Self-Care in Peace Work

Many peace workers struggle to 'make time' for self-care in their daily lives. Such is the urgency and importance of the work that needs to be done, that many individuals, teams and organisations put self-care on the back burner. However, evidence shows that lack of self-care is a major cause of illness, burnout, trauma and even premature death amongst peace workers. On the contrary, good practices of self-care increase our resilience, creativity and effectiveness to deal with the challenges of peace work, and sustain our very capacity to thrive in the field long-term.

Self-care goes beyond caring for our physical and mental health, it involves having healthy boundaries in our personal and professional relationships, and developing reliable support systems within our teams and organisations. This online seminar will explore self-care beyond concepts and theories and attempt to strengthen our individual and interpersonal self-care muscles at an embodied, day-to-day level. By the end of this course, participants will have connected with their capacity to mobilise resources to care for themselves, as well as infuse their teams and organisations with a culture of care.

Key Concepts:
- Feelings, needs and boundaries
- Systemic care
- Resilience
- Stress, burnout and trauma

- To explore the multidimensionality of self-care. Understanding that self-care is an individual responsibility but not an individual task. This course will look at self-care from an individual, group and systemic level.
- To engage with regular individual, interpersonal and group practices of self-care. This course offers a safe space for self-exploration and self-actualisation of participants beliefs, habits and behaviours around self-care in their everyday lives.
- To exercise participants’ full responsibility and agency for their self-care and wellbeing within the group and in their conflict setting. This course is meant as a laboratory for exploring self-care inside and outside the classroom.
- To empower participants to identify and speak up for their needs and boundaries, to take effective action for supporting their wellbeing. This course offers a living example of systems and practices for taking care of oneself within a group.
- To connect with our creativity and resourcefulness to do peace work from a place of abundance. This course will tap into our power and strengths, increasing our capacity to be with stress and thrive in the midst of conflict.

There are no specific requirements to join this course.

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