Compassionate Leadership Training for health and social care leaders on Monday afternoons

Compassionate leadership is linked with improved learning and innovation, and reduced staff stress, injuries and absenteeism, and even reduced patient mortality.

There are six online sessions on Mondays from 9 February until 16 March. Following this, there will be monthly follow-up sessions to review our learning and practice. The dates for this are currently being organised. 

Overview

At the heart of compassion is the notion that everyone experiences difficulty, and that we can all play a role in alleviating our own difficulties and those of others. Whether this is compassion for ourselves, the people we lead, colleagues or service users. We won’t always feel like helping and will sometimes be tired or overwhelmed or unable to connect. Although it helps to have positive feelings, we do not have to feel compassion to be compassionate. We can recognise our physical and mental state, resource ourselves as best we can, and respond from our firm compassionate intention, rather than from impulse or intense emotion.

How does this translate into compassion in health and social care organisations? How might we think about compassionate leadership, working with colleagues, service users and their friends and families? Prof Michael West has spent his career answering this question, pointing to research that shows how compassionate leadership is linked with improved learning and innovation, and reduced staff stress, injuries and absenteeism, and even reduced patient mortality. In short, compassion is essential to high quality healthcare.

Dr Robert Marx and Professor Clara Strauss have designed a training programme of six weekly sessions, lasting two hours each.

Find out more about Compassionate Leadership Training here. Hear from participants who have done the training in this short video.

Who is the course for?

The course is for anyone in a leadership role within health and social care. It will combine experiential practice and reflection, as well as home practice to help cultivate compassion for ourselves and the people we lead.

Course requirements

To participate in this course you will need to be able to attend all six sessions. You will need to use Zoom and to be in a private space (not in an open plan office) with the camera on throughout the sessions. This will help you and others to feel more comfortable and able to participate freely. A link will be supplied ahead of the course starting so you can check your equipment is working.

Please take some time to check that the technical aspects of joining on the Zoom link all work for you and make sure you read the guidelines here ahead of the first session.

Certificate of attendance

Attendance is required for all six sessions of this course. If you attend a minimum of four sessions, you can request a Certificate of Attendance on completion of the course. You can request the certificate by dropping us a line at spft.smc@nhs.net.

Facilitators

Ruth Sequeira

Ruth Sequeira is a senior trainer, supervisor, and mindfulness teacher for the Sussex Mindfulness Centre. She is also a psychological therapist and the mindfulness and compassion training and retreat lead at the Mindfulness Network. Ruth has a history of working in mental health services and until recently worked as a Clinical Lead in the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in Sussex. Ruth has a longstanding interest in mindfulness, meditation and movement, and is passionate about increasing access to mindfulness courses in different populations.

Catherine Cameron

Catherine is a clinical psychologist working within the community-based eating disorders service. She has a particular interest in self-compassion in eating disorders treatments. She co-facilitates the mindful self-compassion course for staff with Robert Marx having trained to facilitate the MSC course in 2014 and before that running MBCT-based Mindfulness for Pain courses in Hove Polyclinic. She is also involved in the mindfulness all day retreats run for those who have attended the eight-week courses within Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

As a BAMBA UK registered teacher, she follows the Good Practice Guidelines, receives supervision for her teaching, and attends regular retreats and training.

Apply and booking

The cost is £200. To secure your place, please complete the application form and book here below.