Please join Dr. Shari Geller for a talk on therapeutic presence, mindful self-compassion, and self-care for psychotherapists and health care professionals impacted by the war and ongoing human tragedy in Ukraine. Offering compassionate care, sustained attention, and psychotherapy, without a balance of compassion and care for self, can lead to burn-out and exhaustion.

This talk will explore the relationship of mindful self-compassion (Neff and Germer, 2018) and therapeutic presence (Geller, 2017), with a particular focus on self-compassion and care for the clinician and the prevention of burn-out.  Since presence and self-compassion need to be directly experienced to be understood, this presentation will include experiential exercises, including mindful self-compassion and presence practices.

Therapeutic presence and self-compassion are key underlying factors in effective therapeutic relationships and are intimately related to one another. Self-compassion allows clinicians to return to presence when they are challenged by difficult emotions or stress. Together, therapeutic presence and self-compassion are powerful resources for counsellors to maintain emotional balance in the midst of challenging clinical work and to prevent caregiver fatigue and burn-out.