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About Us
We would be delighted to hear your story and how the work you are doing impacts people who you serve! But we know that in order for you to trust us with your story, you want to know more about us. This page gives you the deets--who we are, why we started Five Ives, and our passion to help people just like you.
A Note from our Founders
We started Five Ives™ because we’ve lived the toll of burnout. When we met, we were seeing great people leave work they loved because they were exhausted and unsupported. Our mission is simple: to help people who help others keep going — not just surviving, but sustaining their work and their lives.
We'd love to help you, too.
The Five Ives™ Framework
Burnout doesn’t just happen overnight — and recovery doesn’t either.
That’s why we created the Five Ives™ Framework: our proprietary research-backed model that maps the journey from crisis to sustainability in five stages.
This progression gives leaders a roadmap to know when and how to implement strategies — avoiding the trap of one-off initiatives that don’t stick.
It’s not about adding “one more thing.” The Five Ives™ help organizations know what will actually work in the moment they’re in.
Our Four Ps Approach
Lasting staff sustainability isn’t just about helping individuals cope — it’s about addressing the real drivers of burnout and retention across the entire system.
That’s why we follow our Four Ps Approach, working at every level that shapes staff wellness and retention:
- Policy – The external rules and requirements (funding, regulations, mandates) that create pressures on organizations and staff.
- Practice – Organizational leadership decisions that shape culture, workload, and daily operations.
- Practitioner – The wellbeing and capacity of the leaders and staff serving on the frontlines.
- People – The children, patients, or community members being served, whose trauma and needs directly impact staff experiences.
By addressing all four Ps, organizations stop chasing surface-level fixes and instead build system-wide alignment that makes retention possible.
Burnout doesn’t come from one place — and neither does the solution.
Lauren Spigelmyer, M.Ed.
Lauren knows what it is like to have to give yourself a pep talk to force yourself to walk into work.
As an educator, she saw how burnout drained not just staff, but entire school systems — and she became determined to find a better way.
Her passion is helping leaders and staff discover practical tools to ease daily pressures, strengthen trust, and create environments where people — and the missions they serve — can thrive.
Lauren has since helped thousands of people who help people across industries like healthcare, education, and nonprofit work to understand the impacts of trauma and how we can enter into caring professions without burning out.
Jessica Doering, PhD
Jessica’s story is shaped by both personal and professional experience, having been an educator, adoptive parent through foster care, and nonprofit leader serving those who have experienced unimaginable trauma.
Jessica saw how trauma impacts not just the people being served, but the people doing the serving, which led her to dedicate her career to helping organizations break the cycle of burnout and turnover that so often derails good work.
She believes service can be sustainable — and works alongside leaders to build systems where staff are steady, supported, and able to keep showing up for the people who need them most.
She has served thousands of frontline staff and leaders across helping professions and continues on her personal mission to make the world a more compassionate place through helping people help people!
IT'S THE PERFECT MATCH!
Jessica and Lauren co-founded Five Ives™ to help service-oriented professions sustain their work with trauma-impacted communities.
Their work combines personal lived experience, professional expertise, and evidence-based research into one cohesive approach that helps organizations move from surviving to sustaining.
Drawing on evidence-based research and the Five Ives™ framework they co-developed, Lauren and Jessica guide executives, HR leaders, and frontline supervisors to create systems where service is sustainable, staff are supported, and missions endure.
(And yes, Jessica really is that short!)
BUT WHAT DO WE ACTUALLY DO?
Blah blah blah, trauma-informed care. That's how a lot of people hear what people say they do, and we get your hesitation. A lot of people use the right words, but what makes us different is that not only do we have the education and experience to back up the claims that we are experts in trauma care, but we are transparent about how we show up and serve people. Nothing fuzzy or woo-woo around here--we are all about data driven, research-backed practices and practical help that make a difference.
