How We Care

With special guest Dave Wood Phd: illustrator & graphic designer, educator, researcher, author and course leader at Dundee University. Elizabeth and Dave discuss the informal but vital role of supporting people in educational settings through emotional challenges and mental health, what this takes and how to take care of yourself while doing so. We consider the lifelong learning, curiosity, creativity, authenticity and acceptance involved in our work.

Find out more about Dave’s work at Scouse Scot https://scouse.scot/

Complimentary episodes of How We Care:

Episode 1: Being with Emotions in Helping Conversations: Elizabeth and Paul discuss the core conditions for being present and supportive when clients express strong emotions such as fear, anger, or grief in helping conversations. They also explore how helping professionals can protect themselves from absorbing difficult emotions when helping clients through tough times.

https://how-we-care.simplecast.com/episodes/how-we-care-no1-being-with-emotions-in-helping-conversations

Episode 6: Turning our Scars into Service: Elizabeth and Paul discuss the idea that as helping professionals our most difficult life events (e.g. illness, loss, life changes) can be used to deepen our empathy for clients and sharpen our effectiveness as a helper.

https://how-we-care.simplecast.com/episodes/how-we-care-episode-6-turning-our-scars-into-service

Episode 9: Combatting Imposter Syndrome

Paul talks with special guest Sally Beyer, careers coach and expert on Imposter Syndrome about her work helping medical professionals combat imposter syndrome, some tried and tested strategies for dealing with imposter feelings when they arise, and some useful resources to find out more.

https://how-we-care.simplecast.com/episodes/how-we-care-ep-9-combatting-imposter-syndrome

Explore all our episodes for more on practitioner wellbeing and person-centred working.

https://how-we-care.simplecast.com/

Here is a link to a full transcript of Episode 19

https://www.elizabethturp.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/6083?opendocument&part=7

Engaging in reflective practice can help you to;

* Evaluate your strengths and areas for development as a practitioner in your field

* Identify your core professional values and ways to incorporate them into your practice 

* Develop your plans for your own continuous professional development (CPD)

* Develop a better understanding of the perspectives of clients and colleagues 

* Increase your effectiveness and employability in your field. 

Taken from the Coventry University MA Career Development and Management course resources.

Here are some definitions you may find helpful; 

Reflection - Engagement in a deliberate mental process of thinking about, or contemplating, things that have happened, what was experienced and learned, from our own and from others' points of view. Reflection here means looking beneath the surface to find the truth about something, to draw conclusions for building new knowledge. 

Reflexivity - Reflexivity is the process of 'stepping back' from a situation we are involved in, for a 'helicopter view' of ourselves. Here we examine ourselves to gauge our values, assumptions, behaviour and relationships, and thereby monitor our learning and develop our intra-personal and inter-personal skills (equating to self-management, and external relationships). 

Critical Reflection - Critical Reflection is the adoption of a questioning stance to solve problems, challenge the 'status quo' and examine our own assumptions. This extends to consideration of wider socio-political perspectives and other relevant diverse contexts, theory and professional activity. 

Reflective Practice - Reflective Practice is the use of self-analysis to understand, evaluate and interpret events and experiences in which we are involved. This extends to being able to form a theoretical view or analysis, as would allow clear explanation to others, if required. The process of Reflective Practice seeks to enable insights and aid learning for new personal understanding, knowledge, and action, to enhance our self-development and our professional performance. 

From: https://www.businessballs.com/self-awareness/reflective-practice/

Here is quick and easy introduction to reflective practice and it’s benefits

Reflective Practice | SkillsYouNeed

If you’d like to delve deeper into reflective practice, here is a free ten-session Open Learning course from Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Syllabus | Reflective Practice: An Approach for Expanding Your Learning Frontiers | Urban Studies and Planning | MIT OpenCourseWare

If you’d like to find our more or obtain a transcript of this episode, contact Elizabeth via www.elizabethturp.co.uk  Twitter at @lizahpool or Paul at www.paulgaunt.co uk  or email [email protected]

You can also find us on Twitter at @howwecarepod

Elizabeth and Paul take a lucky dip approach to the card resource '50 Acts of Professional Self-Care developed by Siobhan McLean of Kirwin Mc Lean Associates and Self-Care Psychology and pull out some cards at random to prompt discussion.

More information on this resource is available via Twitter @SelfCarePsy, via facebook @selfcarepsychology or at selfcarepsychology.com

Two exercises mentioned at the end and drawn from the above resource are:

The Equal Breathing Exercise

Equalising breathing can calm the body and mind very effectively, and can be great to do at times of stress.  It is taken from the Yoga tradition where it is known as Sama-Vritti, and also backed by scientific observation.

To prepare you can lie down, sit up straight, or stand up straight, then;

1. Breathe in through your nose for a count of 4
2. Pause
3. Exhale for a count of 4
4. Repeat for a few minutes, or as long as you feel comfortable.

The Passive Progressive Relaxation Exercise

Used to help people achieve deep relaxation. It can be done at work (e.g. at your desk). For best results it is best to lie flat, however.  The best way to experience this is via a recording, and there are may versions of the exercise available free online  (e.g. on YouTube) You will be guided through each area of your body, relaxing each as you progress through the exercise.

 If you’d like to find our more or obtain a transcript of this episode, contact Elizabeth via www.elizabethturp.co.uk  Twitter at @lizahpool or Paul at www.paulgaunt.co uk  or email [email protected]

You can also find us on Twitter at @howwecarepod

Episode 17: Keeping up with social change as a helping professional – the importance of challenging CPD.

Elizabeth talks with guest Dr Peter Blundell, counsellor/psychotherapist, social worker, lecturer, researcher and founder of Therapists Connect.

Discussion on the importance of continually learning and challenging yourself as a helping professional in a changing and sometimes divisive world. We look at ways to work on ourselves at different career stages to address our privilege, prejudices, power dynamics and avoid potential harm to our clients that can come from our own ignorance or fear through anti-oppressive practice.

We consider what can get in the way of doing this and offer some ideas about how to choose accessible and relevant CPD.

Find Dr Peter Blundell and the Therapists Connect community across social media and here:

www.peterblundell.com  

www.therapists-connect.com

www.breakingtheboundaries.co.uk

Podcasts mentioned in this episode that challenge myths, misinformation and prejudice:

‘Maintenance Phase’ a podcast exploding myths about weight and health

https://www.maintenancephase.com/

The ‘Really Bad Therapy’ podcast, in-depth discussions of harm in therapy

https://www.verybadtherapy.com/episodes

The Therapists Connect podcast hosts discussions with individuals and groups of practitioners about individual journeys to becoming a therapist, often discussing equality issues, intersectionality and the importance of anti-oppressive practice.

Podcast | #TherapistsConnect (therapists-connect.com)

Relevant articles from Dr Peter Blundell

Boundaries - https://ejqrp.org/index.php/ejqrp/article/view/137/105

Self in Teaching Anti-Oppressive Practice –

https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/psychotherapy-politics-international/article/view/34

They discuss practitoner wellbeing, individualised care and the power of being open to anythng in the work, with insights into how effective helping conversations are based on deep empathy and trusting human connection and how person centred the podcast is too!

Contact us on twitter @howwecarepod or Instagram @howecarepodcast or via www.elizabethturp.co.uk or [email protected]

Show notes:

Episode 15: Working and Training as a Helping Professional when you have a chronic condition.

Elizabeth and special guest person-centred counsellor Natalie Rodil discuss their experiences in the counselling profession while living with chronic illness. They describe their journeys to getting support, learning self-management and the ongong challenges of both organisational and private practice work. Their experiences as mid-career and early career therapist respectively highlight some useful points about needs, policy and rights and for those of you managing others some clear examples of the how to support employees with chronic conditions. See show notes for further resources.
 

You can find Natalie Rodil on Twitter @NatalieRodil
 

Episodes 3 & 5 of this podcast focus on self-care for practitioners, epsiode 11 is about dealing with work and illness, particularly new health challenges.

Equality Act 2010 reasonable adjustments legislation: https://www.acas.org.uk/reasonable-adjustments

For comprehensive resource on Pacing for chronic illness: https://www.elizabethturp.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/6083?opendocument&part=9

Podcast recommendation: Welcome to Self - caring for the human in the therapist chair with Dr Hayley Quinn https://drhayleydquinn.com/podcast/

Facebook private group Disability Counsellors Group has useful discussions.

Elizabeth reads her article about the hidden reality of long term health problems arising from Covid-19 infection. This is far more common than people realise and important to begin to understand if you work as a helping professional. With the words of some Long Covid patients, she considers the impact on individuals, society, relationships and the economy and offers some explantions for why it isn't being given more attention. Please see written version in links below for hyperlinks to data, studies and science referred to in the piece. Follow her on Twitter @lizahpool for more on Long Covid.
 

Transcript of article read in this episode 'Why we all need to know the truth about Long Covid' and related article ' Please believe us - a call for empathy for Long Covid patients' see:

https://www.elizabethturp.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/6083?opendocument&part=6

For patient resources on postviral recovery and self-management:

https://www.elizabethturp.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/6083?opendocument&part=9

The book mentioned in this episode is 'Creative Career Coaching: Theory into Practice by Liane Hambly and Ciara Bomford, published in 2019 by Routledge. Although targeted primarily at career coaches, it contains techniques and ideas that could transfer to many helping conversations

 If you’d like to find our more or obtain a transcript of this episode, contact Elizabeth via www.elizabethturp.co.uk  Twitter at @lizahpool or Paul at www.paulgaunt.co uk  Twitter at @paulgoodwork

You can also find us on Twitter at @howwecarepod

The definition and description of self-awareness mentioned by Paul at the beginning of the episode is here:

What Is Self-Awareness? (And How To Increase Yours) | Indeed.com

Here is an explanation of the Morning Pages journaling technique from Julia Cameron's Artists Way, as mentioned by Elizabeth:

https://juliacameronlive.com/basic-tools/morning-pages/

The Chris Argyris article, Teaching Smart People How To Learn,  is here:

Teaching Smart People How to Learn.pdf (google.com)

Here are free mindfulness resources from UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Centre including a 3 min body scan & body & breath meditations:

https://www.uclahealth.org/marc/mindful-meditations

Here are details on the UK Equality Act 2010 outlining the duty to make reasonable adjustments (from Citizens Advice Bureau):

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/what-are-the-different-types-of-discrimination/duty-to-make-reasonable-adjustments-for-disabled-people/

Here are articles from Elizabeth's website on pacing yourself during recovery from illness & long covid
 

https://www.elizabethturp.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/6083?opendocument&part=9

and articles on how counselling can help people adjusting to disability

https://www.elizabethturp.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/6083?opendocument&part=6

and here is an article with advice for freelancers balancing the challenges of work and illness

Working Through Illness as a Freelancer (allfreelancewriting.com)