! , which has been translated into Arabic and available in the United Arab Emirates and India."Show Stress Who's Boss!" Amazon. Retrieved 28 July 2016. Spiers' clients include AstraZeneca, Costco, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Debenhams, Dubai Cables, Emirates, Gasco (Abu Dhabi), Givaudan, House of Fraser, Indesit, Ooredoo (Qatar) and Mubadala."Carole Spiers" ISMA. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
For 8 years, Spiers was a weekly business columnist for Gulf News,"Carole Spiers: Respect makes human interactions work" Gulf News. Retrieved 17 February 2014. writing on stress-related issues facing Middle East management, and a past columnist for Khaleej Times."Abu Dhabi to host Women in Leadership Forum" Khaleej Times. Retrieved 17 February 2014. Her work has appeared in publications including HR Review,Carole Spiers: Managing stress at the top" HR Review. Retrieved 17 February 2014. Stressbusting,"What causes stress?" Stress Busting. Retrieved 17 February 2014. and has been a guest broadcaster of programs discussing issues related to workplace stress and bullying on LBC,"Employers need to understand work-life balance" Gulf News. Retrieved 14 October 2014. BBC,"Six Forum: Stress at work" BBC News. Retrieved 17 February 2014."Can Happiness Be Bought?" BBC. Retrieved 17 February 2014. Studio One-Dubai, CNN and BBC Radio. Spiers has also been interviewed or quoted in media including BBC"Do Prime Ministers Experience Stress?" FirstPost. Retrieved 3 June 2014. and The Guardian."Long day's journey into shorter working hours" The Guardian. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
Humanitarian work During the Yugoslavian Civil War, on behalf of the voluntary organisation Befrienders Worldwide, Spiers repeatedly visited Novi Sad to train humanitarian aid-workers in crisis intervention and post-traumatic stress, as well as counselling many refugees."In The Picture" ISMA. Retrieved 17 February 2014. She served as a Samaritan telephone crisis volunteer from 1979 – 2009 and visited prisoners in Wormwood Scrubs prison supporting their Listener scheme, a peer support service which aims to reduce suicide and self-harm in prisons. Since 2003, she has been working as a partner of the Dreamcatcher Foundation – South Africa"Partner – Carole Spiers Group" Dreamcatcher South Africa. Retrieved 17 February 2014. working on the townships of South Africa's Southern Cape delivering micro-business training programmes and one to one coaching sessions to local entrepreneurs living in township communities by providing marketing expertise for those wishing to develop their own businesses in their local communities."Self-marketing within the South African context" Retrieved 5 September 2015."Pride and Prejudice in the Townships" Retrieved 5 September 2015.
Her most recent trip to South Africa in 2025, where she delivered training sessions to teachers, students, and corporate employees on how to reduce stress and improve health and wellbeing.
Selected bibliography
References
External links Carole Spiers Group Official site Professional Speaking Association International Stress Management Association