Join Matthew and Jess, two psychotherapists with backgrounds in the human rights and environmental justice sector, to explore how NGOs can use reflective group work to support staff wellbeing and increase resillience in these challenging times.

We believe that healthy organisations are built on a shared understanding of the challenges they face in their work and regular support for staff, rather than isolated wellbeing events that, while sometimes helpful, can also be overwhelming and have limited impact overall.

This session starts with a look at why justice-oriented organisations need to be thinking about trauma and vicarious trauma, and the limitations of some approaches to wellbeing, then touches on taking in issues around difference, and ends with an introduction to a different way of doing things that is rooted in psychotherapeutic practice and understanding.

Our work is based both on our combined 30+ years working for human rights, environmental and social justice organisations, and on our experience working in the NHS and other settings treating a diverse range of patients with complex mental health needs.

It is for organisations of all sizes working on challenging and sometimes overwhelming issues, managers looking for realistic, cost-effective responses to the impact of their challenging work on staff, practitioners (e.g. lawyers or caseworkers) working directly with potentially traumatised people or with traumatising material, anyone working in the NGO space who is interested in trauma-informed practice.

This free webinar will be an opportunity to learn more about:

• Understanding and responding to trauma and the challenges of NGO work
• Beyond “self care” – reflection, validation and containment in facilitated group spaces
• The work of making meaning together, and why it’s important

More

Reflective group practice for justice-oriented organisations

We are offering organisations a new way to support staff wellbeing and respond to the chellenges of NGO work.

Our model moves away from approaches more focussed on wellbeing exercises and advice. There are many of these services out there. They are helpful and important, and we do not seek to duplicate them.

Our model is instead based on psychoanalytic approaches to clinical supervision and work discussion groups, where clinicians meet regularly to provide peer supervision and insight on our work with patients. It is also based on psychotheraputic technique of opening up space for thought and reflection.

The pressures facing NGOs and their staff are enormous. We work in often high-pressure and high-risk environments. Burnout, fatigue and disillusionment are all too common. The nature of the work can be extremely distressing, and staff are constantly pulled between their motivation to make change and the overwhelming nature of the challenges faced.

Organisations across the sector seek to support their staff, but one-off or infrequent wellbeing sessions can end up feeling like another sticking plaster, and advice can feel difficult to implement effectively amidst the day to day realities of our challenging work.

Establishing clear boundaries around work, for example, can be a core element of equipping staff with the tools to take care of themselves and those around them. Our approach focussed more on exploring what happens when, as is so often the case, our boundaries meet the reality of an urgent crisis, where lives may even be at stake, and are cast aside.

This is where group reflective practice come in. Group reflective practice creates a space for people to share experiences like this in a small, supportive, and facilitated space so they can be thought about and contained. Unlike one-off or infrequent wellbeing sessions, ongoing group work helps ensure psychological safety when sharing difficult feelings or experiences.

These sessions give staff a regular and reliable space to reflect on their work and think together about the challenges they face, including their experiences dealing with existential anxieties, traumatic material and traumatised individuals.

By building cohesion as a group, and receiving support from trained facilitators, staff can feel confident bringing difficult feelings or challenging experiences, and support one another. Differences between staff members’ lived experience can also be explored more openly and honestly on a regular basis.