Deconstructing the Wounded Healer Online Workshop

7, 14, 21 June 2024, 9am - 4pm AEST

It has been well established that those with emotional wounds are over-represented in the ranks of mental health professionals and that when properly managed, these wounds can be transformed into very real therapeutic gifts. The “Deconstructing the Wounded Healer” workshop (DtWH) is aimed at clinicians with challenging emotional backgrounds who wish to optimise their effectiveness by exploring the possible impact, both positive and negative, of that background on their clinical practice.

The 20-hour workshop facilitated over three consecutive Fridays consists of content covering specific areas of the Wounded healer’s clinical identity, combined with an exploration by participants of how these may manifest in their professional practice. There is also some limited pre-workshop preparation. The focus will be on practical application within a safe and confidential environment to support the group members' self-awareness & professional development.

Any questions should be addressed to the facilitator, Michael Jerabek at [email protected].

For more information about the facilitator (including testimonials) and other offerings, visit www.c-ptsdcrucible.com.

DtWH program content: 

• Overview of the program & ground-rules: creating a safe space
• Apollonian healers, Wounded healers and Impaired healers: an overview
• Strengths and weaknesses of Wounded healers
• Group members’ family of origin influences (attachment styles, parenting styles and dysfunctional family roles) and their impact on clinical practice
• Co-dependency (parentification, rescuing, caretaking, enabling, enmeshment & dangers of disowned victimhood), counter-dependency and their impact on clinical practice
• The Karpman drama triangle dynamics (rescuer, victim and persecutor)
• Group members’ internal and external boundaries, including self-disclosure, projecting one’s background and solutions onto clients, client fragilisation and countertransference
• Group members’ relationship to specific emotions such as anxiety/fear, anger, shame, pain, vulnerability etc. and their impact on clinical practice
• Defensive behaviours such as excessive merging (e.g.: oversharing, resisting healthy challenging/boundary setting & emotional enmeshment), excessive distancing (e.g.: intellectualising & emotional disengagement) and the dangers of spiritual by-pass
• Challenging client profiles: responding rather than reacting
• Being a Wounded healer in the workplace: self-disclose and risk stigmatisation or fly under the radar? 
• Integration: reflective summary by each member identifying impact of core wounding on their clinical performance, highlighting their strengths, weaknesses and growing edge 

Price: $595
$50 early bird discount for registrations before midnight Sunday 5 May
Maximum 12 participants.

Presenter:

Michael Jerabek

Michael is an addiction, trauma and interpersonal process group psychotherapist and a clinical educator. His background includes working for Royal North Shore Hospital Herbert Street Clinic, Northside Clinic and St. John of God as an addiction therapist, as well as teaching trauma-informed practice, counselling and group leadership skills in higher education.

Michael is a member of Psychotherapists and Counsellors Federation of Australia, and his qualifications include Master of Adult Education (HR Development), Master of Ethics and Legal Studies (Managing Change) and Master of Counselling and Psychotherapy, as part of which he completed a research project exploring the Wounded Healer in the field of addiction treatment. He has completed training in Gestalt and Psychodynamic counselling skills as well as DBT and Schema.

Michael is a childhood trauma survivor and a recovering co-dependent who has completed extensive course of his own 1:1 and group psychotherapy. He has 30 years of Complex-PTSD recovery experience, which has included various wrong-turns as well as breakthroughs, and is uniquely placed to speak on the topic of working clinically as a Wounded healer. 

This course counts towards 20 hours of category A CPD.

Click here to register.