Compassion Fatigue Solutions

It's official! The Train the Trainer Workshop on Compassion Fatigue is booked to run November 13-14th at the beautiful Donald Gordon Centre in Kingston.
[July 16th, 2008 - This workshop is now FULL - if you would like to be added to the mailing list for next year's training, email me clearly stating that you wish to be added to the Train the Trainer mailing list]
As an aside, I should tell you that the food at the Donald Gordon Centre is absolutely stupendous (and it's a wonderful location where participants are treated like VIPs). In fact: "The Financial Times (U.K.) has ranked the Donald Gordon Conference Centre number one in the world for food quality in a survey of international executive education centres." Link: www.dgc.queensu.ca

Great food, beautiful location. A nice starting point for a two day intensive retreat to become (or hone) your skills as a compassion fatigue trainer.

Here's more information on this upcoming workshop:

Compassion Fatigue Train the Trainer Workshop

Revised and Confirmed Dates: Thursday November 13th and Friday November 14th, 2008 at the Donald Gordon Centre in Kingston. (link: www.donaldgordoncentre.com)

**Accommodation: For those of you needing accommodation, the Donald Gordon Centre offers comfortable and affordable rooms for overnight stay. However, at the present time, there is no space on the Wednesday night (although this could very well change, and you can ask to be put on their waiting list) but there are still some beds available for the Thursday night. You should call the DGC asap if you wish to explore this option.) Otherwise, there are plenty of lovely B&Bs nearby and if you need accomodation info, I can send it to you.

Registration Form: If you decide to enroll for this event, please email me and I will send you a registration form.

Workshop Size: Spaces is limited to a maximum of 20 participants and will only run if at least 8 participants enroll (given the interest I have received after posting this for only 5 days, I am not particularly worried about it meeting the minimum number of participant requirement)

Cost: $435 plus $45 for materials which includes training manuals, handout templates and power point on CD.
Total cost: $480.00 CAN incl gst.

To Register: Send a cheque, payable to WHP, in the amount of $100.00 to 837 Princess Street, Suite 300, Kingston, On. K7L 1G8 **balance of payment ($380.00) must be paid by October 1st to secure your enrollment. Please note that the $100.00 is not refundable. Cancellation policy is on our website.

Certificates of completion will be provided.

Prerequisites: This workshop is aimed at helping professionals and educators in the helping fields. No prior Compassion Fatigue training required but a basic working knowledge of the topic would be best (by reading some of the titles listed below ahead of time).

Workshop Description: Some past participants of our one day Compassion Fatigue workshop (Walking the Walk) expressed an interest in receiving help in designing a workshop to bring back to their communities and developing skills and knowledge base to deliver compassion fatigue workshops themselves. This train the trainer workshop offers tools, handouts, strategies, training material and marketing strategies to adapt Walking the Walk to your community's specific needs (and to your own presentation style). You do not need to have attended WtheW in the past to benefit from this training.

Because of the small size of the group, we will customize certain aspects of the training to your specific needs. A questionnaire will be sent ahead of time to establish your needs/goals and objectives and aim to fulfill as many of these as possible.

Day one will be experiential (you will participate in a one day CF workshop) and Day two will discuss tools, strategies and techniques to develop and deliver the workshops on your own and become a CF educator and trainer.

What differentiates this workshop from other educational sessions out there is the extra layer of understanding and validation that we hope to convey to our workshop participants. Therefore, the train the trainer workshop is designed to take you deep first, to gain a true and thorough understanding of your own relationship to CF. Then we go into the didactic details (what to teach, how to teach) and finally talk about the mechanics of the whole process (how to customize this for your own work needs/goals etc.)

Commitment on your part:
-fill out questionnaire ahead of time and return no later than October 1st
-fill out the reflection section of the workbook before attending the workshop

Detailed outline:

We will be using the Walking the Walk training manual:

-What are Compassion Fatigue, Caregiver Stress, Vicarious Traumatization and burnout
-Signs and symptoms of CF/VT/Burnout
-Assessment tools
-Warning signs
-Resiliency skills
-Self Care Strategies
-Academy of traumatology standards of Ethics
-How to offer psychoeducation on this topic
-Experiential activities that work with audiences
-How to design your own workshop: what is your target audience
-Lessons I have learned during the past 7+ years of offering these workshops

and more...


Recommended Reading: If you would like to read ahead, I would recommend:

Transforming the pain by pearlman and saakvitne - a nice little workbook on designing VT workshops

Trauma and the Therapist by Pearlman

Secondary Traumatic Stress by Beth Stamm

Compassion Fatigue and Treating Compassion Fatigue. 2 books by Charles Figley

Help for the Helper by Babette Rothschild

50 strategies to simplify your life: Patrick Fanning

Take time for your life by Cheryl Richardson

A therapist's guide to self care by lillie weiss


I would also suggest you surf the net and read anything from the Headington Institute and Figley Institute.

A great place to start is to visit my website: www.compassionfatigue.ca and read the articles I have written (Running on empty and 12 Self Care Strategies) as well as visit my blog weekly.

Directions: For those of you interested but wondering where in the heck is Kingston, Ontario? We are midway between Toronto and Montreal and about 2 hours north of Syracuse, NY. You can fly to any of these destinations and then drive or take a train to Kingston. The easiest way to get here is to Fly to Montreal and then take the free shuttle to the train (a 5 minute ride). The train schedule can be viewed: www.viarail.ca. You can also fly to Toronto and take a 45 minute shuttle to Union train station. It is then a 2 hour train ride to Kingston.


Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Françoise