“Thank you for watering the seeds of compassionate connection, joy and imagination.”
Participant feedback
I had the pleasure of welcoming Dr Colm O Connor to our latest Heart of Frontline Practice event on Tuesday 5th October. Colm facilitated an online workshop, ‘Imagination and compassion in frontline practice.’ 18 Practitioners attended the workshop, drawn from diverse organisations and sectors.
It was heartening to see the warm response to this virtual event this week and that practitioners took the time and space out of their routine daily work to reflect and re-energise. To see words like ‘soulful’, ‘renewing’ and ‘uplifting’ in the feedback was affirming and welcome.
100% of the participants said that the session had met their expectations and had provided a safe place.
Feedback included: “The best thing about this experience was being reminded of the power of our imagination and it was very liberating to learn that we can lift ourselves out of our anxieties etc into self-compassion, using imagination.”
Another participant said: “A wonderful space to have imaginative thinking vindicated. Enjoyed the waves of information being washed over me. Looking forward to the coming benefits of having attended the workshop.”
Before Covid-19, we (Dr Nicola O’ Sullivan, SHEP and Ag Eisteacht) had come together and started a conversation about the need for practitioners to have space; to be rather than do.
It is exciting to think that our vision has become a reality and that we are building a community of multidisciplinary reflective practice so that we might all feel more sustained and supported in our work ahead.
Given the pressure on systems and people, we continue to create these regular ‘touch points’ and an annual seminar so that we can take time out to pause, reconnect and think about how we are in our work, and perhaps, to recalibrate.
In creating these predictable touch points and offering opportunities to engage with each other as a Heart of Frontline Practice community, we are providing spaces that feel safe – and where we can be open and curious.
Looking ahead to next year, please see some dates for the diary below, with full details to follow.
- February 8th 2022: A two-hour touch point facilitated by Andrew Cooper – Professor of Social Work at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, hosted by Dr Nicola O’ Sullivan
- May 24th 2022 Reconnecting with the Heart of Frontline Practice one-day national seminar
- October 4th 2022 A two-hour touch point facilitated by Jim Sheehan, SHEP
For further details please contact sabrina@ageisteacht.com