| For professionals who work with abused and neglected children, the emotional toll can be overwhelming. What is the impact on our spouses, mates, professional peers, and friends? What is the impact on our children and parenting skills?
Can we emotionally survive – perhaps even thrive – in the midst of pain flowing from our work?
Do professionals working with sexual abuse victims suffer special repercussions in their own sexuality? If so, how can we preserve our own intimate relationships? Are new sources of stress significantly different from those that have always burdened high-pressure professions? If so, do they call for new ways of coping?
An informative and provocative keynote or most often, Healing the Healers is an interactive seminar -- from two hours to two days -- that explores how our work affects our lives and our relationships with colleagues, spouses, partners, and our own children. The seminar provides participants the opportunity to develop a “self-inventory,” and to better understand and manage stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue. A motivating keynote, introducing these same topics, also is available.
Since introducing Healing the Healers at the National Symposium on Child Sexual Abuse in 1993, Charlie has presented this seminar at professional conferences throughout the country -- to social workers, therapists, doctors, nurses, police officers, lawyers, judges and other professionals who work with abused children.
“I don't remember ever having tears fall down my face before in twenty years of conference-going. It was just at the end when you thanked us for the children we are trying to help. All that you had given us earlier in the day, both in substance and style, created a deep receptivity in us all for that powerful ending, as you acknowledged our commitment and success. It was the perfect antidote to my chronic sense of powerlessness and professional limitations. Your affirmation I believed in my heart that day and felt reborn to the work.
“Perhaps, though, the most meaningful part of it for The Children's Law Center was the time you spent with the Board. I will forever bless you for pushing yourself beyond reason to be with us in that way. You knew exactly what to say, how to inspire this fledgling organization, how to give us
guidance.”
Judith Hyde, Executive Director
The [Connecticut] Children's Law Center
|
