Thursday Sept 26, 2024
8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Breakfast & Lunch Provided

8:00 - Breakfast

8:20-8:50 - Welcome, Introduction, and Building our Container

8:50-10:00 - Trauma, Triggers, and Trauma Responses (Myrna)

All workplaces reflect trauma, triggers and trauma responses to varying degrees which is especially true for professionals dealing with human suffering on a regular basis. This session will explain the neuroscience of trauma and identify how our wounds sometimes drive our behaviours and communications including our coping mechanisms. We will also explore aspects of racial trauma, intergenerational trauma, collective trauma and organizational trauma which oftentimes compound our individual trauma responses.

10:00-10:15 - Break

10:15-12:00 - Facilitated Workshop (4 groups with Jen, Myrna, Dimple and Heather)

This workshop will split participants into small groups for the purpose of exploring our individual experiences in our workplaces with an eye to identifying the trauma responses and trauma bonding practices which often emerge when workers are deep in “survival mode” due to toxic workplaces or psychologically taxing workloads. We will also identify some reputational and relationship impacts on the organization and its leadership when workers are experiencing burnout, moral injury, toxic stress or direct (+ vicarious) traumatization.

12:00-1:00 - Lunch

1:00-2:00 - Cultivating Self-Awareness (Myrna)

This session will introduce participants to one of the five components of emotional intelligence: self-awareness. Becoming self-aware as a leader, advocate or service provider requires a deep understanding of oneself and the impact we have on those around us, achieving a transparent view of our strengths and shortcomings, and adeptly recognizing and controlling our emotional responses. This insight not only shapes our self-perception but also guides how we navigate interpersonal dynamics. This session will offer long-term strategies for developing an active practice of curiosity, self-compassion and introspection.

2:00-2:15 - Break

2:15-3:30 - The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Compassionate Communication (4 groups with Jen, Myrna, Dimple and Heather)

Personal stories are powerful and can inform our beliefs. Building on the information learned earlier in the day, this session will invite participants to individually examine personal communication styles and the stories we tell ourselves which can inform our relationship practices, judgements and beliefs as well as the impacts of our communication styles on our workplace experiences. We will also explore compassionate communication practices and provide strategies for its application in the workplace.

3:30-4:00 - Closing Reflections

Friday Sept 27, 2024
8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Breakfast & Lunch Provided

8:00 - Breakfast

8:30-9:30 - Emotional Intelligence (Myrna)

Emotional intelligence in the workplace is an imperative for creating a healthy work environment and studies show that emotionally intelligent leaders and workers experience higher levels of personal satisfaction, financial success and good health. This session will guide participants through an exploration of the five components of emotional intelligence and offer strategies for cultivating an emotionally intelligent practice.

9:30-9:45 - Break

9:45-12:00 - Workshop: Self Regulation in Challenging Work Situations (4 groups with Jen, Myrna, Dimple and Heather)

Many workplaces and workers operating from a state of stress or survival can benefit from integrating self-regulation practices into their day-to-day service delivery. Participants will split into smaller groups in this facilitated workshop and learn self-regulation practices and reflect on how compassion, empathy, vulnerability and shame motivate some while immobilizing others in their communication and decision-making efforts.

12:00-1:00 - Lunch

1:00 – 2:00 - Embodied Practice: Guided Silent Forest Walk or Contemplative Practice

This silent forest walk is not a hike or an interpretative nature walk. It is an opportunity for participants to simply meander in the nearby forest without devices or distractions for the purpose of reconnecting with their minds, bodies and spirits. A guide will be present to lead participants through a contemplative practice. For those who opt to stay indoors, we will offer an alternative contemplative practice. This embodied exercise will offer participants the opportunity to put their new learnings about self-compassion and self-regulation into practice.

2:00-2:15 - Break

2:15- 3:30 - How Trauma Shapes Personality (Heather)

Some manifestations of trauma result in people being unable to function in everyday life, while others, including many high achievers, find their drive for success seeded in their trauma. In this session, we will explore how trauma shapes personality specifically in respect of our attachment and interpersonal relationship practices, our reactions to criticism or perceived criticism, our coping mechanisms, our defensive mechanisms, our self-perception and identity, and other core personality traits. This session will help us distinguish our authentic selves from our trauma responses which often masks itself as our personality.

3:30-4:00 - Closing Reflections

Dinner - Keynote from Myrna McCallum on The Call to Heal and Humanize Dehumanizing Systems

Myrna will share her motivation and mission to bringing trauma-informed principles to advocacy, decision-making and leadership and some of the challenges and resistance she has experienced in her efforts to answer the call to heal and humanize dehumanizing systems.

Saturday Sept 28 2024
8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Breakfast & Lunch Provided

8:00 - Breakfast

9:00-12:00 - Boundaries: The First Principle of REAL Self-Care (Myrna)

This session will be part presentation and guided workshop which will explore what is required to reconnect with yourself and provide your SELF with the care you deeply need. This presentation and workshop will invite you to reflect upon these questions:

-What does it take to leave survival mode?

-What are boundaries and why do we need them?

-What is our relationship to the word “no”?

-How can we reframe the guilt that so often accompanies boundary setting?

-Which feature dominates my workplace Unhealthy Attachment or Authenticity?

-Are Core Values or Self Limiting Beliefs guiding my relationship approach?

12:00-1:00 - Lunch

1:00-2:00 - Motivation, Performance and Mental Health (Dimple)

In this session, we will bring together the different teachings about self-awareness, self-compassion and self-regulation we’ve experienced over the past couple of days to re-envision our ideas of “success” using the Cycle of Conditioned Reactions and the Cycle of Mindful Responding as a lens of wholeness and authenticity. We will examine how our stories create certain patterns which impact our motivation, performance and beliefs about who we believe we should be for improved performance and mental health.

This session will include a practical exercise for participants to reflect on their patterns of reactivity and the factors that often lead to sabotaging their own success. Participants will be introduced to the stress resilience calendar which may become a guiding tool beyond the retreat.

2:00-2:15 - Break

2:15-3:30 - Cultivating Resilience, Strength, and Optimism (Heather)

This wrap-up session will offer participants tools for connection and strategies for long-term resilience, strength and optimism - even in the most challenging workplace environments.

3:30-4:00 - Closing Reflections