Additional Programs

"The transformational nature of the workshop was superb. I was so pleased with how the week unfolded. That eighteen people of significant diversity all came together and really enjoyed each other and the group as a whole was extraordinary. The work was intense yet very productive. Overall, I can say it was one of the most unique and beneficial experiences of my life." — Michael S, MD

"The Finding Balance Retreat was so wonderful...I learned how to change my priorities, schedule, and yet become a more effective doctor and teacher...Well worth the beautiful week on Molokai, time away from the office, and Lee and Nita are excellent teachers and facilitators..We had lots of fun, relaxation, great new friends, delicious food, and aloha spirit...plus we received CME's! I'd go again in a minute..."
—Dan A, MD

"Magical, fulfilling, wondrous, highly satisfying, wonderfully surprising. The best conference-seminar-experience of my professional career of 30 years plus. The combination of set-up,satff, food, leadership that you provided will be difficult to match, along with the rare blend of participants. Sign me in for next year, please." — Juan B, MD

Six day program outline (may vary by location)
First Evening
3:00-6:00 Arrival & snacks
6:00-7:00 - Dinner
7:00 Opening Circle: Intros and Review of the Week: Personal Goals for the week

Teaching Day One
Finding Balance – 8:30-12:30 AM
The presentation is intended to address the healers' personality issues and how they affect patient, staff and family relationships. It reviews the data and profiles of multiple practitioner health surveys as well as addressing the ramifications of stress on the individual's physiology, decision making and cortical function.

Finding Balance: The genesis of imbalance

• Our stresses from the inside and out
• Our personalities and how they affect our stress levels
• Type A personalities and perfectionism
• The effect of training and career development on our personality
• Care and work addiction
• Stress, burnout and performance

Evaluating your needs and tools to enhance balance

• How you can impact your performance
• Learning tools to shift perspective

Skills to manage stress and difficult situations

• Cognitive relearning of responses
• Perfectionism and it's impact
• Creating boundaries
• Learning how to ask for what you need
• Managing expectation
• Re-thinking responses to stress

The neuro-physiology of stress

• The effect of stress on health
• The effect of stress on performance and cognition

Emotional shifting

• Stress management to enhance performance
• Managing difficult people
• Learning new responses to stress inducing situations
• Problem solving

12:30-6:00 – Play time
6:00-7:00 - Dinner

Day Two (program full day)
Shamanic consciousness in everyday life & healing
Carl Jung's theories and the theories of transpersonal psychology, the cycles of change, intro to breathwork techniques based in shamanic ritual

This day is spent exploring transpersonal experiences to help the clinician access their inner healing capacity. Increasingly the medical profession and healing professions overall, are being called on to address the whole person, mind, body and spirit. The requirement for treating the spiritual aspects of the patient began to infiltrate medicine when the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospitals began to require a spiritual program of recovery for all patients over 15years ago.

The theoretical basis for spiritual healing has moved from the psychological and religious communities to the medical field in the last 10 years, requiring physicians and other healers to integrate spiritual awareness and healing methodologies into their practice to meet the standard of care that has emerged. (Ornish, Borysenko, Pert, Grof, Ingerman,)

Teaching on will include:

• An overview of Jungian psychology as it relates to image work and archetypes including how art is the language of the soul and its role in healing.
• Modern research on stages of consciousness and methodologies put forward by Stan Grof, MD and others.
• Shamanic Traditions including soul loss and retrieval from Native American and other indigenous cultures and its applicability to western healing modalities
• The participants will be taught and guided through modalities that facilitate accessing the non-ordinary states of consciousness as utilized by indigenous healers world wide.
• Participants will learn the essential elements of shamanic healing including: setting intention, accessing spiritual guidance, accessing natural non-ordinary states of consciousness and dream states as healing tools.
• Partipants will learn group process as it relates to integration of spiritual experiences into everyday life and work.

The goal is to aid the participant in understanding the depths of clinical issues for themselves and therefore increase their ability to bring understanding, empathy and spiritual healing modalities to their patients. They will be able to evaluate these issues and how they affect their practice. They will help the clinician explore what motivates them in medicine and how to enhance that motivation.

Following on the theoretical foundation of transpersonal work, the experiential sessions will ground the theory into practice.

Movement
This portion of the program will help you to move "into your body" and to adapt mindful presence in your body.

Shamanic Healing Through Breathwork
This portion of the program will help you move into a transpersonal state of healing as described by Carl Jung, Stan Grof and the ancient shamans. We will use music, breathwork and art work to bring you to another state of awareness.

Day Three 8:30 AM – 12:30 AM
Communication and Connection
This session is intended to help the physician learn tools that enhance communication with patients, staff, family and other clinicians. It includes practice sessions on various ways of communication and practices in each of those styles. This area includes discussions on the following topics:

• Communication with heart
• Creating empathy
• Being in the room emotionally as well as physically
• Enhancing Intuition in medicine and at home
• Appreciation exercises for those who you love and have learned from

Objectives

• To practice empathetic listening as a way of connecting with patients.
• To use focusing techniques to enhance intuitive listening.
• To be able to share this in a group setting with other clinicians.
• To learn tools to enhance clinical decision making and communication skills towards improved clinical and relationship outcomes.

Day Four – 8:30- 12:30
Psychosynthesis: Becoming Whole
This dynamic revolves around the concept and application of sub-personality theory. This concept works with the many different roles we play during the day, how they developed and how some of them help or hinder our function and relationships. In completing this process the participant has the opportunity to understand their motivations and why they get (or don't get) satisfaction from their work and work based relationships. This area will also help them enhance their management skills.

• The multiple personalities of health care
• The history and development of the field of Psychosynthesis
• The relevance of this construct to a medical life
• How the utilization of these tools can help the participant regain and master control of their emotions and maximize their intelligence
• The psychological and neurological underpinnings of Psychosynthesis
• How the utilization of these techniques works at the neuro-hormonal level

Psychosynthesis tools

• Identifying sub-personalities
• Sub-personalities at multiple levels
• Creating and building the will
• Taking back control
• Discussion and exercises designed to identify the various behavioral personae of the participant
• Learning to utilize and appreciate the differences and usefulness of these sub-personalities
• Using your sub-personalities to enhance your will and to increase effectiveness

Day Five – 8:30 – 12:30
Moving Forward: Connecting the Pieces towards Change
This session will help the participant to see how their personality structure can hinder and help them to move forward towards set goals. The tools and processes used have been derived from organizational development programs in the corporate world. These tools and discussions will aid the participant in:

• Setting goals
• Managing workaholism
• Identifying key personality needs to achieve your goals
• Appreciative inquiry
• Action planning using your intelligence, emotions and intuition
• Each participant will create an action plan to move forward into their careers and lives

Day 6 (Saturday) – 8:30 – 10:30
Each participant will share their action plan with the group
Discussion and departure