Mindfulness & Resilience
Self-Compassion Training for Healthcare Communities (SCHC)
Building Resilience and Preventing Burnout
Date and time: Sessions held online, Tuesdays 6:00pm - 7:00pm from May 26 -June 30, 2020
Fee: $120 + HST (6 week online course)
Have you ever wondered if there was a skill you could use to help you sustain real compassionate care for patients in the face of competing demands like technology and documentation, time pressure, patient trauma and fatigue? Burgeoning research is showing that self-compassion skills can be of particular benefit to health care professionals, allowing them to experience greater satisfaction in their caregiving roles, less stress, and more emotional resilience. The good news is that self-compassion skills are trainable and build your capacity to handle stressful challenges.
Self-Compassion Training for Healthcare Communities (SCHC) is a 6-hr evidence-based healthcare adaptation of Mindful Self-Compassion, the empirically supported program of Dr. Kristin Neff at UT Austin and Dr. Chris Germer at Harvard Medical School. This brief training aims to improve wellbeing and personal resilience in healthcare professionals by teaching mindful self-compassion skills to deal with distressing emotional situations as they occur at work and at home.
In research conducted in 2019 the SCHC program was found to significantly decrease depression, stress, secondary traumatic stress and burnout, and to increase self-compassion, mindfulness, compassion for others, and job satisfaction in healthcare professionals.
As opposed to other self-care techniques, self-compassion practices can be used on the spot while at work with patients and colleagues. As a participant of the program you can learn tools to use throughout the day to:
• Care for yourself while caring for others
• Be able to listen with compassion
• Handle difficult emotions with greater ease
• Reconnect to the values that give your life and work meaning
The Self-Compassion Training for Healthcare Communities program meets for 6 sessions of 60 minutes. There is flexibility to customize session length for your facility needs.
"A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day.
A string of such moments can change the course of your life."
Chris Germer, PhD
Course Faculty
Barbara Smith, MFA, MS psych, RP - Registered Psychotherapist in private practice for 3 decades. She is retired from the Hamilton Family Health Team where she worked as a mental health counsellor. Barbara has been involved in contemplative studies for over four decades and has extensive experience in Mindfulness. She has trained in MBSR, DRAM, and Mindful Communication. She is a trained Mindful Self Compassion Teacher through the CMSC and was trained by Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer. She studied with Michael Stone and Pema Chodron and Thich Nhat Hanh. Barbara has extensive professional experience as a group leader. She presently teaches Mindful Communication and MindfulSelf Compassion courses..
Valerie Spironello MSW RSW - Valerie has been a social worker for over 30 yrs. including working in health care, child welfare and family violence. She has a private practice offering counselling and workshops to support others in living well. (choosewellness.ca). Valerie is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine. She is trained in: Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction; Mindful Self-Compassion; Mindful Communication; Transformative Mindfulness and Mindfulness Meditation in Clinical Practice. She has studied and taught at the University of Toronto Applied Mindfulness program and teaches through McMaster PFD. Valerie has attended, as well as co-led, numerous meditation courses/retreats, and has a long standing personal meditation practice. Her wish is to support others in learning about this life-changing practice.
Cancellation Policy: McMaster University, Program for Faculty Development reserves the right to cancel a course due to insufficient registration or any circumstances beyond our control. Cancellations received prior to May 12th ,2020 will be refunded minus a 25% administrative fee. No refunds will be issued for cancellations received after this date.