INVESTMENTS IN CARE AND REFLECTION

Individual Processing Sessions

Individual processing sessions are available and suggested as part of all EDI work. These are for staff and managers who wish to explore complicated feelings that arise from training content, to consider how to incorporate new concepts and material into programs or policies, and to mitigate workplace burnout.

Further, these sessions can be used to:

  • Understand the behavioural patterns of clients

  • Explore challenging interactions that arise with clients

  • Identify emotional triggers for the worker and client

  • Process difficult feelings that come up for the worker

  • Discuss approaches to working with hard and soft personalities

  • Consider new ways to communicate with clients

  • Reflect on individual and systemic issues affecting clients

Case-Team Consultations

These meetings are opportunities for group reflection and exercises in real-life application. Participants can bring questions and thoughts from prior workshops or explore cases from their workplace; case scenarios brought forward by the facilitator can also be explored through real-time group work and discussion.

Non-Clinical Balint Groups

A Balint Group meets regularly to present clinical cases to improve and enhance the clinician-patient relationship. While clinicians are usually trained to seek the right answer to clinical problems, in a Balint Group, the focus is on improving the clinician's ability to connect with and care for the patient. Balint Groups are participatory and experiential.

In supporting managers in health centres, non-profits, and large businesses, a Non-Clinical Balint Group session would begin with a manager presenting an employee relationship ("a case") for the group to discuss. The small group of managers learns about the employee through the presenter's story and their relationship with the manager. During the facilitated discussion, the group members uncover different and new perceptions about the employees' and manager's feelings and their experiences with each other.

A Balint Group usually has two leaders who facilitate the process. The success of a group depends on its members being honest, respectful, and supportive of divergent opinions. The content of the group is confidential.

Affective Balint groups typically run virtually on an eight-session cycle for 70-75 minutes per session.