I have been busily working away on a new project while I have been travelling. I was asked earlier this year if I would be interested in writing a chapter for a book that plans to collate activities & plans to support university tutors to engage & connect with their students. At first I was like "nah I think you emailed this to the wrong person" but uplon discussion & reflection it was clear they were seeking my ideas around the kinds of activities & ice breakers I was doing that incorporated learning & self-awareness around wellbeing for students.
See those of you who know me know I get on my soapbox quite often about self-care & wellbeing in professional practice. That I do sneak in self-compassion quizzes, ice breakers & critical thinking into my sessions & my tutorials whenEVER I can. That even something as simple as "professional high, professional low' is a way to get students & clients to share everyday things about their practice that I can link to self-care, resilience or even self-awareness. I LOVE this part of my work & that I have some really great breakthroughs with people & often have people tell me they 'get it' now, that self-care isn't something we just consider when things go badly, that it's not just massages & meditation (although these are GREAT of course), that there is research, evidence & principles of practice that can & should underpin best practice around this stuff AND did you know that this can be incorporated into your PD (professional development plans & supervision?).
Many agencies & departments talk about wellbeing & self-care a lot, they often suggest a staff member should 'do self-care' or take better care of their wellbeing, often this places responsibility on the staff member to 'sort themselves out' rather than considering the work being done, the systems & policies we work within, the complexity of clients & KPIs & funding &...... well you get the gist, right? You are likely IN this right now.
Often self-care comes back to personal responsibility & often its more akin to exploitation perpetrated against the individual by business..........
I have been reading, researching, plotting & planning & I have decided to create a burn-out program that can be accessed in small groups of professionals, by work teams & in one to one sessions to ensure it is accessible to everyone who is facing the impacts of burn-out, compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma & moral distress. I want to share this knowledge, empower & create a community of practitioners who champion self-care & burn out resilience. Perhaps even some agency champions who I can work with to promote this from the 'inside'. I am also hopeful that managers & team leaders will see the benefit of this wellbeing package for their teams & contact me for info on how to bring it to their program
This is more than your usual wellbeing workplace PD! this is tailored to those who work with trauma, those who face difficult & often impossible choices every day, those who began their careers because they wanted to help, to make change & support people, those who also need this support to continue to do the work they LOVE. I am still creating these packages/suites of programs & as such there is not a lot more to share for now BUT I will post below a program description & some media images & I hope you will get as excited about this as I am, share it with your networks & employers & lets get this information, support & evidence based self-care plans out to where they are needed.
I would LOVE to discuss this with you if you are keen & you can join the mailing list or send me an email directly to see how I can support your needs & answer your questions.
Every profession can suffer the effects of burn out & every employee can know its weight. An important part of being resilient to types of burnout & compassion fatigue is knowledge & understanding.
This program is designed to offer insight into your own personal situation & circumstance, this is highly recommended for those who work in a field that is most likely to encounter trauma & vicarious trauma, those on the helping professions, suitable for social workers, nurses, counsellors, ambulance officers, family court & domestic violence lawyers, child protection workers & teachers as some examples.
This program borrows content with permission from various sources & includes a personalised & evidence based self care plan & support strategies for long term application as well as knowledge & techniques to ensure you continue to develop and monitor your self-care ongoing.
The one to one program is designed to be run over 6 sessions at a rate of one per month. This is to ensure the opportunity to consider, practice, journal & discuss across a 6 month period while you implement the skills you aquire.
The group program can be delivered with a group known to each other within an agency or program but I am also going to host online sessions that will be peer based in the hopes that we can build a community for each other & for those who have less supportive employers or leaders.
You will learn about burn-out, compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma & moral distress, how to identify them & their distinct differences. You will complete questionnaires designed to highlight your current circumstances & level of risk. You will be asked to consider questions & journal prompts for 'homework' between sessions & link these to your professional practice experientially. There will be a private group created to connect with others who have completed the program to ensure ongoing support, wellbeing & accountability.
There will also be discounted ongoing sessions for those who complete this program should you want to continue the journey of self-care, intention & boundary setting.
