The Resilient Practitioner: Self-Care Strategies for Helping Professionals Face to Face/Classroom

The Resilient Practitioner: Self-Care Strategies for Helping Professionals

This practical workshop is for practitioners from social care, health, education and the voluntary sector, who wish to explore and maximise the quality of their professional role. There has been a dramatic increase in the use of the term ‘resilience’ in recent years, but we usually apply this to clients / service users. How do we think about ‘resilience’ when we think of ourselves as helping professionals and what are the ingredients of a resilient practitioner?

It is becoming increasingly important to look after ourselves as practitioners for at least three reasons:

1. We live in a fast moving world. Being busy is the rule and ‘doing’ is the norm. There often feels a pressure to be constantly in action to be producing, achieving, showing results, both personally and professionally.
2. The advent of technology pervades our lives again both personally and professionally. How do we manage our relationship with technology?
3. There is increasing pressure on all public services hence our roles as practitioners in the helping professionals has become far more stressful in recent years.

Aims & Objectives: By the end of this one day classrom workshop each participant will have developed a personalised ‘action plan’ that focusses on self-care strategies to support their role as a helping professional.

The day will include presentations, discussion and exercises covering the following themes: 

• The ‘cycle of caring’ (how we understand our role in the helping professions)
• Joys and rewards (looking at protective factors e.g. what sustains us in our roles)
• Stress and hazards (looking at risk factors e.g. burn out and compassion fatigue)
• The professional and personal self (looking at our work-life balance)

 The session will include a variety of self-care ideas and exercises. If you have any self care ideas, please do bring these ideas to the workshop 

Target Group: Groups 3 - 5  Members of the workforce who work predominantly with children, young people and/or their parents/carers and who could potentially contribute to assessing, planning, intervening and reviewing the needs of a child and parenting capacity where there are safeguarding concerns. Professional advisors, named and designated lead professionals, operational managers at all levels including; front line managers and managers of child protection units. 

Memorial Hospital

Buses:

89    From Lewisham / Slade Green

244  From Queen Elizabeth Hospital / Abbey Wood

486  From North Greenwich / Bexleyheath

 Road:

There is limited parking on-site. Upon entering the site drive towards main building following the road past main entrance. Carry on straight ahead to give way sign. There is a car park across the small road. There is also street parking off site.