Don’t Set Yourself on Fire to Keep Others Warm
Countering the Self-Sabotaging Mindsets of Helping Professionals
About the Video
CONTENT WARNING: This discussion includes brief mentions of suicide and alcohol dependence.
As helping professionals, our jobs are focused on alleviating the suffering of others. However, when the suffering is our own, we often turn a blind eye and believe that sacrificing our own wellbeing is “part of the job.” Over the years, this mindset scorches the landscape of our lives, consuming our relationships, careers and wellbeing. We are left depleted, burnt out and running on fumes. Do we need to suffer in order to do our jobs well? Is this really what we signed up for as helping professionals?
In this session, John Borthwick offers guidance on building a reservoir of self-care strategies to draw upon in difficult times and forging a healthy mindset to safeguard against difficult work to give yourself permission to “chill”
Recorded in June 2020 as part of the CARE4YOU conference
Additional Resources
About the Presenters
John Borthwick
BA, M.Div
John Borthwick is an educator and facilitator, specializing in the areas of traumatology, resilience, compassion fatigue, conflict mediation and coaching skills, and leadership development. He is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in Canada and provided volunteer chaplain services to members of the Guelph Police Service for seven years.
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