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This training is full. To be added to the waitlist, please email bccf@bccf.ca

Many of us who choose to work in human services have big hearts and generous spirits. We develop our practice skills and communication, but don’t always consider boundaries, especially when the needs to those we work with so often exceed our own. 

Boundary practice encourages us to consider our own energy and how we’re spending it, with a view to making our self-care practices more personal and effective. Boundaries are essential to practice in the helping professions, as they make caring sustainable, and protect skilled workers from compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatization and burnout. 

In this workshop, participants will learn different kinds of boundary habits, the challenges they bring, and how to practice healthier boundaries in our work and in life. Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of different patterns of relating, and how to bring breathwork and somatic awareness to the practice of boundary and containment in our work as helpers. Boundary work ensures we’re bringing our best selves to the work we love so much. 

• Introduction to boundary work
• Somatic exercises and boundary practice
• Applying boundary practice to client work
• Interactive exercises in partners/small groups 
• Somatic awareness and boundary practice 
• Practice examples and scenarios 

About the Facilitator

Jodie McDonald is a Registered Social Worker with over 20 years’ experience in the non-profit sector, working in crisis and suicide intervention, family support, and mental health. She has an MSW specializing in Community Development and is particularly interested in the impact of frontline human service work on the worker, the traits and experiences that draw workers to this field, and how to best support these valuable people in their essential work. Jodie teaches in the Studies in Women and Gender Department at Vancouver Island University, and is also an Integrative Body Psychotherapist in private practice.