How We Care

Elizabeth and Paul consider the impact of dehumanising systems on well-being, both in the workplace and wider society. They also discuss some of the ways in which helping professions can support clients/patients/customers etc through the effects of these dehumanising systems.

The powerful ITV drama about the post office scandal discussed in this episode is linked to below;

https://www.itv.com/watch/mr-bates-vs-the-post-office/10a0469/10a0469a0001

A link is made in this episode to a previous episode of the How We Care Episode 'Turning Scars into Service'. We make the point that often people who experience dehumanising treatment, are often strengthened in their resolve to prevent it happening to themselves again, or to others, or strengthened in their empathy and understanding when it does happen.

Timpsons is mentioned as an example of a positive company culture and the link below is an article by their CEO, James Timpson

https://gunnercooke.com/is-culture-really-that-important-with-james-timpson-ceo-of-timpson/

Any thoughts or comments on this episode? Or themes you would like us to cover?

Contact us via LinkedIn

Elizabeth’s Profile

linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-turp-11a90035

Paul's Profile

linkedin.com/in/paul-gaunt-bbb02874

Elizabeth and Paul discuss whether they love their clients, the different types of love experienced in human connection, what love means in helping conversations and the effect that attentive, accepting, warm, therapeutic relationships can have on clients and why this is the case. They also consider potential problems within meaningful professional helping relationships and how to address them.

Ancient Greek Words for Love: https://www.greecehighdefinition.com/blog/9-different-types-of-love-according-to-the-ancient-greeks

James Frey 'A Million Little Pieces' novel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Million_Little_Pieces

“At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou

The therapeutic relationship as determinant of outcome: https://therapymeetsnumbers.com/the-therapeutic-alliance/

Episode 21: Transitions in Work and Life: how do big changes in life (parenthood, retirement, loss, redundancy, ill health, etc) impact us and what can be useful to know about coping with changes to our roles, whether chosen or imposed on us.

Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) and role transitions from article in the Clinical Psychology Review: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4109031/

Previous relevant episodes of How We Care referred to in this episode:

Episodes 3, 5, 18

Episode 8: The Courage of the Person-Centred Approach

with best wishes,

Rehare of our first, and second most downloaded, episode

Dr Oliver Jenkin's article Engaging with the emotional content of career guidance can be found at

https://indigo.careers/engaging-with-the-emotional-content-of-career-guidance/

A good explanation of Carl Rogers' Core Conditions of congruence in counselling is here

https://medium.com/achology/carl-rogers-and-the-core-conditions-of-counselling-a87167028905

An article by Charles Handy on the concept of 'Proper Selfishness is at http://spiritualityandjustice.brahmakumaris.org/images/stories/articles/SiP_Article_Proper_Selfishness.pdf

There's an article from Psychology Today on Radical Self-Care here https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/peaceful-parents-happy-kids/201401/committing-radical-self-care#:~:text=%20Committing%20to%20Radical%20Self-Care%20%201%20Nurture,to%20you.%20Do%20you%20need%20some...%20More%20

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

Reshare: Episode 3: Self-Care for Helping Professionals, part 1.

Want to start the new season with good habits for your own wellbeing? We have plenty of ideas for self- reflection on possibly the How We Care Podcasts most important topic: Practitioner Wellbeing.

Elizabeth and Paul discuss their best self-care hacks, as well as some of the ways in which helping professionals can neglect caring for themselves because of a focus on prioritising the needs of those they help, and how that can be counterproductive for our own-well-being.

See also: Episode 5: Self-Care for Helping Professionals, part 2,

Episode 18: Acts of Self-Care for Helping Professionals.

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]