The journey to embracing imperfection isn't about lowering standards – it's about expanding possibilities. In coaching, we call this "creating and increasing capacity for joy."

A trauma-responsive approach to physician leadership and wellbeing.

In a groundbreaking 2021 study published in Anesthesiology, researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center revealed that nearly 60% of U.S. anesthesiologists were at high risk for burnout.

We can acknowledge and embrace our humanity and summon our compassion into places where high-stakes decisions are made while simultaneously holding ourselves and each other accountable.

Enhancing Public Health Leadership with Trauma-Responsive Skills

The Advanced Skills Needed to Navigate What’s Next

Blessed lands as something that happens to us, and perhaps my disquiet stems from the lack of choice implied. This is where Gratitude triumphs.

Everyone has a system so primed by the compounding, cumulative toxic stress and trauma of recent years that activation misfires are happening more frequently.

In the absence of mitigation, trauma will discharge disguised as behaviors that further amplify harm and drive disconnection:  Anger. Aggression. Apathy. Avoidance. Disdain. Disengagement. Self-injury. 

But the fun and screams and laughter and joy that surround deliberately created scary moments during the Month Of Halloween are different from the swamp of Fear and uncertainty we've collectively endured.

Our bandwidth is both a precious and limited resource, deserving of recognition, honor, and guarding against wasteful expenditure.

Our processing may look a little … weird … for a while.

And humor helps.

Learning to connect and intentionally hold space in a manner that responds to and mitigates the trauma (Big T or little t) that shows up in others is an essential skill we all are capable of learning.

For more than a decade, industry experts – and practitioners themselves – have been sounding the alarm about critical levels of burnout and toxic stress experienced by healthcare professionals.

Too often, though, we give our feelings free rein. And too often (especially right now), the traumas we've experienced are showing up as anger, avoidance, or apathy.

Our job, then, is to find and create and nurture relationships with other adults who will share the joy and a piece – no matter how big or small – of the responsibility.

In life, as in fiction, we can always ReWrite our story.

Not everything is a Face-Eating Bear.

Rest and Restoration are important. So is ReConnection.