Compassion Fatigue Solutions

Are you a compassion fatigue/vicarious trauma educator and/or practitioner? Are you interested in sharing your ideas/new approaches to helping other helpers who are facing compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma? The Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists will be holding its annual conference September 29 – October 3, 2010 at the Delta Airport Hotel – Toronto, Canada.

Click here for more information.

Safeguards Training for Children and Adult Services is sponsoring four of my Compassion Fatigue workshops this Winter: Two in Markham and two in London. If you are a member of CMHO, OARTY, ONTCHILD/YPRO, ANCFSAO or Community Living Ontario, the price of these workshops is extremely low.

In addition, a non-sponsored version of these training sessions are being offered in Kingston. Visit my website for more details.

Walking the Walk: Creative Tools for Transforming Compassion Fatigue

January 18, 2010 - Holiday Inn & Suites, Toronto (Markham)
or
March 29, 2010 - Delta London Armouries, London, On.

Description
Françoise Mathieu, M.Ed., CCC.Certified Counsellor, Compassion Fatigue Specialist and Director of WHP will present this one day training (this will be followed by the Trainer-the-Trainer session so you can take this valuable training back to your agency.)

Compassion fatigue is characterized by deep emotional and physical exhaustion and by a shift in a helping professional's sense of hope and optimism about the future and the value of their work. It has been called "a disorder that affects those who do their work well" (Figley 1995). The level of compassion fatigue a helper experiences can ebb and flow from one day to the next, and even very healthy helpers with optimal life/work balance and self care strategies can experience a higher than normal level of compassion fatigue when they are overloaded, are working with a lot of traumatic content, or find their case load suddenly heavy with clients who are all chronically in crisis.

Compassion fatigue is a normal consequence of working in the helping field. The best strategy to address compassion fatigue is to develop excellent self care strategies, as well as an early warning system that lets the helper know that they are moving into the caution zone of Compassion Fatigue. This is a highly interactive one day workshop, incorporating a combination of solo, small group and whole group activities.

Registration Details & Fee(s):
Members: Training Fee: $0 plus $50 Admin Fee+GST
Non Members: Training Fee: $99 plus $50 Admin Fee+GST

To register click here

Compassion Fatigue Train the Trainer: 2 day course

January 19-20, 2010 - Holiday Inn & Suites, Markham
or
March 30-31, 2010 - Delta London Armouries, London

Description
Françoise Mathieu, M.Ed., CCC.Certified Counsellor, Compassion Fatigue Specialist and Director of WHP has designed a two day, intensive train-the-trainer retreat on Compassion Fatigue.

This train the trainer workshop offers tools, handouts, strategies, training material and marketing strategies to adapt Walking the Walk to your agency's specific needs (and to your own presentation style).

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 you will learn 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.).

Spaces limited to a maximum of 20 participants.Certificates of Completion will be provided

PREREQUISITES**
Prior attendance to the full day or half day workshop Walking the Walk is required. (You may have attended a session at your workplace, or in a different community in the recent past). For those who have not attended this workshop in the past, Walking the Walk will be offered on the day prior to this training. If you have attended Walking the Walk at an earlier date, please indicate when that was on your registration form.

Outcomes
You will Learn:
·How to use the Compassion Fatigue Workbook
·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

Pricing
Member fee $52.50
Non-member fee $260.40

To register click here

For more information contact:
Contact Name: Donna Stevens
Contact Phone: (905) 889-5030
Contact Fax: (905) 889-7155
Contact Email: donna@safeguards-training.net

Hi, how are you? Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? :-)

I had a very interesting week and had the pleasure of presenting at the stunning Dundurn Castle in Hamilton to professionals working in developmental pediatrics at Hamilton Health Sciences and in the community. Thank you for your warm hospitality and for tolerating my big booboo at the train station (basically I made someone wait for me for 1.5 hours due to a comedy of errors...so sorry...)

The week ahead is a busy one: I will be presenting at the CHUM in Montreal on Tuesday, working with health care staff from palliative care and oncology. Then, it's off to Newmarket to work with Ontario Works staff from York Region, for three days of training. Next week is the two day Compassion Fatigue Train the trainer back home in Kingston. For those of you who may be interested in attending the next Train the Trainer, which is being held in March, please note that there are only 20 spots available and that registrations are coming in fairly steadily, therefore to avoid disappointment, please consider registering soon. Please also note that from March onwards, there will be a prerequisite to attend the Train the Trainer workshop: you must have completed a full day or half day "Walking the Walk" session at some point in the past or simply attend the one day training being offered on the day prior to the Train the Trainer session. For more information click here.

Something new: I will be offering an e-learning session for a private group in a couple of weeks via a process called Fireside Chat: it's a very simple and affordable process whereby participants use their laptop and a phone line to take part in a teleconference while being able to view the power point slides. If I like it, I might use this to start offering some distance learning sessions in the new year.

I am changing decades in two weeks. Gulp.

Finally, if you are building a christmas wish list for yourself, I would like to recommend some good old standbys from my library:

Take time for your life by Cheryl Richardson
Mindfulness-based stress reduction cd package by Jon Kabat-Zinn
50 ways to simplify your life by Patrick Fanning

In peace,

Françoise

(Françoise's desk Sunday April 5th, 2009)

Before you start reading this post, I would like to describe to you my current working conditions on this lovely Sunday morning: we recently had a flood in our basement which wiped out the children's play area which means that they immediately invaded my home office with millions of tiny plastic toys that crunch underfoot and never seem to go back in their storage tubs. Defeated, I temporarily migrated to the dining room table, waiting for the basement to be back in use. So, while trying to write this post I have had: 1) a 30 minute fashion show by my 11 year old who just unpacked a bag of hand-me-downs from her cousins 2) two 8 year old boys eating peanut butter straight from the jar with gigantic spoons 3) a skunk walking in our backyard and 4) a sibling dispute to break up! But truth is, the house feels very empty when they are not here, and I will step on a crunchy plastic toy quite happily. The benefits far outweigh the costs.

During the past two weeks, I have presented to oncology and palliative care workers in a large Montreal hospital, nurses from Corrections and staff at a busy community mental health agency. The workshops offered were half day presentations on compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma.

I wish I could find the right words to accurately describe the energy that is present during these workshops. I think the reason for this intensity and engagement from participants has to do with all of us helpers being given an opportunity to reflect on and talk about the cost of caring. Being able to take a few hours out of our incredibly fast-paced work lives to take stock and look at the impact that this work has on us.

Reflecting on the past 7-8 years, I have often asked myself "why does this always feel like a brand new workshop, each time I offer it?" I think that this energy from participants is really the only way to explain that presenting the same workshop five times in two days remains a replenishing experience for me.

I think the same can be true of clinical work: Have you ever looked at a day's worth of client appointments and felt anticipatorily drained, only to wrap up the day feeling energized and think to yourself "wow, that went by very quickly." Yes, client work can be draining, but it can also offer us incredible rewards and opportunities for renewal. Laughter is one source of replenishment in our work ( I think there is probably more laughter in counselling work than outsiders might imagine, even in terrible situations), and so is watching someone make an amazing change in their life, take a risk, big or small, gain an insight, take a stand. I have sat in session many, many times, filled with admiration for the courage of the person in front of me, filled with awe and feeling honoured to be the holder of their testimonial. That is why we do this work, isn't it?

I feel the same way about facilitating CF/VT workshops. I also think that combining the two is a good blend: working with clients part time and offering workshops part time. I wonder what your ideal blend would be?

This week, I am going to Ottawa to offer a Vicarious Trauma retreat to Crown Witness Coordinators (CWCs). CWCs provide Northern victims/witnesses with assistance throughout the court process. CWCs travel the North West Territories, the Yukon and Nunavut along with what is called "Circuit Court" - a travelling court of justice that goes from region to region, offering court services across the north. I am very much looking forward to meeting these CWCs.

Till next time, happy Passover and happy Easter for those of you who observe these holidays, and happy Spring to you all.

I apologise for the longish silence but I have been busy writing up a report for an agency. I can now return to posting weekly as is my goal.

I invite you to visit the Compassion Fatigue Awareness Project: www.compassionfatigue.org and browse through the resources available. The web site has, in particular, good resources for animal care workers (click on Resources to find links and articles.)

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On Managers and Compassion Fatigue

Supervisors and managers who work in the helping fields end up in a tough spot: Most of the management staff I have met over the years are extremely concerned about the wellbeing of their employees and feel stuck between their staff's needs (for a reduced workload, for policies that allow for more flexibility in the schedule, for concrete actions that recognise the reality of compassion fatigue in the workplace) and the need to ensure that service delivery continues and that client needs are met.

I have lost count of the times I have had a manager, almost in tears, come to me at the end of a workshop and say: "How do we, the managers, juggle it all? How do we care for our staff without burning out ourselves?"

The answer, of course, isn't simple, but there are some strategies that can help. This was my motivation in bringing Dr Pat Fisher to present a two day course for Managers in Kingston in May. I will be carrying out an interview with Pat Fisher in the weeks to come, so come back if you are curious to know more. And if you live near Kingston, do consider enrolling for the course. It will be an extremely valuable two day workshop specifically designed for managers and supervisors.

Now, in terms of what I'm up to today, I'm going to play badminton with kids this afternoon, and then I will likely not be able to resist watching part of the Oscars before falling asleep (those long boring speeches where everyone thanks their lawyer, stylist and publicist, yawn. Why not take this opportunity to advocate for a charitable cause? Maybe one of the winners will do just that tonight and surprise us).

Next week is the Train the Trainer workshop which I am very much looking forward to as it's an opportunity to work for two days with a small group of dedicated helpers from highly varied backgrounds. This time around, there are psychologists, family doctors, nurses, social workers and counsellors from a wide range of agencies such as hospitals, veterans affairs, public health, children's services and other community agencies. If you are interested in this training programme, please note that the June session is already half full.

Hope you have a good week!

Here is a brief update on what has been happening in the compassion fatigue solutions world:

I have been travelling nearly every week so far this Fall. I was in Montreal last week presenting at a rehabilitation hospital, this week I am off to Timmins in Northern Ontario, then Oshawa and Edmonton. Clients have been from the fields of healthcare, addictions, corrections and social services. It has been very interesting to meet helpers from such diverse fields and hear about their specific challenges given the work that they do and the clients they work with. I was also interviewed for my favourite radio show "White Coat, Black Art". Working with the media is always nerve-wracking as you speak for 45 minutes and they then reduce it to 8 minutes. I just hope they can respect the spirit of the message I was trying to convey. This show will apparently air in November, I will keep you posted if you are curious to hear it.

I am working on several things right now: starting interviews for the book, proofreading the compassion fatigue manuals that will be available for purchase in the coming weeks, and finalising details of upcoming training, more on this below.

Train the Trainer

I am very pleased to announce that the two day Train the Trainer workshop will be offered again in March and June, in Kingston, On. I will be sending a formal annoucement in the coming weeks. I already have 35 people on the waiting list so if you want to take this training, I encourage you to enroll as soon as you can to avoid disappointment.

The Manager's Guide to Stress, Burnout & Trauma in the Workplace, Kingston, May 2009 with Dr Pat Fisher

I have been wanting to offer a workshop to managers for a very long time. The Manager’s Guide to Stress, Burnout & Trauma in the Workplace Program has been specifically designed to assist managers as they address the problem in their workplaces and its impact on the staff they lead.

Patricia Fisher, Ph.D., R.Psych., L.Psych.
President & CEO.

Dr. Patricia Fisher is a clinical and consulting psychologist who has specialized in the field of workplace traumatic and systemic stress over the past 20 years. She has authored 6 texts and numbers of research papers on the subject, and is a frequent presenter at international conferences and professional meetings. Active as a clinician, researcher, and consultant, her work also includes program design and evaluation, curriculum development and training, policy development and organizational planning. Dr. Fisher’s work has focused on the needs of public service personnel in high risk areas such as human and social services, law enforcement, corrections, emergency services, and health care. More recently, the scope of application has increased to include a wide range of high stress private and public sector workplaces. Dr. Fisher has led the expansion of Fisher & Associates into the United States and currently resides in New York, while making periodic visits back to Canada

Stay tuned for dates and registration forms. To receive advance notification, please join our mailing list.

Betting on Mental Health for Seniors
Making Connections between Gambling and Mental Health. What are the odds?

Date: Tuesday November 25th, 2008
Where: The Canadian Mental Health Association – Kingston Branch, 6 Ordnance Street, Kingston, ON
Time: 8:30 – 4:00
Cost: $25.00 Includes snacks, lunch and A Problem Gambling Prevention Clinical Manual for Service Providers with handouts

A Collaborative Partnership Between The Canadian Mental Health Association Kingston Branch:Brenda Miller and Options for Change:Chris Myers

To Register: Call Brenda: 613-549-7027

The Fall training is starting in earnest this week, with a presentation in Hamilton at a Trauma conference and a one day Train the Trainer workshop in London. I have spent a great deal of time writing the Train the Trainer manual, so sadly I am all worded out for what is normally a favourite activity of mine - the weekly blog. I am also busy putting the finishing touch on the Walking the Walk workbook which will soon be available to purchase online and by regular post. This workbook will lead readers through the full Walking the Walk: Creative Tools for Transforming Compassion Fatigue one day workshop. It was designed for distance learners and those who enjoy learning at their own pace. The workbook offers a comprehensive description of compassion fatigue and vicarious traumatization and leads the reader through many experiential activities designed to target specific areas in their personal and professional lives. It offers concrete strategies to making a real change in your life as a helping professional.

If this is of interest to you, please visit this space in a few weeks to receive notification of the workbook launch.

Things are heating up around here. I have been very busy putting the final touches to the One and Two day train the trainer workshops scheduled for September and November and I am trying to find a superlative that adequately conveys the excitement I feel at finally getting a training workbook completed after all this time and simply at having had enough uninterrupted time to just write and think.

For participants planning to attend a train the trainer session in the Fall: I have created a new web page (a Train the Trainer site) which can be found at cftrainers.blogspot.com

For now it's all going to be deposited there, but I may reorganise it all later so it makes more sense. Just bear with me, if you please.

If you are coming to a training session with me this Fall, I invite you to go have a look and subscribe to receive updates.

I have written elsewhere in this blog about my frustrations with the highly variable quality of continuing education for helping professionals.

One of the primary reasons for which my friend Robin and I created the CF workshops in 2001 was to offer something that we would enjoy attending. We had been to dozens of training courses that promised (but failed) to deliver tools and strategies that we as clinicians were starving for. Since, in addition to this, I spent my entire early school life bored out of my mind (reading novels on my lap to survive from Grades 1-10), I have become a rather tough workshop participant. No, that's not entirely true, I am very polite. I may not say much at the workshop per se, but truth is I am internally drumming my fingers in exasperation and writing cribs notes for a future novel or next week's groceries on my lap.

All of this lengthy preamble to say that it was with very low expectations that I enrolled for a one day course on assessment tools for trauma work last week. I arrived at the workshop feeling neutral, hoping to learn something. In fact, it turned out to be a wonderful training day where I learned a lot and was attentive and awake to the instructor the entire day.

The first 10 Minutes

There are several things that the instructor did in the first 10 minutes that indicated to me that this was going to be a good workshop. First, she drew us in by sharing some information about the type of client cases that she sees. Brief storytelling and relevant case examples are always great ways to start, in my opinion.

Secondly, she expressed concern (and therefore offered validation) that the material we were going to work with was potentially very dry and may not be easy to digest in a one day intensive format. Yet she taught us how to use the tools with highly informative case examples and drew us in to a rather dry topic.

Thirdly, she had mastery - she has been teaching on this topic for many years, and her expertise anchored the workshop.

Finally, she was very genuine and confidant about her material and her work.

A few Key Things to observe

If you are a trainer yourself, or interested in becoming a trainer, I would invite you to pay close attention to a few key things during the next workshop you attend:

1) Observe the first ten minutes of the workshop: How does the presenter draw you in? How does she set the stage for the day?

2) Does the trainer deliver on the promised deliverables?

3) Pacing of the day: respecting agreed upon times for breaks/lunch etc.

4) Staying focused on the task at hand - not allowing questions from the audience to derail the workshop yet being able to answer them succinctly and effectively

5) Genuineness

6) Warmth

7) Mastery of the topic: Confidence and Competence

I lucked out last week - the trainer had the competence and confidence to deliver a good workshop. Competence came from her wealth of experiences as a trauma specialist, (and clearly top notch clinical training) and confidence came from doing what she loves and doing it very well (training others in trauma work).

8) Sense of humour

9) Approachability

That's my quick list. Not all good trainers are warm and approachable, but it sure makes for a nice learning environment.

So, if you are trauma workers, maybe you want to know who this was after all this?

Good take a look at my recommended list of trainers, her name and workshops are listed: Natalie Zlodre at the Hincks in Toronto. A job well done in this learning curmudgeon's opinion.

If you would like to view a 1.5 hour talk on CF/VT, here is yours truly at the Ontario Harm Reduction Conference in Ottawa in March 2008. If you like the content of the video, share it with your pals, and please give my contact information along with it: email: whp at cogeco.ca, blog and website addresses.

www.ohtnmedia.org/ohrdp/conf_2008/video_07/

If you are potentially interested in hiring me to come present to your agency, this will give you an idea of my style although this was not an interactive workshop given that it was really short, and it should also be mentioned that my train was late and I arrived at the conference 8 minutes before starting the talk so I was a little frazzled. The cab driver who picked me up at the train station said to me "Hello! Where are you going?" and I said "Oh, I am SO late, please take me to the Delta, I am supposed to give a talk in 10 minutes" and he turned around in his seat, looked me straight in the eyes and said "I WILL get you there in time, I promise you" and off we went, on the most hair raising taxi ride I've ever had in Ottawa (that's not saying much though, as I used to live in NYC and once had a yellow cab burn all 24 red lights we encountered to get us home). But I digress.

If you know of good multimedia resources on CF out there, email me or write a comment to the blog. My goal is the create a "one stop shop" for Compassion Fatigue Solutions and the more resources we can find and share, the better.

I am going off to Toronto today to attend a workshop (rather than deliver one, which is a nice change). This will be on Trauma Assessment in preparation for the Three day Crisis Intervention training that I offer along with Dr Mike Condra in October here in Kingston: www.crisisinstitute.com

Compassion Fatigue Train the Trainer Workshops:
2 courses being offered in the Fall


The One Day Course
London, On. September 17th, 2008
(Sponsored by Solutions on Site)


The Two Day Intensive Retreat
Kingston, On. November 13-14th, 2008
See below for more information

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These Train the Trainer Workshops are designed to take you deep first, to gain a thorough understanding of your own relationship to CF, then 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.).

If you wish to begin exploring the process of becoming a trainer and are looking for some tools to get started, the One day Course is a good start. If you are ready to become a Trainer, the Two day Course is best.

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Compassion Fatigue Train the Trainer:
The One Day Course
Wednesday September 17th, 2008
Women's Community House, 450 Clarke Rd, London, On.
9:00 am-3:30 p.m.

Prerequisite: Participants must have completed prior training in Compassion Fatigue and/or Vicarious Trauma, ideally a minimum of one day CF training in the past and have a good working knowledge of the basic concepts related to compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma.

Develop the skills and knowledge base to deliver a highly creative and practical Compassion Fatigue workshop in your agency or community. You will receive a training manual and the option for further coaching as you take the first steps to becoming a CF trainer.

Upon completing this course, you will have materials and resources to begin the process of designing your own training program. You may want further coaching/training from WHP as you hone your skills.

To register: contact Solutions On Site
Tel: 519-640-2030
Web: www.SOSworkshops.ca

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Compassion Fatigue Train the Trainer Workshop
Two Day Intensive Retreat
Nov. 13-14th 2008

**Only 5 spaces left**

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.

Registration Form can be downloaded from from WHP's website.

Workshop Size: Spaces is limited to a maximum of 20 participants (only 5 spaces left as of June 10th.)

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.

For more details and outline: www.compassionfatigue.ca or email WHP@cogeco.ca