Unbelievable but true - we have reached the end of Season 1 of the Humanitarian Self-Care Podcast! In today's episode we talk about love and the challenges of finding a life partner. Pauline Busson, aid-worker turned love coach helping mostly women to fall in love with themselves and thereby also find their life-partner. 

Why do we keep attracting unavailable partners? And how can limiting beliefs about ourselves and the type of relationship we want keep us back? In the conversation today we talk about the need the importance of connecting to ourselves, our values, our inner-most emotions beyond work for validation and self-worth. 

!!Want to explore more about what it means to work with a love coach? Contact Pauline to book a session and benefit from 15 % discount if you reference the humanitarian self-care podcast!!! https://www.paulinebusson.com/ 

Come join The conversation on self-care and wellbeing in our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/The-Humanitarian-Self-Care-Podcast-108479874258539/, and write me at humanitarianselfcare@posteo.org for any suggestions or feedback you might have, and if you would like to come and speak about your experience in Season 2 of the podcast. 

Disclaimer: The content of this podcast expresses my personal views and does not represent the position or views of any other individual or entities.

In today’s episode I am joined by PhD candidate Tarli Young from the University of Queensland in Australia. After 8 years and 15 countries in the aid sector, Tarli wanted to better understand the mental health issues we as aid workers face - so she went back to university.

Her research aims to increase understanding of aid worker mental health and wellbeing and to provide an intervention to decrease psychological distress and increase wellbeing, and as a result of her research she has developed a wellbeing programme tailored to the needs of aid workers using Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT). Anyone interested to be part of the piloting phase (for free) can sign up to this interesting 4-module course here: https://exp.psy.uq.edu.au/aware/.

Welcome back after a short break due to my personal constraints as I was moving duty stations so I was not able to record the last episode. I am excited to be back with a new episode where I am talking to global GBV expert Sarah Martin, a Lead Associate with the consultancy group Gender Associations. Sarah has extensive experience in research, advocacy, training and project management with international organizations. She specializes in strengthening gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response in humanitarian settings and addressing sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping and humanitarian organizations. Sarah has also initiated a global peer support group for GBV aid workers, a wonderful resource to everyone in the sector. 

Find some of the resources attached in the show notes, incl. a check-list on self-care for GBV aid workers (or any aid worker), check out more on the particular issues on women's protection and empowerment podcast: https://player.fm/series/womens-protection-and-empowerment, read more about the Gender AOR here: https://gbvaor.net/, and join the GBV community of practice for peer-to-peer support via email at gbvcop@gmail.com. 

Come join The conversation on self-care and wellbeing in our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/The-Humanitarian-Self-Care-Podcast-108479874258539/, and write me at humanitarianselfcare@posteo.org  for any suggestions or feedback you might have. 

Disclaimer: The content of this podcast expresses my personal views and does not represent the position or views of any other individual or entities.

Today we speak to global HR Director Melly Preira with the Jesuite Refugee Service (JRS), a global faith-based organization based on the Jesuit philosophy and values.

We will be talking about some of these values and how they have been used to inform a specialized staff wellbeing programme for JRS staff firmly grounded in the religious traditions and values, while also catering to staff of other or no faiths.

One of my key questions walking into this conversation was whetehr staff in faith-based organizations might be affected by the daily toll of their work in a different way than non-religious aid workers. Many staff working in FBOs go into this work as part of their Christian value of serving others and being closer to God – will this impact their vulnerability or build their resilience in different ways?

Tune in and find out in my conversation with Melly in this week’s episode.

You can also read more about JRS' work here: https://jrs.net/en/home/

Disclaimer: The content of this podcast expresses my personal views and does not represent the position or views of any other individual or entities.

When we face unprecedented challenges, our mind and our emotions can get carried away sometimes and if unable to change things for the better, we easily feel helpless.

2020 has been a rough year for all of us, a protracted COVID-19 pandemic leaving us unable to see our loved ones, the debates about racism and discrimination in the aid sector, the recent Beirut explosion, and the commemoration of our fallen humanitarian aid workers due on 19th August on World Humanitarian Day! Where does that leave us and our emotional status? How are we dealing with the current situation? To what extent are we able to take charge of the things we can influence, and accept the things we cannot change?

In this episode I reflect on the current situation we are facing and guide you the listener through a short breathing exercise at the end. No guest, just me – raw and real.

Tune in and share what you are going through these days – I want to hear from you.

Disclaimer: The content of this podcast expresses my personal views and does not represent the position or views of any other individual or entities.

Whether you have just started out in the humanitarian field or you’ve been in the sector for 20 years, you can experience a sudden traumatic experience that can trigger compassion fatigue (also known as “secondary traumatic stress”).

What lies behind this term, termed by author Charles Figley, which has become some sort of a buzzword in recent years? A term initially coined in the military context for soldiers returning from war zones can be useful to understanding the mental health challenges aid workers and others working in caring professions.

In the last episode, Dr Don Bosch from the Headington Institute, talked to us about burnout, and if left untreated, compassion fatigue – according to research – can lead to burnout.

How can we as aid workers be mindful of the small wins, the small steps towards improving the world and the lives of those we serve without developing a feeling of helplessness because we don’t see change? Why is it so important to be trained and skilled to be mentally resilient to the suffering we see around us in the line of work we do?

Hearing that “well, you chose to do this and therefore you should be able to deal with the difficulties you see!” is counter-productive and will further entrench the feeling of isolation, stigma, guilt, and loneliness many aid workers feel when facing mental stress because of their daily work experiences.

How can self-care practices help us to avoid that the compassion fatigue turns into a burnout?

Listen to the discussion in today’s episode where our host Iris Adira is joined by Manoela Lucena, a researcher in Psychology looking at the linkages between self-care, compassion fatigue and burnout among aid workers working with refugees specifically. Manoela has more than a decade experience of working in the development sector in countries such as the UK, US, Brazil, Peru, and Norway, and wrote her undergraduate thesis about the socio-cultural and psychological adaptation of Syrian refugees in Brazil which has been accepted for publishing in a Brazilian Psychology magazine. She is currently working with emergency psychology and IASC guidelines and providing MHPSS with the focus in disasters to healthcare professionals who are working in the frontline in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Check out more resources on compassion fatigue here: http://www.compassionfatigue.org/pages/selftest.html and read more about Babette’s Rotschild’s book “Help for the Helper” here: http://www.somatictraumatherapy.com/help-for-the-helper/

Disclaimer: The content of this podcast expresses my personal views and does not represent the position or views of any other individual or entities.

Have you ever struggled with feelings of being overwhelmed, or no longer feeling joy for your work? Have you or someone you know ever wondered whether you might be at risk of or already experiencing burnout? 

If the answer to one or more of the questions above is yes, then join our host Iris Adira for today's episode where she is joined by Dr. Don Bosch, Director of Risk Psychology and HEAT training at the Headington Institute, an NGO supporting international organizations to prepare their teams for working in difficult environments. As a licensed clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst with 35 years of experience, Dr Bosch understands human behavior and brain function. He is often in the field doing debriefs, working with global response teams, and providing psychological support for security trainings. 

What is burnout, why are we as humanitarians often prone to develop symptoms, and is burnout really the end of our career? Dr Bosch shares some of the recent trends he has observed when it comes to wellbeing among aid workers, how to stay resilient while working in the field, and talks about what allostatic load is, and how it affects us.

For more information on Dr Bosch's and his team's work, click on the link here: Headington Institute website.

Ever wondered if your current stress levels are within an acceptable and healthy range? Take this amazing self-test developed by the Headington here to find out more! 

Disclaimer: The content of this podcast expresses my personal views and does not represent the position or views of any other individual or entities.

Welcome to this very first episode of the new podcast show the Humanitarian Self-Care Podcast - a show for and by humanitarians who want to feel good while doing good!  

The Humanitarian Self-Care Podcast is a newly established show by and for humanitarian aid workers to provide a space for discussion and reflection around everything related to wellbeing and self-care in the midst of crisis and helping others in need. 

The idea for this podcast came out of our host's Iris Adira's own realization that we go through our professional careers as aid workers with a strong sense of passion, compassion, drive and empathy for those most vulnerable people who have been forced to flee due to conflict, poverty, or the effects of climate change on their communities, but that we often forget to take care of ourselves and other humanitarians. 

Check out more on the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/604932156814957/ and join the private group to be part of the change to create a culture of compassion both for ourselves, others, and the people we serve so that we can FEEL good while DOING good! 

Disclaimer: The content of this podcast expresses my personal views and does not represent the position or views of any other individual or entities