Approved for 6 Continuing Education credits through the Canadian Psychological Association
Intentional Therapist is approved by the Canadian Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. Intentional Therapist maintains responsibility for this program.
We're so happy you're here! Please check out our welcome video and read on for more details about the Thrivival Skills program.
(Video editing credit to James Marland: https://courses.coursecreationstudio.com/about)
Here is our hunch about you (because this is us too):
With all of these competing priorities, no wonder work comes first and you come 2nd 3rd 4th last.
As mental health clinicians we all know that self-care is important. We talk with our clients about it ALL.THE.TIME and yet, ironically, we often struggle with it ourselves! Even worse, we tend to do this in silence, because, who wants to let any of our colleagues know that we might be struggling with our own self-care? After all, aren’t we supposed to be the experts in this?! Cue imposter syndrome, guilt, and shame.
It doesn't need to be like this.
Here's the thing: There are unique factors – about our training, our work, and our gender socialization – that contribute to the very real and normal struggle that we, especially as female mental health clinicians, have when it comes to our own self-care.
Together we can break the silence and lessen the struggle.
We developed Thrivival Skills for Therapists to help us all do just that.
Through our ‘4 C’s’ framework – Connection, Compassion, Courage, and Creativity – we will help you and other like-minded female mental health clinicians redefine your concept of self-care, find a supportive community, and start taking steps towards putting YOU back in your schedule.
And in the process you will also earn 6 continuing education credits approved by the Canadian Psychological Association. Because self-care is a PART OF our jobs, not just something that is nice to fit into the margins.
In the end, taking care of ourselves is not only how we best take care of our clients, but it’s also how we create the kind of life from which we don’t need to escape. (We know, intriguing concept!)
Redefine what it truly means to take care of yourself - your best tool - and go from simply surviving to THRIVING
AKA: Not your typical workshop or online program
We have designed Thrivival Skills for Therapists as a blended synchronous and asynchronous experience (so that there is something to appeal to both the introverts and the extroverts among us!). The 6 CE credit hours are broken down into 3 hours of live virtual meetings (2 x 90 minutes) and 3 hours of self-paced online lessons, spread out over 6 weeks, so an easy-to-digest 30 minutes each week.
We will begin the program with a 90 minute live virtual group meeting on Friday October 20, 2023 at 12 noon Central time. This meeting will be an opportunity to get oriented to the program and most importantly connect with the other participants from across the country.
Following the first group meeting, each Monday for 6 weeks participants will receive access to that week’s lesson. We will make use of a private online discussion forum for ongoing discussion of each week’s topic, importantly including opportunities for participants to support one another in the process.
We will end the program with another 90 minute live virtual group meeting on Friday December 8, 2023 at 12 noon Central time. This meeting will be an opportunity for participants to share their key takeaways and to discuss how to keep putting ourselves in our schedules moving forward.
While the self-paced online lessons can be completed at any time during your week, please ensure that the dates of the two live virtual group meetings will work for you to attend (as the live meetings will not be recorded).
Through the mix of lessons, reflection exercises, and supportive group interaction, over the course of this unique 6 week program we will:
Understand the common factors impacting female clinicians' wellness and self-care
Develop a more compassionate awareness of your personal self-care roadblocks
Apply the '4 C's' framework for evaluating and enhancing your own self-care practices: Connection, Compassion, Courage, & Creativity
Formulate a plan and take concrete steps to enhance your current self-care practices
We are Dr. Karen Dyck & Dr. Melissa Tiessen, two mid-career(ish!) psychologists working in private practice. We started Intentional Therapist out of a recognition that self-care is so incredibly important for the work that we do as mental health clinicians, and yet we get little to no training in this area. We also recognized that there are some unique factors specific to being female that can make self-care all the more challenging. So we decided to create something that could allow us all to redefine what it truly means to take care of ourselves - our best tools! - and thrive in this work.
Our mission is to help female mental health clinicians move from simply surviving to thriving in both our work and personal roles, and finally create the kind of life from which we don't need to escape. Our hope is that through Intentional Therapist we can normalize self-care in all it's forms (because it's not just bubble baths and massages), foster a dialogue about its foundational importance, and create a thriving community of like-minded female mental health clinicians. And have a little fun along the way!
We've tried to address the most likely questions here. But please feel welcome to contact us directly at [email protected] for any other questions you may have.
The first 90 minute virtual group meeting will take place on FRIDAY OCTOBER 20, 2023 at 12 noon Central time. The second 90 minute virtual group meeting will take place on FRIDAY DECEMBER 8, 2023 at 12 noon Central time. Again, the 6 weekly lessons can be completed whenever works best for you, but please ensure that the virtual group meeting times will work with your schedule.
This program has been structured as a 6 week cohort-based experience. This means that lesson content will be delivered each week, and everyone working through the program will do so in the same timeframe. Each Monday for 6 weeks you will receive access to the weekly lessons, which cover why we need to redefine our approach to self-care, each of the pillars of our 4 C's model (Connection, Compassion, Courage, and Creativity), and how to continue to integrate the program learnings into your personal and professional roles after the program ends. There will be time between each module to reflect on the core lesson content, take any relevant action steps, learn from others' reflections, and generally support one another in the process. Additional resources will be shared as optional content each week as well. And for even more support, accountability, and connection, we will be holding two virtual group meetings, at the outset and end of the 6 weeks.
To be clear, this program is NOT group therapy - and that is why we can offer CE credits, because it is so foundational to our work! It is instead like a full day workshop that has been split into modules delivered over a 6 week period. We have done this intentionally so that the program content can more easily fit into everyone's busy schedules, as well as so that there is more time in between modules to absorb the content and importantly to start to implement changes. Instead of the all-too-frequent experience of attending a workshop, feeling encouraged and inspired, and then returning to our day-to-day lives and not actually implementing any changes!
Yes! We very much appreciate the challenges that can come with working in an organizational setting (such as a hospital, community mental health centre, university, etc.), where lots of aspects of the work are outside of your control. In fact, these kinds of organizational challenges are part of the reason we developed our 4 C’s framework and this program.
How we define self-care is so much broader than the things we do to take care of ourselves outside of work. It’s really about how we take care of ourselves WITHIN our day-to-day work. This is important both in a private practice setting and perhaps even more important when working within often challenging organizational structures. We recognize that organizational structures and systemic issues within the work setting are important contributing factors to staff wellness (or lack thereof) and acknowledge that the Thrivival Skills program does not have magical powers to reduce unrealistic caseloads or make demanding managers disappear (wouldn’t that be impressive?!).
BUT, what we have learned is that using the 4 C’s model – especially the pillars of Connection and Courage – is an excellent way to start to make changes in how we view and interact with our work setting, whether that be in private practice or within a larger organization. For example, reflecting on how our current work situation aligns with our values and priorities and even making small changes such as how we write our notes can be valuable training ground for working up to making larger changes that can have positive ripple effects for our well-being.
We completely appreciate that anyone signing up for this program is likely in the same over-scheduled boat! With that in mind, we have intentionally created this program to require just the right amount of engagement on your part without overwhelming you. Aside from the two virtual group meetings, which will be 90 minutes each, we expect the ongoing time commitment for the asynchronous lessons to be approximately half an hour per week. As a result, 6 CE credit hours total are available.
And keep in mind that you can take part at whatever time of day or night works for you. We strongly encourage you, however, to set aside time in your schedule specifically for this program and to maintain the same commitment to it as you do to your clients. If it makes it easier, consider creating a fictional client whose name you can schedule into your week. Personally, we like the name Ivana Thrive. :-)
In addition to the core program content, we welcome you to integrate the optional aspects of the program according to your interest and availability, including the mindfulness meditations and 'Breathing Room'.
We understand that life often gets in the way of even the best of our intentions. We strongly encourage anyone who registers for Thrivival Skills to be able to attend both of the live sessions, as this is an important component of the program, and those sessions will not be recorded. If you need to cancel before the program begins, we would be happy to refund your registration fee, or transfer it to a future cohort.
Once the program begins, we are unable to offer a refund, but all participants will have indefinite access to the asynchronous online course content, so it can be completed and/or revisited at any point in the future. If for any reason you are not satisfied with the program content, please be in touch with us and we would be happy to discuss how we can make it better meet your needs.
Start putting more of YOU in your schedule
Please check out our website and podcast!
Intentional Therapist:
https://www.intentionaltherapist.ca
Thrivival 101:
https://thrivival-101-fresh-take-on-self-care.buzzsprout.com
