OUR SERVICES

Our clients help people who help people.

They are vocational workers, educators, nurses, social workers, receptionists, mental health workers, hospital staff and volunteers. These professionals and volunteers all share the desire to make a positive difference in the lives of people requiring support. By choosing this mandate, as a dimension of this challenging work, we all have the professional obligation to be as prepared as we can to deal with difficult circumstances and behaviours presented by clients, and the aftermath of challenging encounters.

CRISIS RESPONSE SAFETY EDUCATION

TRAUMA-CENTERED CRISIS INTERVENTION

This trauma-focused workshop helps staff respond effectively to warning signs and the various stages of a crisis while demonstrating how important it is for staff to manage their own stress, anxieties and emotions when faced with these challenges.

Staff will be implemented in comprehensive and practical models that will generate the confidence to assess risks and deploy defusing strategies for a continuum of behaviours.

COMMUNITY WORKER SAFE PRACTICES

This program will introduce participants to practical safety strategies designed to maximize personal safety and minimize risk when working in unfamiliar or potentially dangerous work environments (office and/or community).

These practical strategies will increase staff awareness and further develop intuitive skills essential in the identification of potential risk when performing outreach or supportive community work. This module will create a dialogue identifying vulnerabilities through the completion of a variety of safety inventories.

PHYSICAL DISENGAGING & SELF-PROTECTION SKILLS TRAINING

We are vigilant at ensuring staff receive the right information and practice, based on the full range of identified learning needs.

Our approach to self-protection reflects a similar view and mindset to defensive driving. Based on the concepts of awareness, prevention, avoidance, extraction, disengaging and non-violent personal self-protection, we provide staff with the knowledge and skills to keep a critical distance; how to avoid any use of force, and to utilize effective non-confrontational skills to disengaging when being physically engaged by a client.

SIMULATION-BASED LEARNING & EDUCATION

Simulation-based learning is a type of experiential teaching and learning using methods where participants engage in a realistic scenario with a simulated client, within their actual job function or scope practice. We do not use “role play”, but hire actors from a pool of trained professionals used by hospitals in their staff education.

Among a number of key benefits, simulation-based learning can provide:

opportunity for participants to safely practice skills;
debriefing to elicit new learning guided by an experienced workshop facilitator;
guided oral and/or written reflections.

(adapted from Bogo, Rawlings, Katz & Logie, 2014; adapted from Kourgiantakis, Bogo & Sewell, 2019)

Foundational learnings of Trauma Centered responses to keep everyone safe.

Please note that all our training sessions, and in particular self-protection skills, are developed specifically for the needs of our clients. Pre-workshop questionnaires are essential in crafting tailored sessions for our clients.

ORGANIZATIONAL SAFETY CONSULTATION & EDUCATION

Safety and security audits aimed at identifying environmental and operational safety vulnerabilities.

ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY AUDITS: IDENTIFYING VULNERABILITIES AND MAXIMIZING SAFETY

Strongly influenced by the CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) this focus is on safety in terms of facility design, use and maintenance, as well as reviewing human systems and interactions. from a safety perspective provides a unique viewpoint on the workplace community.

The result of these assessments allows a stronger alignment to existing or planned strategies, including accreditation standards and budget allowances. It also identifies opportunities to enhance safety and eliminates peripheral challenges and threats associated with crises.

The assessment tools and compliance methods deployed are developed from the standards and guidelines endorsed by the Occupational Health & Safety Council of Ontario, Ontario's Ministry of Labour and the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety. We tailor our specific approach to each clients' unique requirements.

ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSESSMENTS AND CONSULTATION

We can provide a complete review of organizational policies, procedures and protocols to provide a gap analysis, and recommendation for consistency and completeness of your safety and security needs and assets. The comprehensiveness of our safety assessments can be inclusive of hiring and on-boarding & new staff orientation; policies and procedures related to safety and wellness; staff supervision and performance expectations related to safety; leadership training; and post-crisis debriefing and quality control processes for continuous safety improvement and sustainability.

PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY & WELL BEING PROGRAMS

ADDRESSING VICARIOUS TRAUMA, COMPASSION FATIGUE, BURN-OUT AND SECONDARY WOUNDING

Building enhanced engagement is important for the employee’s sense of positive self-worth, self-esteem, and creating the capacity to achieve maximum self-efficacy. This weaves into the objectives of this presentation– to build our resilience – the capacity to “bounce back” from adversity and respond to the stressors of day-to-day life (Graham, 2018). This is particularly significant and timely in the current Covid 19 climate.

The corrosive and debilitating process of low-grade stress over time can begin to manifest initially with individuals as subtle withdrawal, apathy and what HR professionals call “presenteeism” – being at work “physically but not feeling engaged or mentally stimulated and no longer interested or finding satisfaction in one’s work (Quazi, 2013; Hemp, 2004).

This presentation will introduce participants to practical strategies to enhance personal engagement and resilience. All workplace settings need to take into consideration the well-being of their human resources as they progress through their careers and lives.

Harter and Blacksmith (2010) maintain that “employees can become engaged when they find meaning in their work, feel safe to do good work, and can help transfer their energy into performance. Engaged employees are both cognitively and emotionally connected to their work and workplace (pp. 122-123).

In this highly interactive and experiential workshop, participants will have time to integrate their learning through individual reflection, journaling, and suggestions on effective learning transfer strategies.

MINDFULNESS-BASED STRENGTHS PRACTICE: CREATING AN ENGAGED AND MEANINGFUL LIFE

The synergy of mindfulness practice with the conscious application of our strengths provides the competency-generating platform for fostering resilience and enhanced self-efficacy.

The importance of working from a trauma-sensitive framework will provide a safe holding environment as a basis for psychological safety as we encounter the vulnerable edges of our own unique personal growth pathway. This transformative learning process is rooted in evidence-informed and evidence-based research that will be of interest to anyone pursuing an expanded vision of human potential including all mindfulness practitioners, teachers/educators, mental health and integrative health clinicians, trauma workers, wellness practitioners, human resources personnel, life coaches, yoga teachers, and organizational development consultants.

What you will learn:

Knowledge translation of the practical applications of mindfulness-based strengths practice that can energize and maximize all domains of our life experience.
Examine the contemplative neuroscience research highlighting the intersection of mindfulness practice with the character strengths.
Integration of trauma-informed principles and practices that support a safer personal growth inquiry and the co-creation of supportive healing environments.

Assessing and addressing the impact of vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, burn-out and secondary wounding through organizational, team-based and self-care strategies.