By: Sarah Summer

Corporate leaders have spent years investing in wellness perks, resilience workshops, and flexible work policies. Yet burnout continues to rise, draining talent and driving costs higher. Gallup estimates that disengaged employees cost the global economy $8.8 trillion in lost productivity every year. In the United States, the American Institute of Stress links workplace stress to absenteeism, turnover, and healthcare expenses that cost businesses more than $300 billion annually.

Despite these staggering numbers, most corporate wellness spending is allocated toward temporary fixes, such as meditation apps, motivational seminars, and mindfulness sessions. Useful in the short term, but they rarely resolve the patterns that keep stress cycling through the workplace.

Cedric Bertelli, founder of the Emotional Health Institute and co-developer of Emotional Resolution (EmRes), argues that the actual cost driver is unresolved emotional reactions that play out in real-time across professional environments. Bertelli has spent over 15 years training practitioners, executives, and educators in a neuroscience-based process that helps individuals dissolve emotional patterns at their root. His work has been recognized by researchers at UCLA and earned him the #1 audience-choice speaker award at the 2025 Super Trauma Conference.

Why CEOs Should Pay Attention

Every leader has seen how one unaddressed reaction can derail performance. A manager avoids delivering critical feedback. A team member overreacts to routine critique. A high performer hesitates in a negotiation because of an old emotional trigger. Over time, these patterns do not just affect individuals; they also impact society as a whole. They shape team dynamics and company culture, often more powerfully than policy or strategy.

For CEOs, that means emotional patterns are not a private matter. They are a direct performance liability.

The Coping Trap

Most corporate wellness programs teach employees to manage stress rather than resolve it. Coping skills provide temporary relief, but the underlying mechanism that drives the reaction remains unchanged.

EmRes takes a different approach. Grounded in research on interoception and predictive brain coding — fields advanced by neuroscientists such as Lisa Feldman Barrett — it teaches individuals to reconnect with their body’s sensations at the very moment an emotional reaction is triggered. By doing so, the brain can update outdated predictions that no longer match present reality. Once the prediction updates, the old reaction loop ends. The same situation no longer provokes the same disruptive response.

From Therapy to the Boardroom

EmRes was first applied in therapeutic and educational contexts. Today it is increasingly being used in corporate training and leadership development because it requires no disclosure of personal history, no journaling, and no extended talk therapy. It is practical, trauma-safe, and can be applied quickly — even in the middle of a stressful meeting or negotiation.

Bertelli works with executives to identify the moments when emotional patterns undermine their authority or decision-making. By addressing those patterns directly through interoceptive work, leaders regain presence and clarity without being hijacked by old reactions.

Burnout as a Business Priority

The World Health Organization now recognizes burnout as an occupational phenomenon linked to workplace conditions, rather than individual weakness. Investors and regulators are also beginning to fold employee well-being into ESG reporting frameworks. For CEOs, that means burnout is no longer just an HR issue. It is a board-level concern that carries reputational, regulatory, and financial implications.

Bertelli positions EmRes as timely because it reframes emotional health from being a personal matter to being a functional skill. Companies would never tolerate outdated software that slowed down operations. Yet many continue to accept outdated emotional patterns that reduce performance and drive attrition.

Backed by Research

To address skepticism, Bertelli has prioritized research partnerships. He collaborates with labs, such as those at UCLA, to study EmRes in high-pressure environments, including healthcare settings. Early results suggest the process can reduce anxiety and burnout while improving focus, without requiring long-term counseling or medication.

This focus on measurable outcomes separates EmRes from motivational programs or wellness perks. It is designed to be fast, repeatable, and grounded in neuroscience.

Practical Entry Points for CEOs

Leaders who want to apply this thinking can begin by reframing stress as an organizational issue, not just an individual one. Bertelli outlines several pathways companies can take:

• Executive coaching: Teaching leaders how to dissolve their own triggers so they can model resilience and presence.
• HR and leadership training: Integrating EmRes into conflict management, return-to-work programs, and professional development.
• Workshops: Equipping teams with tools to stop reactive loops in real time, reducing friction and improving collaboration.
• Research partnerships: Collaborating with institutes like Bertelli’s to generate data tailored to specific industries.

Each option directly connects to business outcomes, including reduced turnover, more substantial leadership presence, and more effective teams.

The CEO’s Challenge

Burnout has become a persistent cost of doing business, but it does not have to be inevitable. Leaders who continue to rely solely on coping-based wellness programs will see temporary relief but no lasting change.

Cedric Bertelli positions Emotional Resolution as a practical alternative: a method that addresses the root cause of emotional disruption rather than its symptoms. For CEOs, the challenge is clear. Recognize that unresolved emotional patterns are undermining performance. Treat emotional clarity as a core competency. And act before the cost grows higher.