Live-Webinar
Responses to work-stress for individuals and systems are increasingly framed as an ethical issue, requiring action on the part of clinicians and organizations. In this workshop, we take the mandate a step further. When behavioral health work includes exposure to the trauma of others, it carries unique impact and requires trauma-specific planning to ensure individual and organizational wellbeing. The current reality of trauma-filled caseloads and increased pressure to serve more clients has amplified the stress, as well as the need for us to proactively address our own wellbeing.
This workshop will review the neurobiological impact of secondary and vicarious stress, preview strategies that respond directly to those trauma-specific impact domains and review the ethical frame for both self-care and organizational responses. We will offer a straightforward, proactive plan template to be tailored to individual styles and workplaces that promotes long-term health and posttraumatic growth.
Trauma work is a double- edged sword—both an invitation to know ourselves more deeply and gain wisdom, as well as a serious risk to our physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing if we are not active in our own care. Human beings have neurobiological responses to traumatic stress that are hardwired into our bodies, minds and spirits, whether that stress is directly or indirectly experienced. Reacting to this exposure is not something that we have a choice about—the experience is universal and survival based. It doesn’t happen because we are weak or have had our own trauma, but rather because we are empathic humans. Rather than leaving us victim to our empathic humanity, this creates an opportunity for us to recognize these shared areas of impact and respond in trauma-sensitive ways. Our goal is for participants to enjoy themselves, connect with each other and leave with a personal menu of resilience strategies specifically related to traumatic stress that they can actually implement in their busy lives.
Self-care is not just what we do after work
Self-care is how we do the work itself
There is a $15 registration fee which includes webinar attendance and 4 continuing education credits that will be emailed within 5 business days of the class.