Every Saturday, MBA students at Switzerland’s International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, have an hour-long one-on-one session with a psychotherapist.

There are no couches in the rooms used for therapy, but Janet Hewetson, who runs this personal development elective, makes the space less formal. She pushes the white table normally separating students and professors to one side. Instead, they sit face to face near a board on which they can draw — one of a number of techniques used to express feelings within the session.

“Life here is fast paced,” Ms Hewetson says. “The PDE is an opportunity for students to really pull out of the bubble and get some perspective to relate to themselves and others. It’s an opportunity to switch rhythms from an outward-directed, linear, performance-focused perspective and get practice in slowing down, being reflective and checking in with themselves.”