As a Healing Art Practitioner and former multi-hat-wearing nonprofit leader, I am honored to host monthly virtual gatherings where I guide those who serve others in their work and life responsibilities through a healing arts membership program I call “Hats Off for Helpers”. During these live sessions and supplemental self-guided activities shared twice per month, we remind each other to take off our many “hats” of caregiving responsibilities to nurture the person beneath them.
Therefore, when I was introduced to the “Wellness in the Workplace” workbook by the AWBW staff after becoming a facilitator, it was an easy and full-bodied YES to incorporate the workshop curriculum into our membership gatherings. For the past few months, I’ve had the privilege of guiding a small group of adults through three of the workshops in the workbook, as well as sharing the instructions for two more workshops as self-guided activity resources.
The first workshop I facilitated in a live virtual setting for this series is entitled, “Shifting the Lens”, written by Sally Annjanece Stevens. Through a guided meditation and art project, she encouraged us to check in and assess how we were feeling emotionally at the moment and honor wherever that is.
In her introduction to the workshop, Sally quotes Laura Van Dernoot Lipsky, “Trauma stewardship is not simply an idea. It can be defined as a daily practice through which individuals, organizations, and societies tend to the hardship, pain, or trauma experienced by humans, other living beings, or our planet itself”. Sally then goes on to write, “I became conscious that I needed a plan for myself to be a steward. I was not checking in and evaluating when the exposure or work was overwhelming. Burnout and compassion fatigue left my emotions on pause, casting a shadow over the work and leading to voices of ‘not enough”.
In the midst of our group’s initial discussion on the terms used in the workbook such as secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, burnout, and toxic stress; it was readily apparent that all of us could relate to Sally’s realization that she needed a plan to check in and evaluate how she was being affected by her service. As one group member shared, “It is easy to dismiss your own feelings when you are focused on those you serve and the severity of their needs. Your own needs seem small in comparison and easy to ignore”.
The guided meditation and corresponding art project of this workshop shares the picture of a self check-in of our emotions like viewing a kaleidoscope that involves many shapes and colors, as well as moves and changes and this idea resonated with each of us. Through approaching the art project in a variety of ways, we each experienced some ah-ha moments and found this to be a helpful tool for identifying our emotions and considering what shifts we may be inspired to take as a result.
In the video above, you’ll see clips from our group’s Shifting The Lens workshop in action. Feel free to skip to the portions you are most interested in by using the timestamps below:
0:15 – Overview of workshop
4:24 – Grounding exercise intro
6:05 – Art demo and instructions
17:07 – Participant sharing time
Check out Sarah’s blog post where she shares her journey of overcoming burnout and secondary traumatic stress through art and creativity, emphasizing the importance of self-care for caregivers and introducing her “Hats Off for Helpers” Healing Arts program to support other helping professionals in reconnecting with themselves.
When Caring Runs Out Blog Post
