Dawn McBride

Event Speaker

Dawn McBride

BIOGRAPHY

Dawn McBride has been in the helping profession for nearly 30 years and teaching in the counsellor education field for over 20 years. She has a long and extensive history of working in the family violence field–helping men, women, and youth have loving, safe relationships. Her clinical areas of expertise range from the assessment and treatment of anxiety and OCD, self-harm, work stress, complex psychological issues, and trauma and dissociation (e.g., family violence, motor vehicle accidents, work-related trauma). She also enjoys helping those seeking personal growth.

In her academic role, she has an active research agenda that includes the study of ethics, the advanced use of many therapeutic approaches, multiculturalism, and supervision/training. She has co-edited a book on teaching practices across cultures in higher education, and in addition to numerous teaching awards has won a 2017 award from the Calgary Women's Shelter for providing exceptional clinical and ethical consultation to their staff.

WORKSHOPS

Burnout and Butterflies: Dual-Process Model Strategies for COVID-Stressed Counsellors

Speakers: Dawn McBride and Alyson Worrall

As a result of the rise in mental health issues among the general population caused by the pandemic, counsellors have seen a large increase in demand for their services. This, in turn, has led to an increase in counsellor burnout and overwhelm as they try to help clients cope with anxiety and social isolation while they themselves are faced with similar issues caused by the pandemic.

The pandemic created a unique situation where both the counsellor and client come together subjected to similar physiological and emotional stressors. This applied workshop will address ways in which counsellors can decrease their own sense of overwhelm while continuing to assist clients. There is a very large experiential component to this workshop, including creating an origami butterfly.

Key Takeaways

  1. Describe the dual-process model, as it relates to managing two states of functioning.
  2. Participate in using expressive arts to name and describe the duality inherent in our counselling rooms – having overlapping experiences with clients in terms of exhaustion and feeling overwhelmed.
  3. Describe ways to create and debrief a dual processing model using storying, visual images, and other creative strategies.
  4. Articulate the immense value of integrating the somatic technique of pendulation to promote holding of multiple experiences without triggering activation and to prevent/manage burnout