Background
TTL’s association with Earnest Tan since the 2007 workshop on The Inward Journey and the 2009 workshops on Growth and Wellness as well as Power & Empowerment led to Compassion Fatigue and another session of The Journey Inward in 2011. Taking stock of the changing times, TTL aims to encourage and consolidate attitudinal changes in a largely, though not exclusively, Catholic audience by combining imagination with innovation. TTL members who had attended the East Asian Pastoral Institute (EAPI) in Manila were exposed to Earnest’s modules on psycho – spiritual trainings, and were unanimous that Earnest’s uniquely personal presentations and facilitation style would fill a void in the theological training of the laity with a heart-sense approach, in step with the spirit of the times. Hence the academic/cognitive type of TTL workshops on theological themes have been interspersed with the psycho-spiritual components that Earnest brings to balance the affective side of the participants’ needs
Compassion Fatigue Workshop : A One-day Workshop by Earnest Tan held at La Salle Hall, PJ, 2nd August, 2011
The program:
TTL targeted this workshop mostly for caregivers but not exclusively to them. Some interested persons were grateful to attend and numbers exceeded the 25 originally intended to stand at 35! The idea of running this workshop was not merely to have caregivers attend but in the hope that a support group could materialise should the need be expressed by workshop participants. As indeed it was and the workshop was unreservedly a resounding YES!
Participant - comments:
"The whole content. presentation, process space has given me time for self reflection for which I am grateful.......thank you for organizing this at such an affordable rate"
"A good workshop - and a good one to organize again.
“Very practical, relevant and life-giving”
Earnest Tan is "a good speaker who understands and connects with me"
"This course has taught me how to take control of myself"
“I would really like it if we have a support group to connect wit
On ideas/concepts to identify stress factors and dealing with them:
Earnest took the participants through a naming process, describing what “compassion fatigue” means and its symptoms, as well as helping participants identify its common sources. He dealt with coping skills and self care, how vision distortions should be identified and removed in the process of self care in the journey to self fulfilment and the importance of setting boundaries in order to avoid the pitfalls of “secondary victimisation” that is often at the core of compassion fatigue
Participant - comments
Being enabled to " identify/name the factors that are causing my compassion fatigue."
Learning the need for "tough love, assertiveness, self care"
"Understanding the vision distortions and recognizing the freedom to be self-fulfilled"
Knowing about "setting boundaries"
“It is important to recognize our stress factors and to be empowered to handle our stress"
"I can change my internal shortcomings"
“The importance intimacy…of not wearing masks”
On understanding better those in your care:
Earnest then went on to show how meaningful connections are made with self, others and a higher power beyond. He explained what intimacy means and how fears obstruct growth and puts up our defences which further weakens us and prevents us from the ministry of caring for the other person by giving of ourselves in love and compassion.
Participant - comments
"Acting in love and not out of duty"
Knowing "the difference between sympathy and empathy"
"Being open-minded and always listening to the need of the person"
“Learning how not to impose personal values on others”
“Very informative and helpful in seeing the difference between me and my role.”
‘An eye-opener – to realise I am not alone in this struggle’
The Journey Inward Workshop : A Three-days Workshop by Earnest Tan held at the Bayu Beach Resort, Port Dickson, 5th-7th August, 2011
This workshop is a tribute to Earnest’s presentation skills and expertise. He navigated the 24 participants through our life journeys so skilfully - taking us from birth to the present moment in the span of 3 days - leaving me satisfied that I had got so much more than I had hoped for! It was filled with his personal stories and our own sharings in small and large groups that it made us feel like a shared community of people learning and growing together.
Day 1 - Earnest gave a brief introduction about the foundation of our psychological well-being, about a healthy ego with a strong spiritual sense that strives to pursue paths that truly define and fulfil our personhood by bringing our inner and outer life into congruence. He explained the 9 requisites for personal change and growth and ended the evening with an introduction to Day 2’s First step in the Stages of Growth Journey. This was the Hand Language tool where we were to choose one of our palms and define the various aspects of our personhood and family history on the fingers and wrist by means of a drawing, symbol or words.
Day 2 - After a simple opening ritual – which was a song “ Shine” from Earnest’s new CD release, we reflected on our Hand Language presentations and shared with the group what we had drawn and why. Next we moved into the 8 broad Stages of Life based on Erik Erikson’s concepts. After every stage was explained and illustrated with a personal narrative from Earnest and the needs and key persons relevant to each stage explained, there was a period of reflection with a partner/s to share our own stories and remembrances and a chance to share our feelings if we were so inclined. This process of reflection was quite intense but Earnest helped us to handle it without much strain. Concluding the evening we were told that to “go forward, we must go backward”, that reclaiming our inner child and our histories and reconciling with our past gives us healing and the ability to live harmoniously in the present. The basic lesson was that both growth and non-growth are choices/decisions we make. Earnest took us through the various stages of these choices and the consequences of these.
Day 3 –Earnest had a Christian prayer and our only Muslim participant was invited to say an Arabic prayer. After this brief opening, there was a list of suggested healing tips that came out of the discussion from the previous evening’s group work. These were related to forgiveness issues and the healing of memory and letting go. This was the launching pad for the next component – Journeying into my paralysis in life. This called for much deeper inner reflection than the previous day. We were asked to find a quiet place and engage in a dialogue with anybody or anything or any part of us that was paralysed for about an hour. Following this exercise, we got into potentially long-term support groups within which to make our sharings of what we had written. In this way we were to confront our paralysis and make growth/non-growth choices about them.
The post-lunch session was the highlight of the workshop as it synthesised all the learnings. The tools were our own reflections on our life experiences, the discernments that came along and the process of catharsis that led to healings to set us on the road to personal change. Earnest made a powerful comparison of personal change to the mystery of the paschal event and the resurrection. The idea of rebirth as a new person lies in the process of consciousness examined, requiring much self-discipline and continual effort, tools constantly learned, unlearned and relearned to face new challenges. Finally Earnest took us through the 4 phases of Values Development-Consciousness Tracking. The closing part of the Workshop was indeed very intense, reinforcing for me the Socratic saying that an unexamined life is indeed not worth living!
Evaluation forms were given and then the closing song Shine. Hugs and some tears ended the day and another series of hellos-goodbyes.
Participant- Comments
What appealed most?
The Hand Language Tool –
“made me reflect about important events in my life: self-discovery.”
“I had the opportunity to look at my history and assess the sources of joy, pain, strength …..and listen to others to increase my perspectives on life.”
The Values Development Consciousness Track –
“makes me aware that I can achieve harmony and peace as part of the wider universe– these are conscious choices I make for myself.”
The Group Sharing --
“The individual is given space to share and grow personally.”
“Sharing sessions help to enlighten each other.”
Identifying my Paralysis –
“Will now be using it in my daily living, a never - ending process.”
Stages of Life..
“very applicable.”
What helped most with your self- understanding?
“Identifying my paralysis, so I can name it and get to the root of the problem.”
“The 4 phases of values development and how it leads one to the other.”
“Hand language – a fun way … less intense way of finding oneself.”
“The requisites for personal growth and change”
“Sharing of self with others and hearing their stories”
The Dialogue tool is very powerful – it helped me to clarify issues more than journal-writing did. I chose to dialogue with my subconscious”
What was particularly challenging?
“Stages of Life – we could be at any stage depending on self-feelings.”
“Paralysis and process of healing”
“I am still very uncomfortable with the concept of sharing openly and deeply”
“The dialogue with God (or people) because I need to maybe reflect more into my inner self.”
“Consciousness-tracking - gauging where I am right now.”
“Forgiveness – it is so hard because the trauma is still inside of my soul.”
