25 April 2014 – Developing a Compassionate Mind in GP Practice (half day workshop)

Title: Developing a Compassionate Mind in GP Practice

Description: A half day hour workshop for GPs with Dr Charlie Heriot-Maitland

GPs know, as well as anyone, that life can be tough. Most people face periods in their lives when they feel overwhelmed by work, relationships, sickness, or experience losing someone close. GPs also spend most of their working lives as the constant witnesses of other people’s suffering. And, as if these experiences aren’t difficult enough, humans also all have a tricky brain to contend with: a mind that tends to keep stuck in problematic loops of worry, rumination or self criticism.
Often it is hard to find the time to pause and reflect on these problematic loops, and on what bearing this can have on clinical practice. Even if GPs are able to reflect, they may not always know the best way to nurture towards more sustainable clinical practice.
The emerging science and practice of Compassion Focused Therapy with its roots in evolutionary psychology, attachment theory, and neuroscience, offers a useful framework for approaching these basic psychological challenges at each of the personal, professional, and organisational levels.
In this workshop, delegates will consider how orientating their minds towards compassion for self and others can bring a variety of positive mental and physical and health benefits.
Delegates will then learn some techniques and practices to help cultivate compassion in their personal and professional lives. The workshop will combine exercises that help GPs to develop compassion for themselves with exercises that train them to facilitate their patients’ development of compassion within the GP consultation. A combination of group discussion exercises, role play, and experiential practice will be used.
This workshop will be facilitated by Dr Charlie Heriot Maitland, who provided a key note lecture on Compassion-Focused Therapy at the Compassion in Primary Healthcare Conference in Edinburgh last year (available to view at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXZllsv82P8)

Venue: RCGP Scotland, Edinburgh

Time: Friday 25th April 2014 (1.30pm-5pm)

Price & bookings: Price & bookings for this event are managed by RCGP Scotland